BIOGRAPHY 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE 


BY 


GAIL     HAMILTON 


NORWICH,     CONN. 

THE    HENRY    BILL    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 
I  895 


Copyright,  1895 

BT 
THE    HENRY    BILL    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 


All  rights  reserved 


PRESS    OF 

ROCKWELL     AND     CHURCHILL 
BOSTON 


CONTENTS. 


I.  GALBRAITH          .                  .                           .         .         .  1 

TL  BLAINE  .  .  .13 

III.  COLONEL    BLAINE'S    PEACEFUL    YEARS     .                  .  34 

IV.  JAMES    BLAINE                     ......  49 

V.  EARLY    EDUCATION 63 

VI.  FINDING    THE    ROAD          .                  ....  84 

VII.  MAINE         .         .                  98 

"VIII.  IN    CONGRESS 136 

IX.  THE    CONKLING-FRY    INCIDENT        ....  157 

*     X.  VACATION    IN    EUROPE    AND    WORK    AT    HOME    .  182 

XI.  THE    SPEAKER    . 222 

XII.  CREDIT    MOBILIER  268 


V  CONTENTS. 

APTER  PAGE 

XIII.  FROM  THE    SPEAKERSHIP   TO   THE   SENATE    .         .  .310 

XIV.  THE   WORK   OF   THE   REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION  .  394 
XV.      IN    THE    SENATE     . 432 

XVI.      SECRETARY    OF    STATE 479 

XVI I.  YEARS    FROM    1882    TO    1888         ....  569 

XVIII.  AGAIN    SECRETARY    OF    STATE,    1889    .         .         .  651 

AT   LAST  720 


NOTE.  —  The  reader  is  indebted  to  Mrs.  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford, 
who,  at  the  request  of  Mrs.  Elaine,  and  with  the  approval  of  Gail 
Hamilton,  completed  Chapter  XWIL,  and  wrote  the  concluding 

pages  of  this  Biography. 

THE  PUBLISHERS. 


227718 


TO   DISCOVER  AN    UNKNOWN  LAW    OF   HUMAN 

LIFE. 

Intellectual  energy,  like  every  other  of  wMch  we  have  knowledge, 
is  the  product  of  antecedents.  A  great  genius  never  comes  by 
chance.  It  always  bursts  upon  the  world,  as  the  new  star  in 
Auriga  burst  upon  us,  unexpectedly,  but  only  because  we  have  not 
explored  the  depths  out  of  which  it  has  come.  Every  man  at  birth 
is  an  epitome  of  his  progenitors.  He  starts  out  with  the  elements 
of  his  character  drawn  from  the  widest  sources,  but  so  mixed  in  him 
that  he  differs  necessarily  from  every  other  individual  of  his  race. 
Here  is  the  problem  of  life.  Not  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  but 
how  the  hand  that  rounded  it  acquired  its  skill;  not  the  play  of 
"  Hamlet,"  but  hoiv  the  mind  that  gave  it  its  wondrous  birth  was 
developed,  —  these  are  our  chief  concern.  — •  EDWIN  REED. 


I. 

GALBRAITH. 

r  MHROUGH  the  mists  of  that  yesterday  which  we  call 
-*•  antiquity  loom  up  the  stalwart  forms  of  the  Galbraiths 
moving  resolutely,  if  to  us  vaguely,  around  the  foot  of  Ben 
Lomond  and  along  the  shores  of  the  storied  lake.  A  fragment 
of  Gaelic  verse  epitomizes  their  honorable  history: 

"  Galbraiths  from  the  Red  Tower, 
Noblest  of  Scotch  surnames." 

Loyally  adhering  to  Lord  James  Stuart,  they  had  brought  their 
noble  surname  to  Baldernoch  —  whence  it  was  but  a  step  to  the 
Clyde  — whence  their  continued  share  in  the  world's  movement 
took  them  to  the  Isle  of  Gigha.  Here  they  held  with  the  later 
McNeills  an  otherwise  undivided  sway  till  the  nearness  of 
Ireland  tempted  them  over  the  easy  stretch  of  blue  water 
to  become  the  Galbraiths  of  Donegal. 

The  world  movement  in  which  they  were  involved  was  a 
wider  one  than  the  Galbraiths  knew.  So  long  ago  as  Julius 
Caesar  was  winning  fame  in  Great  Britain,  the  Scotch,  under 
the  name  of  Picts,  and  the  Irish,  Scots,  were  surging  back  and 
forth  into  each  others'  lands  till  on  the  crest  of  the  human 
wave  Ireland  rode  triumphant  as  Scotia  Major,  and  Scotland 
followed  meekly  content  to  be  Scotia  Minor. 

By  intellectual  prowess  Ireland  justified  her  right  to  the 
lordly  name.  Converted  to  Christianity  by  St.  Patrick  and 
St.  Columba,  she  battled  for  religion  as  warmly  as  she  had 
battled  for  booty  in  her  good  old  pirate-pagan  days,  and  won. 
Religion  brought  in  schools,  learning,  literature,  and  sent  out 
missionaries  to  all  the  world  —  the  world  of  England,  France, 


2  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

Switzerland,  Italy,  Germany.  Even  Iceland  warmed  herself  in 
that  new  sun.  When  Europe  awakened  from  her  long  sleep 
and  began  to  crave  colleges,  Scotia  Major  was  ready  to  man 
them  with  her  professors. 

But  another  wave  of  barbarism  churned  down  from  the  North 
and  swept  all  before  it  —  colleges,  houses,  churches.  Then 
William  with  his  Normans  stormed  up  from  the  South  and 
ground  the  people  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstones  — 
to  a  finer  standard,  but  to  diminished  sway  ;  for  Scotia  Minor 
ceased  to  be  minor  and  became  Scotland  the  only,  and  Scotia 
Major  was  fain  to  fall  back  upon  her  pet  name  and  become 
green  Erin. 

But  this  was  not  all  the  movement.  Crowding  also  from  the 
East  came  the  Saxons,  Jutes,  and  Angles,  pushing  Britons  to 
the  wall ;  who,  in  their  turn,  witli  the  eagerness  of  self-preser 
vation,  were  as  sedulously  pressing  westward  and  crowding  out 
as  they  could  the  Scots  from  Wales  and  Cornwall,  and  crowding 
up  with  Saxon  Lowlanders  against  the  Celtic  Highlanders,  and 
then  with  the  Northmen  crowding  even  into  north  Ireland  till 
the  human  caldron  boiled  like  a  pot,  out  of  which  seething 
came  presently  the  sturdiest  race  on  earth  —  the  Scotch-Irish. 

Whereabouts  on  their  journeyings  the  wand  of  Elizabeth 
touched  the  Galbraiths,  history  does  not  say,  but  more  generous 
tradition  supplies  them  with  knighthood  and  a  coat  of  arms 
from  her  royal  hand  in  1560  —  three  wolf  heads  and  a  dagger  to 
Archibald  Galbraith  for  having  killed  more  wolves  than  any 
man  in  his  shire  and  thus  become  to  the  afflicted  farmers  a 
public  benefactor. 

By  her  protracted  wars  Elizabeth  had  been  harder  than  the 
wolves  upon  the  north  of  Ireland,  which  was  reduced  to  abject 
misery.  On  account  of  the  great  rebellion  of  O'Neill  and 
O'Donnell,  their  estates  had  been  confiscated  and  reverted  to 
the  Crown.  James,  upon  his  accession,  found  the  land  a  "  devas 
tated  waste."  He  determined  to  reclaim  it  by  filling  it  with  a 
peaceful,  thrifty,  industrious  population.  He  knew  his  Scots. 
By  offering  "  allotments  "  under  certain  conditions  of  improve 
ment,  he  induced  thousands  of  the  better  classes,  many  be 
longing  to  the  nobility  and  gentry,  to  emigrate  to  Ulster, 
carrying  with  them  their  Presby  terianism  of  John  Knox  and  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  3 

Westminster  Catechism,  for  the  free  enjoyment  thereof.  Then 
Charles  I.  succeeded  to  the  throne,  and  would  by  all  sorts  of 
silly  persecution,  oaths,  fines,  imprisonments,  confiscations, 
break  down  their  prosperity,  which  his  father  had  fostered,  for 
the  sake  of  breaking  down  their  Presbyterianism,  which  was 
not  his  ism.  Recourse  was  even  had  to  butchery.  Pastors 
were  forbidden  to  preach  and  to  baptize.  Churches  were 
closed.  Rents  011  lands  leased  from  the  Crown  were  raised  so 
that  multitudes  were  reduced  to  poverty;  raised  still  further 
under  Charles  II.,  under  James  II.  The  Scotch-Irish  did  not 
like  it.  They  would  not  submit  like  Irish  Catholics.  They 
were  not  enough  to  resist  successfully.  They  were  only  one- 
tenth  of  the  entire  population.  Had  they  been  the  nine-tenths 
there  would  have  been  no  Home  Rule  Question  to  vex  the 
Parliament  of  Man  to-day.  But,  being  only  one-tenth,  they 
sought  and  found  a  more  excellent  way.  Ireland  was  not  the 
home  of  their  ancestors.  America  beckoned  and  they  came  — 
first,  a  few  bold  experimenters,  then  a  great  army  in  many  suc 
cessive  regiments.  In  1729  it  is  estimated  that  6,000  of  the 
Scotch-Irish  had  come  over.  Before  1750  nearly  12,000  had 
arrived  annually  for  several  years.  Some  went  one  way  and  some 
another,  but  the  greater  number  made  their  home  in  Pennsyl 
vania.  They  took  to  the  frontiers  by  natural  attraction. 
Their  fighting  qualities  made  them  a  desirable  buffer  between 
the  peaceable  Quakers  and  Germans  and  the  wilderness  Indians. 
They  were  splendid  men  to  settle  a  new  country  ;  fighting  men 
who  feared  no  foe  :  splendid  men  to  found  a  new  State  ;  Bible 
men  to  Avhom  God  was  a  living  King,  and  themselves  his 
responsible  subjects. 

Among  these  malcontents  were  the  Galbraiths.  Upon  the 
death  of  John  Galbraith  in  Ireland,  his  two  sons  James  and 
John  closed  connection  with  the  old  and  threw  in  their  lot  with 
the  new.  John  tarried  in  Philadelphia,  and  his  descendants 
went  their  way  and  out  of  our  way  westward,  while  James 
lifted  up  his  eyes  and  beheld  all  the  plains  and  hills  of  Cones- 
toga  that  they  were  well  watered  and  fertile  everywhere,  and 
chose  him  all  that  land  to  dwell  in.  Fires  had  destroyed  the 
timber,  but  the  scrub  oak  prophesied  the  great  forests  which 
afterwards  justified  his  faith.  He  was  a  man  in  the  full 


4  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

maturity  of  vigorous  life,  and  he  came  as  an  emigrant  should, 
with  his  wife,  Rebecca  Chambers,  his  sons  and  daughters  and 
grandchildren,  and  all  his  household  goods.  Himself  fifty-two 
years  of  age,  his  eldest  son,  John,  twenty-eight,  brought  his 
Scotch  lassie  of  twenty-five,  Janet,  and  their  three-year-old 
Robert.  There  was  Andrew,  twenty-six,  and  his  wife  and  their 
year-old  baby  John.  There  was  James  of  fifteen,  and  Eleanor, 
and  Isabel,  and  Rebecca  named  for  her  mother,  names  still  re 
tained  among  their  proud  descendants.  The  family  in  this  vast, 
rich,  strange  land  clung  together.  The  father  hud  no  sooner 
settled  his  sons  around  him  than  lie  bestirred  himself  at  once 
to  found  a  church  in  the  wilderness.  Within  a  year  after  his 
arrival  the  church  was  organized.  In  less  than  two  years  his 
religious  home  stood  firm  fixed  upon  the  sweetest  spot  in  Penn 
sylvania,  a  pleasant  wooded  hill  with  a  perennial  spring  bub 
bling  up  its  cool  waters  for  man  and  beast  and  forming  the 
beautiful  "  run "  which  follows  its  own  sweet  will  through 
fertile  meadows,  winding  a  thousand  turns  till  it  joins  the  Chic- 
quesalunga,  —  compressed  by  modern  haste  and  waste  into  the 
feeble  "  Chickies  "  ! 

The  meeting-house  of  their  faith  and  hope  and  aspiration  was 
built  of  logs  and  loose  stones  gathered  from  the  surrounding 
woods,  and  there  for  ten  years  they  worshipped  God  and  re 
joiced  in  their  new  freedom.  So  strong  was  their  influence, 
so  sweet  their  memory  of  green  Erin  in  spite  of  all  they  had 
suffered  there,  and  so  vigorous  and  well-assured  their  hope, 
that  Conestoga  was  fain  to  yield  up  her  name  to  their  wooing 
and  permit  them  to  become  in  the  New  World  what  they  had 
been  in  the  Old,  the  Galbraiths  of  Donegal. 

This  little  Donegal  church  became  the  famous  nursery  of 
Presbyterianism  in  middle  and  western  Pennsylvania,  Vir 
ginia,  and  Nortli  Carolina.  Andrew  Galbraith  was  elected  its 
first  ruling  elder.  As  early  as  1721  we  find  him  making 
application  to  Newcastle,  Del.,  for  "supplies"  for  his  church. 
This  young  ruling  elder,  as  was  meet,  his  father  located 
next  to  the  church  he  was  to  serve  and  rule,  and  honors 
and  responsibilities  came  swift  upon  him.  Along  the  beau 
tiful  Donegal  run,  next  to  the  glebe  land,  under  patent 
from  the  Penns,  his  farm  grew  green  on  hill  and  meadow, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  5 

and  Andrew  prospered  with  it  and  attested  his  right  to  the 
"noble  surname."  Upon  the  organization  of  Lancaster  county 
he  was  appointed  first  coroner,  and  afterwards  became  a  jus 
tice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  remaining  such  as  long  as 
he  lived  in  Lancaster.  In  1732  he  was  elected  to  the  General 
Assembly. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  province  the  Quakers  held  the 
political  power.  Pennsylvania  was  ruled  by  governors  ap 
pointed  by  Penn  and  approved  by  the  king,  and  it  w^i  a 
pleasant  little  family  arrangement  which  had  worked  smoothly 
hitherto ;  but  these  new  colonists  threatened  to  displace 
the  old  order.  Invited  they  had  come,  but  in  such  numbers 
that  their  Quaker  hosts  feared  lest  themselves  should  be  sup 
planted  and  the  strangers  turn  proprietors.  They  swarmed  all 
along  the  beautiful  Susquehanna,  and  when  challenged  for  their 
title  said  "  it  was  against  the  laws  of  God  and  nature  that  so 
much  land  should  lie  idle  while  so  many  Christians  wanted  it 
to  labor  on,"  and  that  they  had  as  good  a  right  to  enter  and 
occupy  as  the  Penns  ! 

As  early  as  1729,  James  Logan,  in  a  letter  to  the  Proprietaries, 
wrote  :  "  The  Indians  themselves  are  alarmed  at  the  swarms  of 
strangers  (Scotch-Irish),  and  we  are  afraid  of  a  breach  with 
them.  The  Irish  are  very  rough  to  them."  In  1730,  he 
complained  of  the  Scotch-Irish,  "  in  a  disorderly  manner  pos 
sessing  themselves,  about  that  time,  of  the  whole  of  Conestoga 
manor,  of  15,000  acres." 

The  argument  is  not  without  logic.  Logic  or  no  logic,  it 
seems  that  with  the  Quakers  on  one  side  fighting  them  at  the 
ballot-box,  and  the  Indians  on  the  other  with  powder  and 
shot,  it  was  a  substantial  victory  for  the  Scotch-Irish  that 
they  "rested  chiefly  in  Donegal,  as  a  frontier  people  at  an 
exemption  from  rent." 

This  struggle  was  still  on  when  Andrew  Galbraith  sat 
down  by  the  gentle  welling  of  Donegal  spring.  The  township 
being  settled  entirely  by  Scotch-Irish,  —  Presbyterians,  —  they 
naturally  challenged  the  supremacy  of  the  Quakers  in  the 
organization  of  the  new  Lancaster  county.  Andrew  Galbraith 
was  brought  out  by  the  Donegalians  for  the  Legislature  on  the 
eve  of  the  election.  The  Quakers  became  very  active  to  defeat 


6  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

him.  The  election  was  held  at  the  courthouse  at  the  county 
seat,  the  only  voting-place.  Believing  that  the  office  should 
seek  the  man  and  not  the  man  the  office,  Mr.  Galbraith  made 
but  little  effort  in  his  own  behalf.  His  wife  seems  to  have 
been  of  a  different  mind.  Her  motto  was,  She  serves  her 
country  best  who  serves  her  husband  best,  and  she  mounted 
her  fleet  and  favorite  mare,  Nelly,  and  galloped  through  the 
settlement,  persuading  her  neighbors  to  go  down  to  Lancaster 
and  vote  for  her  Andrew.  Thus  it  came  that  she  rode  gal 
lantly  at  the  head  of  an  enthusiastic  procession  of  mounted 
men  down  to  Lancaster  courthouse,  where  she  halted,  drew 
up  her  men  in  line  and  harangued  them  manfully,  and  of 
course  they  brought  her  candidate  in,  elected  by  three  votes  over 
one  of  the  most  popular  Quakers  in  the  county,  throwing  out, 
it  must  be  admitted,  some  Quaker  votes  for  a  slight  informality. 
But  certainly  the  Quakers  were  awed  or  persuaded  into  har 
mony  thenceforth,  and  reflected  Mr.  Galbraith  many  times 
without  contest.  When  the  roving  spirit  took  him  from 
Donegal,  we  hear  of  him  at  Pennsborough  on  a  perambulating 
committee,  pacing  between  the  Pennsborough  meeting-house 
and  the  Great  Spring  to  establish  just  boundaries,  and  wher 
ever  and  whenever  he  appears,  he  is  always  the  discreet  and 
public-spirited  citizen. 

The  third  son,  James,  stood  by  his  father  and  brothers  in 
noble  character,  patriotic  service,  and  public  record.  He  was 
twice  elected  sheriff  of  the  county,  he  was  a  justice  of  com 
mon  pleas  of  the  county,  he  was  an  officer  in  the  Indian  wars. 
Up  in  Swatara  they  followed  hard  upon  the  feet  of  Donegal, 
organized  a  congregation,  and  were  "  supplied  "  by  the  friendly 
Donegalians  with  the  stated  preaching  of  the  gospel  according 
to  John  Knox. 

Presently  came  over  the  sea  a  most  unhappy  father  and 
mother,  seeking  a  lost  son.  During  one  of  the  many  polit 
ical  excitements  in  the  British  Isles  the  boy  had  disappeared, 
and  his  parents,  under  the  impression  that  he  had  gone  to 
America,  came  to  search  for  him  about  1730.  The  father  could 
not  find  his  son,  but  he  was  too  valuable  a  colonist  to  be  let  go. 
A  clergyman  of  the  Presbytery  of  Bangor  in  Ireland,  educated  in 
Edinburgh,  he  was  hospitably  and  unanimously  received  by  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  1 

Donegal  Presbytery,  and  was  installed  at  the  meeting-house  in 
Svvatara,  which  then  took  the  name  of  Derry.  Little  Deny  bore 
herself  handsomely  to  him,  and  appointed  representatives  who, 
on  his  settlement,  executed  to  him  the  right  and  title  to  the 
"  Indian  town  tract,"  on  the  north  side  of  the  Swatara,  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  acres. 

Young  James  Galbraith,  who  had  been  deeply  interested 
in  the  Derry  church,  became  still  more  interested  in  the  new 
clergyman's  pretty  daughter,  who  to  her  beauty  added  rare 
accomplishments,  great  excellence,  and  it  may  not  be  invidious 
to  say  the  hope  of  a  fortune  through  her  mother,  Elizabeth 
Gillespie,  who  was  heiress  to  a  handsome  estate  in  Edinburgh. 
This  daughter,  Elizabeth  Bertram,  presently  became  his  wife, 
and  for  her  he  bought  the  farm  on  Spring  creek,  next  to 
her  father's,  close  to  the  church  and  including  the  inevitable 
grist-mill,  and  moved  thence,  taking  his  own  father  with  him, 
who  had  then  reached  the  goodly  age  of  seventy-seven. 

But  the  peaceful  glebe-life  had  warlike  interruptions.  He 
and  his  brother  John  were  elected  captains  in  companies  of 
"  associators."  Then  he  rose  to  be  lieutenant-colonel,  and  fought 
a  good  fight  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars  of  eight  stormy  and 
terrible  years.  A  letter  to  Governor  Hamilton  gives  in  a  few 
bold  lines  a  vivid  picture  of  life  in  that  early  time.  The  post 
script  tells  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  met : 

DERRY,  the  10th  August,  1756. 

HONORED  SIR,  There  is  nothing  heare  allmost  evry  day  but  murder  com 
mitted  by  the  Indians  in  sora  part  or  oather,  about  five  miles  above  me,  at 
Monaday  Gape,  there  was  two  of  the  provance  solders  kild,  one  wounded; 
there  wase  but  three  Indians,  and  they  came  in  amongst  ten  of  our  men 
and  committed  the  murder,  and  went  off  safe,  the  name  or  sight  of  an 
Indian  maks  allmost  all  mankind  in  these  parts  to  trimble,  there  Barbarity 
is  so  Cruel  where  they  are  masters,  for  by  all  appearance  the  Devall 
commitans,  God  permits,  and  the  French  pays,  and  by  this  the  Back  parts 
by  all  appearance,  will  be  Laid  waste  by  flight  with  what  is  gon  and 
agoing,  more  espesaly  Cumberland  County,  Pardon  my  freedom  in  this 
where  I  have  don  amiss. 

Sir,  your  most  Humble  Servant  to  Command, 

JAS.  GALBREATH. 

P.S.  —  Sir  1  am  in  want  of  the  Pistols. 


8  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

The  next  year  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  commissioners  to 
build  a  fort  at  Wyoming ;  and  when  he  had  stayed  long  enough 
at  Spring  run,  over  he  also  went  to  Pennsborough,  and  was 
appointed  commissioner  for  Cumberland  county  by  Governor 
Penn,  and  in  course  of  time  became  owner  of  land  enough  to 
constitute  a  German  principality.  April  10,  1777,  he  was 
appointed  "  Lieutenant  of  Militia  in  room  of  Col.  Ephraim 
Blaine,  who  declined;"  but  owing  to  his  great  age,  which 
prevented  him  from  performing  active  duty,  the  Council  ap 
pointed  John  Wilkins  anc1.  James  Blaine  his  assistants.  And 
having  given  all  his  sons  to  officer  the  war  of  the  Revolution, 
he  died  at  the  good  old  age  of  eighty-three,  directing  his  bones 
to  be  carried  over  to  the  old  Deny  churchyard,  where  for 
forty  years  the  dust  of  his  father  had  lain. 

John,  the  eldest  brother,  more  closely  though  not  more  really 
to  our  purpose,  seems  to  have  been  as  quiet  and  as  shrewd  as 
Andrew.  He  bestowed  himself  promptly  along  the  Donegal 
meeting-house  run,  next  neighbor  to  Andrew,  and  at  a  point 
where  the  present  turnpike,  following  the  lead  of  Peter  Bizal- 
lion's  Indian  trail,  crosses  the  run.  That  old  Indian  trader 
had  located  a  path  for  his  pack-horses,  and  the  Irish  emigrants 
had  followed  this  trail,  which  at  about  the  time  of  the  Gal- 
braiths'  advent  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  public  road,  leading  to 
the  settlement  at  Chicquesalunga.  The  Indian  trail,  become  a 
public  road,  did  what  railroads  have  done  since  —  opened  up 
the  country  to  settlers. 

Being  by  trade  a  miller,  John  Galbraith  built  himself  straight 
way  a  grist  and  saw  mill,  and  having  also  cannily  settled  along 
the  "  great  road,"  handy  to  the  Scotch-Irish  settlement,  and  to 
the  Conoy  Indian  town,  and  connecting  with  the  Paxtang  and 
Conestoga  road  (now  nearly  covered  by  the  Lancaster  and 
Harrisburg  turnpike),  he  also  bethought  himself  to  set  up  an 
"  ordinary ;  "  wherefore  : 

To  the  Honourable  bench  the  humble  petition  of  John  Galbreath  of 
Donnegall  in  the  County  of  Chester 

Humbly  Sheweth 

That  your  humble  petitioner  dwelling  on  a  great  road  and  many  travel 
lers  passing  thereby  has  great  encouragement  for  their  relief e  and  aecom- 
odation  to  take  up  ordinary  to  which  your  petitioner  is  likewise  requested 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  9 

by  the  neighborhood  for  their  publick  arid  common  advantage  in  as  much 
as  great  quantity  of  barly  is  raised  and  malted  which  by  reason  of  the 
great  distance  from  a  market  without  publick  houses  here  will  turn  to  no 
account  to  their  great  loss  for  which  valuable  considerations  your  petitioner 
humbly  craves  that  this  hon.  bench  may  be  pleased  to  grant  him  license  to 
brew  and  Sell  beer  and  ale 

And  your  humble  petitioner  as  in  duty  bound  Shall  ever  pray 
We  whose  names  are  Subscribed  inhabitants  of  Donnegall  and  Connos- 
togoe  do  hereby  ce.rtitie  and  confirm  the  truth  of  the  above  petition  and  also 
most  humbly  with  Submission  to  the  hon.  bench  recommend  the  above 
petitioner  John  Galbreath  as  a  fitt  person  to  keep  ordinary  dated  at  Don 
negall  this  vi  day  of  Aug  1726. 

Among  the  names  of  those  who  thus  became  surety  for  his 
good  conduct  of  the  ordinary  were  his  father's,  —  spelled  as  it 
is  pronounced,  James  Galbreth,  —  his  brother  Andrew,  who  sup 
plied  an  a  after  the  e  in  the  "noblest  of  Scotch  surnames,"  James 
Alison,  and  Richard,  whose  land,  six  hundred  and  thirty-six 
acres,  ran  along  the  old  road  and  up  to  Andrew  Galbraith's  land 
near  the  Donegal  meeting-house,  till  in  the  second  generation 
the  family  sold  it  all  and  went  West,  to  be  represented  in  our 
day  by  Senator  Allison :  Robert  Buchanan  and  William,  who 
may  have  stayed  in  Pennsylvania  to  give  her  a  president  of  the 
United  States ;  James  Brownlow,  who  stirred  the  spirit  of  '76 
in  Parson  Brownlow;  Moffats  and  McFarlands,  Hays  and 
Howards  and  Cochrans,  were  all  on  hand  thus  early  to  stand 
sponsors  for  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  beer  and  ale  which 
their  thirsty  souls  longed  for.  This  ordinary  still  stands,  —  a 
stone  house  with  straight  lines  erect  and  firm,  —  though  the 
present  turnpike  has  risen  five  feet  higher  along  its  front  than 
was  the  old  roadbed,  and  has  thus  turned  the  front  of  the 
ordinary  into  a  one-story  house,  while  the  rear  remains  as  of 
yore,  in  two  stories.  The  doorway  facing  the  road  has  been 
built  in,  and  the  old  mill  has  disappeared ;  but  Donegal  run, 
narrow  and  deep  and  blue  and  clear,  winds  between  its  clean 
green  banks  and  sparkles  to  the  bending  boughs  above  it,  as 
blithe  as  in  John  Galbraith's  day,  singing  its  eternal  song. 

And  here  John  Galbraith  bore  himself  steadfastly  for  law 
and  order.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  jury  drawn  in  Lancas 
ter  county,  and  was  twice  elected  sheriff.  In  "  Cressap's  war," 
between  the  Marylanders  and  Pennsylvanians,  he  demeaned 


10  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    HLAINE. 

himself  like  a  true  member  of  Jie  Church  Militant,  and 
when  Captain  Cressap  ordered  a  glass  of  rum  and  drank 
damnation  to  himself  and  his  men  if  they  ever  surrendered, 
John  Galbraith  was  one  of  the  men  who  forced  him  to  the 
alternative. 

The  Galbraith  farm,  and  the  Galbraith  tavern,  and  the  Gal 
braith  mill  show  how  untiring  was  his  personal  and  peaceful 
activity  ;  and  if  the  "  great  roads  "  did  not  bring  men  enough 
to  his  " ordinary,"  what  should  hinder  the  making  of  branch 
roads  so  that  Vinegae's  ferry  and  Anderson's  ferry  and  Ran- 
kin's  ferry  arid  Conewago  falls  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth 
-  their  earth  —  should  have  easy  right  of  way  to  Galbraith's 
mill  and  Galbraith's  well-brewed  beer  and  ale  ? 

But  to  all  his  prosperity  came  a  blight.  His  first-born 
son,  the  Robert  who  had  sailed  from  Ireland  with  his 
father  and  mother,  died  in  his  early  prime.  By  will  he  left 
his  little  son  John  a  sacred  charge  to  his  father,  and  afterwards 
the  young  widow,  by  her  own  will  became,  with  her  little 
daughter,  Rebecca,  a  sacred  charge  to  her  prosperous  young 
neighbor,  Capt.  John  Byers,  —  which  scarcely  brought  separa 
tion,  for  his  smiling  acres  lay  close  by,  and  all  the  orchards 
and  meadows  were  broad  and  pleasant  —  a  delectable  land  for 
the  two  grandchildren,  John  and  Rebecca.  The  stone  house, 
thrown  open  to  them,  was  ample  and  comfortable,  and  in  the 
wide  dooryard  the  flowers  still  bloom  and  the  shade  of  lofty 
trees  invites  to  quiet  and  hospitality.  But  the  restless 
spirit  returned  upon  these  Scotch-Irish  rovers  and  bore  them 
away  from  all  these  fertile  valleys  to  the  even  then  ever- 
receding  West,  and  little  John  and  Rebecca  were  seen  no  more 
under  the  bending  boughs  of  Donegal  run. 

Upon  the  grandfather  fell  the  bitterness  and  the  sweetness 
of  death  while  yet  he  was  hardly  more  than  sixty  years  of  age. 
To  his  Scotch  lass  Janet  and  his  brother  James  he  left  the 
settlement  of  all  his  earthly  affairs,  since  they  alone  remained 
in  the  neighborhood  of  dear  Donegal. 

Then  all  the  fair  lands  went  this  way  and  that  —  a  farm  and 
mill  to  John  Bayley,  the  farm  on  the  east  of  Donegal  run  to 
Hiestands,  and  of  all  the  Galbraith  and  Byers  estates  no  rem 
nant  owns  to  the  name,  or  blood,  or  race. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  11 

But  little  Rebecca  fared  well  at  the  hands  of  her  stepfather 
in  her  new  home,  until  on  a  June  evening  she  gave  her  noble 
Scotch  surname,  the  vigor  of  her  Galbraith  blood,  and  the 
courage  of  her  eighteen  years  to  Ephraim  Blaine. 


Not  only  do  our  character  and  talents  lie  upon  the  anvil  and 
receive  their  temper  during  generations,  but  the  very  plot  of  our 
life's  story  unfolds  itself  on  a  scale  of  centuries,  and  the  biography 
of  the  man  is  only  an  episode  in  the  epic  of  the  family. 

ROBERT  Louis  STEVENSON. 


BIOGRAPUY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  13 


II. 

ELAINE. 

AS  dimly  as  the  noble  Galbraiths,  through  the  wavering, 
lifting,  lowering  mists  of  nigh  three  hundred  years 
may  be  discerned  another  heroic  figure :  a  brave  soldier,  a 
sturdy  Protestant,  from  whose  strength  of  mind  and  body 
alone  gleams  the  spark  that  lights  him  down  the  generations 
to  recognition  and  the  faint  remembrance  of  a  name.  Out 
from  Scotland,  also,  he  went  to  Ireland,  and  his  children, 
having  had  emigration  in  their  blood,  thought  another  the 
easier,  and  found  it  but  a  natural  remedy  for  the  evils  that 
still  surrounded  them  in  Ireland  —  high  taxes,  manufactures 
prohibited,  trade  lessened,  industry  vexed  with  repeated  insur 
rections  ;  and  ever  voices  coming  to  them  from  friends  and 
neighbors,  across  the  great  tides  calling,  who  had  found  a  rich, 
free,  generous  land,  where  they  could  enter  into  their  own  and 
govern  themselves. 

Thus  it  was  that  at  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  near  1745,  James  Blaine  and  Isabella  his  wife  took 
their  little  son,  Ephraim,  scarce  out  of  babyhood,  and  jour 
neyed  from  Londonderry  into  the  Western  World. 

Donegal  claims  him,  and  to  Donegal  he  must  have  come  first, 
for  in  the  year  1767  Temple  Thompson,  of  Donegal,  died,  leav 
ing  two  hundred  acres  of  land  and  other  property  to  three  minor 
children,  of  whom  he  appointed  James  Blaine  guardian  ;  indi 
cating  that  he  had  tarried  in  Donegal  and  was  probably  a 
relative  of  the  family.  He  at  any  rate  took  charge  of  the 
children  and  educated  them,  fulfilling  the  trust  of  the  dying 
father;  but  he  made  his  abiding-place  in  Toboyne  township, 
extending  his  interests  in  many  directions ;  for  he  lived  long 
and  prospered.  Tradition  locates  one  of  his  homes  in  Phila 
delphia,  though  he  may  have  shared  it  with  his  eldest  son. 


14  KIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

All  old-fashioned  two-story  brick  house  on  the  north  side  of 
Arch,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fourth  or  Fifth  street,  was  many 
years  ago  pointed  out  as  the  Blaine  house.  He  was  in  Carlisle 
long  enough  to  make  warm  friendships,  to  mature  the  slow- 
growing  plant,  confidence,  and  to  lend  his  Scotch-Presbyterian 
sympathy  and  assistance  in  building  the  old  stone  church  which, 
with  improvements  and  enlargements,  still  stands  on  the  pub 
lic  square  in  Carlisle. 

In  Toboyne  township,  then  on  the  frontiers,  he  took  up  a 
large  tract  of  land  on  the  south  side  of  the  blue  Juniata, 
and  immediately  assumed  a  leading  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
province  so  long  as  it  continued  a  province,  an  active  interest 
in  the  state  when  it  became  a  state,  in  the  nation  when  a 
nation  was  born. 

While  Pennsylvania  was  still  English,  and  the  French,  were 
putting  the  Indians  on  their  track  of  blood  and  fire  and  torture 
that  themselves  might  gain  control  of  the  New  World,  James 
Blaine,  for  all  his  Scotch-Irish  blood,  was  sturdily  on  the  Eng 
lish  side,  though  in  the  stubborn  and  brutal  Braddock  he  saw 
repeated  in  the  wilderness  the  same  British  policy  which  had 
driven  him  from  Donegal  to  the  wilderness.  Just  as  sturdily, 
when  Pennsylvania  would  throw  off  her  leading-strings  and 
become  American,  James  Blaine  gave  all  the  wisdom  and  sym 
pathy  of  his  declining  years,  as  well  as  the  sons  of  his  strength, 
to  the  struggle  for  independence,  nor  laid  down  the  torch  of 
life  till  he  had  seen  that  struggle  end  in  victory. 

As  his  family  grew  to  maturity  each  took  up  a  tract  of  land 
around  him  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  same  Juniata.  As  late  as 
March  24,  1777,  a  deed  from  James  Blaine  and  Isabella  Blaine 
his  wife,  residents  of  Toboyne  township,  Cumberland  county, 
conveys  to  William  Blaine,  "  one  of  their  sons,"  four  hundred 
acres  in  Toboyne. 

So  they  took  root  and  extended  themselves  in  the  new 
country,  carrying  with  them  wherever  they  went,  and  upbuild 
ing  wherever  they  stopped,  the  church  and  the  school-house  ;  at 
peace  with  all  the  world,  so  long  as  the  world  would  ordain 
the  things  that  make  for  peace,  but  desiring  only  peace  under 
liberty. 

Successful   in  all  his    business    activities,  happy  in    all    his 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  15 

domestic  relations,  the  father  of  nine  children  who  survived  him, 
the  first  recorded  grief  of  James  Blaine  was  the  death  of  his 
wife  Isabella  —  a  loss  in  some  degree  repaired  by  his  subsequent 
marriage  with  Elizabeth  Carskaden,  daughter  of  George  Cars- 
kaden,  of  Toboyne,  his  friend  and  neighbor.  That  she  was  a 
practical  rather  than  a  pretentious  woman  appears  in  the  suc 
cessful  compression  she  put  or  permitted  upon  her  own  rather 
impressive  name  when  bestowing  it  upon  her  son  James 
"  Scadden."  But  the  second  marriage  did  not  apparently 
disturb  the  family  harmony,  for  by  will  his  executors  were 
"  my  beloved  son  Ephraim  and  my  beloved  wife  Elizabeth," 
who  long  survived  him.  Their  honorable  exactitude  appears 
in  an  inventory  which  shows  accounts  of  debt  and  credit, 
carefully  estimated  and  duly  balanced,  to  the  smallest  detail. 

Of  the  nine  children,  Ephraim,  the  little  Irishman,  was  the 
eldest.  He  received  a  classical  education  at  the  school  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Alison,  a  school  famous  in  its  time.  No  better  proof 
is  needed  of  the  principle  that  it  is  the  teacher,  and  not  boards, 
buildings,  or  machinery,  that  accomplishes  education  than  the 
number  of  distinguished  men  of  that  day  whose  biography 
records  their  education  by  Rev.  Dr.  Alison.  There  was  a  com 
manding  reason  why  the  north  of  Ireland  young  gentleman 
should  be  sent  to  Dr.  Alison's  school,  inasmuch  as  he  had  come 
himself  from  the  Irish  Donegal,  and  had  settled  in  Toboyne 
township,  neighboring  the  Blaine  home.  He  was  moreover 
pronounced  the  greatest  classical  scholar  in  America,  especially 
in  Greek,  and  "  a  great  literary  character;"  and  he  not  only  wore 
in  their  season  all  the  honors  thereunto  appertaining  in  his  own 
State,  but  had  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  of  his  pres 
bytery  who  received  the  honorary  degree  of  D.D.  from  the 
University  of  Glasgow. 

On  the  recommendation  of  Franklin  he  had  been  early 
made  a  tutor  to  the  son  of  John  Dickinson,  author  of  the 
famous  "Letters  of  a  Pennsylvania  Farmer,"  which  did  no  small 
work  in  arousing  the  people  to  recognize  and  resist  the  tyranny 
of  the  British  ministry.  Having  permission  to  take  a  few  other 
pupils,  he  at  length  opened  an  academy  to  which  it  was  con 
sidered  a  great  advantage  and  privilege  to  be  admitted.  He 
had  a  taste  of  the  field,  and  as  chaplain  saw  varied  and  active 


16  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

service.  He  was  a  statesman,  and  opposed  the  throwing  off 
of  the  proprietary  government,  a  compliment  which  Richard 
Penn  returned  with  a  tract  of  one  thousand  acres  of  well- 
watered,  fertile  Susquehanna  land.  And  even  in  that  early 
day,  his  humane  and  just  mind  developed  the  emancipation 
of  his  slaves  by  will,  as  logically  as  it  wrought  the  evolution 
of  subjects  into  citizens. 

It  is  little  that  "  his  failing  was  a  proneness  to  anger,"  since 
he  was  "placable  and  affable;"  and  a  quick  and  generous  anger 
may  be  but  an  intellectual  stimulus  to  the  bright,  but  discur 
sive  minds  with  which  the  school-master  deals. 

When  young  Ephraim  left  the  patriotic  and  stimulating  train 
ing  of  this  school  he  went  armed  with  a  recommendation  from  Dr. 
Alison  for  an  ensigncy  in  the  provincial  service,  and  indorsed 
as  "  a  young  gentleman  of  good  family."  Nearly  all  his  short 
life  had  been  passed  within  sound  of  the  rifle-shot,  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  he  should  have  turned  to  military  service.  Dr. 
Alison's  recommendation  was  honored,  and  young  Blaine  was 
appointed  commissary  sergeant.  There  and  then  began  the 
apprenticeship  which  subsequently  availed  himself  and  his 
country  so  greatly  in  the  acquisition  of  Independence.  The 
wars  between  the  provincials  and  the  Indians  were  flagrant, 
and  with  many  varying  fortunes  were  steadily  tending  towards 
Indian  subjugation  and  provincial  supremacy.  But  the  strug 
gle  was  bitter  and  long.  Dr.  McGill  has  said,  "  The  rich  and 
beautiful  Cumberland  valley  became  the  bloodiest  battle-ground 
we  have  ever  had  since  the  beginning  of  our  American  civil 
ization.  There  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  had  been  suf 
fered  to  pour  their  stream  of  immigration,  in  order  that  they 
might  stand  guardsmen  for  the  nation  through  nearly  the  whole 
of  a  century." 

Colonel  Burd,  of  Carlisle,  was  sent  to  open  a  road  from  Brad- 
dock's  road  on  Laurel  hill  to  the  Monongahela,  and  thence  to 
Fort  Pitt,  now  Pittsburg.  Opening  a  road  in  that  time  meant 
the  construction  of  forts  at  various  points  for  defence.  On  a 
hill  overlooking  the  Monongahela,  on  the  site  of  the  present 
town  of  Brownsville,  Colonel  Burd  built  a  fort,  and  on  Sunday, 
the  4th  of  November,  1759,  his  chaplain,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alison, 
preached  a  sermon  in  the  fort,  and  on  the  same  day  left  for 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JANES    G.     ELAINE.  17 

Philadelphia,  having  no  objection,  it  would  appear,  to  travelling 
on  Sunday.  It  is  pleasant  to  think  that  his  late  pupil,  the 
young  ensign  of  good  family,  then  just  eighteen,  may  have 
joined  his  teacher  and  preacher  after  the  sermon  was  over, 
and  strolled  along  the  heights,  gathering  into  his  youthful 
vision  all  the  majestic  sweep  of  river,  the  smiling  intervale 
beyond,  and  the  wall  of  hills  rising  abruptly  behind  it,  brilliant, 
glowing,  quivering  in  the  autumn  sunshine,  —  sheltering  hills, 
kindly  river,  happy  valley,  to  which  a  most  dear  life  of  his  life 
was  one  day  to  be  intrusted. 

In  1763  Ephraim  Blaine  was  connected  with  the  Second 
Provincial  Regiment,  was  in  the  Bouquet  expedition,  and  shared 
in  the  dangers  and  triumphs  of  the  savage  "Pontiac  war." 
In  the  performance  of  his  duties  he  traversed  the  State,  largely 
then  a  wilderness,  from  Carlisle  to  Pittsburg,  and  gained  a 
familiarity  with  its  topography,  its  wealth  of  resources,  its 
picturesqueness,  and  its  promise,  which  in  the  subsequent  Rev 
olutionary  struggle  was  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  nascent 
nation  and  to  his  own  fortunes. 

Attracted  no  doubt  by  his  Carlisle  comrades  and  by  the 
vicinage  of  Rebecca  Galbraith,  he  seems  early  to  have  chosen 
Carlisle  for  his  permanent  home.  One  month  after  he  had  com 
pleted  his  twenty-third  year,  the  prudent  young  officer  purchased 
from  James  Fleming  and  wife,  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
Pennsylvania  currency,  a  house-lot  in  Carlisle  —  judging  accu 
rately  that  peaceful  tides  were  flowing  in. 

The  young  soldier's  valet,  by  the  way,  had  but  an  unwilling 
mind  for  the  tame  duties  of  peace,  and  his  master  was  forced 
to  offer  in  Franklin's  "  Gazette  "  : 

THREE    POUNDS    REWARD. 

Run  away  from  the  Subscriber  in  Carlisle  an  Irish  Servant  Man  named 
Michael  Futrill,  aged  about  twenty-six  Years,  about  5  feet  8  inches  high, 
dark  Complexion,  short  black  curled  Hair,  pitted  with  the  Small  Pox ;  had 
on  when  he  went  away  a  blanket  Coat,  Buckskin  Breeches,  white  Shirt, 
Thread  Stockings  and  Pumps;  he  served  his  time  with  Col.  James 
Gillespie  in  Lancaster  County ;  he  has  been  in  the  Army  and  it  is  sup 
posed  he  will  go  towards  New  York.  Whoever  takes  up  and  secures  said 
Servant  so  that  his  Master  may  get  him  again  shall  have  the  above  Reward 
from  the  subscriber 

EPIIKAIM  BLAINE. 


18  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Even  Dr.  Alison's  slaves  were  only  to  be  free  when  the 
doctor  had  no  further  use  for  them ! 

Whether  the  thread  stockings  and  pumps  ever  found  their 
way  back  to  their  master,  history  does  not  inform  us  ;  but  on 
May  8,  1765,  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed ;  on  the  fifth  of 
June  Governor  Penn's  proclamation  opened  Indian  trade,  and 
on  the  twenty-sixth,  just  one  month  after  he  had  completed 
his  twenty-fourth  year,  Ephraim  Blaine  celebrated  the  new 
peace  by  taking  to  himself  as  wife  Rebecca  Galbraith. 

Before  the  honey-moon  was  over  he  appeared  in  court  in  answer 
to  a  summons  as  a  grand  juror,  was  sworn,  and  served  as  a  good 
citizen.  On  October  twenty-second  he  was  summoned  again,  but 
evidently  thought  this  was  more  than  his  share  of  public  duty 
and  failed  to  appear.  At  various  times  thereafter  he  was  sum 
moned,  and  served  until,  on  the  22d  October,  1771,  he  made  his 
first  return  as  sheriff  of  the  grand  jurors  he  had  summoned. 

He  had,  however,  been  doing  something  beside  serving  on 
the  grand  jury  ;  for  at  this  time,  though  only  about  thirty, 
he  owned,  besides  the  corner  lot  in  Carlisle  which  he  had  bought 
before  his  marriage,  four  hundred  acres  of  land  on  the  beautiful 
Conodoguinet  creek,  and  all  the  indications  are  that  he  must 
have  been  in  easy  circumstances. 

In  the  bond  given  by  him  when  lie  was  made  sheriff  his 
father  was  one  of  the  sureties ;  and  as  five  good  men  and  true, 
composing  the  Executive  Council,  attested  to  the  recorder  for 
the  county  of  Cumberland  that  they  did  approve  of  Robert 
Callender  and  James  Blaine  as  sufficient  sureties  for  Ephraim 
Blaine,  his  due  execution  for  the  office  of  sheriff  of  the  county 
of  Cumberland,  it  follows  that  both  were  known  for  men  of 
substance.  Robert  Callender  was  a  very  rich  man.  He  was  an 
old  Indian  trader,  and  had  had  much  trouble  from  friend  and 
foe  in  the  Indian  fightings.  In  a  single  encounter  when  lie  was 
convoying  a  train  of  eighty-one  pack-horse  loads  of  goods,  sixty- 
three  were  destroyed,  valued  at  three  thousand  pounds.  In 
vain  he  protested  that  they  were  not  destined  for  the  hostile 
Indians,  but  were  for  the  Illinois,  and  to  be  stored  at  Fort  Pitt. 
He  was  charged  with  intending  "  to  steal  up  the  goods  "  before 
the  trade  was  legally  opened,  which  was,  no  doubt,  the  aspect 
that  his  superior  shrewdness  and  sagacity  assumed  to  the  more 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAJNE.  19 

laggard  traders.  Certainly  he  stood  on  a  good  footing  both  with 
young  Ephraim  and  his  father,  since  the  three  combined  to  be 
"  held  and  firmly  bound  unto  our  Sovereign  Lord  George  the 
Third  by  the  Grace  of  God  of  Great  Britain,  France  and 
Ireland,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith  &c.  in  the  sum  of  two 
thousand  pounds  lawful  money  of  Pennsylvania  to  be  paid  to 
our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King  his  heirs  and  successors  to  which 
payment  well  and  truly  to  be  made  we  bind  ourselves  our  heirs 
executors  and  administrators  and  every  of  them  jointly  and 
severally  firmly  by  these  presents  sealed  with  our  seals  and 
dated  the  fourteenth  day  of  October  in  the  eleventh  year  of 
his  Majesty's  reign,"  before  John  Agnew,  Esq.,  one  of  His 
Majesty's  justices  of  the  peace  for  the  county  of  Cumberland 
aforesaid. 

Unquestionably  both  father  and  son  had  profited  by  Robert 
Callender's  experience,  for  Ephraim  was  in  his  turn  a  skilful 
and  successful  Indian  trader  and  established  headquarters  at 
Carlisle.  Whether  lie  had  himself  threaded  on  horseback  the 
wilderness  Avith  which  he  had  first  become  familiar  as  a  soldier, 
armed  with  a  rifle  as  bright,  and  appurtenances  as  various,  and 
followed  by  a  retinue  almost  as  large,  of  horses  with  packs  and 
men  with  the  luggage,  or  whether  he  confined  himself  to  pre 
siding  over  the  collection  and  distribution  of  his  stores  at 
Carlisle,  we  are  not  told.  On  his  appointment  as  sheriff  of 
Cumberland  county  he  seems  to  have  given  up  Indian  trade. 

He  never  made  trade  subservient  to  patriotism,  never 
encroached  on  what  might  be  due  to  the  country,  being  con 
stitutionally  on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  even  against  some 
of  his  own  friends;  for  through  the  piping  times  of  peace,  the 
bugle  blast  of  war  was  ever  sounding.  Turbulence  was  the 
natural  after-swell  and  roar  of  past  storms.  The  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians  were  fain  to  enjoy  the  liberty  which  they  valued 
so  highly  and  had  bought  so  dearly,  and  sometimes  they  verily 
thought  they  did  God  service  by  resisting  the  powers  that  be. 

During  the  prevalence  of  Indian  war  an  act  of  assembly 
prohibited  the  selling  of  guns,  powder,  and  other  warlike 
stores  to  Indians,  but  a  company  of  traders,  tempted  of  the 
devil,  risked  the  safety  of  the  community  by  selling  their  wares, 
irrespective  of  law,  to  the  Indians.  The  ruling  Quakers, 


20  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

supposed  to  be  friendly  to  the  Indians  and  hostile  to  the  Pres 
byterians,  did  not  interpose.  Wherefore  the  law-and-orderly 
Cumberland  men  took  the  enforcement  of  law  into  their 
own  hands  by  seizing  the  goods,  blankets,  lead,  tomahawks, 
scalping-knives,  gunpowder.  Two  Germans,  who  had  murdered 
ten  peaceable  Indians,  were  arrested  and  lodged  in  Carlisle 
jail,  but  a  warrant  was  issued  for  their  removal  to  Philadelphia 
for  trial.  The  Carlisle  folk  counted  this  an  encroachment  on 
the  right  of  a  citizen  to  be  tried  by  a  jury  of  his  countrymen 
in  the  county  where  the  crime  was  committed.  Some  seventy 
men  well  armed  appeared  at  the  door  of  Carlisle  jail  early 
one  morning,  surprised  the  keeper,  effected  entrance,  and  bore 
away  the  murderers.  Colonel  Armstrong  the  sheriff,  William 
Lyon,  the  Presbyterian  clergyman-soldier  John  Steel,  then  a 
youngster  of  twenty-three  and  all  the  more  likely  for  that  to 
be  on  hand,  Col.  Ephraim  Blaine,  and  others,  gathered  to  the 
assistance  of  Sheriff  Armstrong  in  pursuing  the  rioters ;  but 
they  escaped  to  Virginia.  One  is  fain  to  believe  that  the 
chase  for  such  law-breakers  was  not  over-hot. 

Colonel  Elaine's  peaceful  pursuits  were  remarkably  successful. 
He  became  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  of  interior  Pennsylvania 
at  that  day.  In  his  purchases  of  land  he  had  an  eye  for  the 
picturesque  and  beautiful  as  well  as  for  the  fertile  and  pro 
ductive.  In  1772  he  built  the  mill  on  his  Cave  farm,  so 
called  from  a  cave  in  the  rock  that  has  never  been  thoroiighly 
explored  unless  by  a  dog  that  is  said  to  have  gone  in  at  the 
farm  and  come  out  in  Carlisle !  We  can  still  drive  along  the 
peaceful  country  road  that  Colonel  Blaine  built  for  the  farmers 
to  come  to  his  mill ;  and  a  mill  then  was  an  immediate  vital  in 
dustry.  The  mill  is  not  there,  but  the  Conodoguinet  goes  down, 
as  of  old,  past  the  place  where  the  mill-wheel  went  turning 
round  and  round,  and  curves  into  a  broad,  tranquil  stream, 
spreading  smoothly  under  the  willow  ;  and  beyond  water  and 
willow  we  see  the  pleasant  country  house  to  which  its  owner 
came  for  summer  rest,  and  whither  his  friends  drove  out  from 
the  city  for  many  a  gala  feast. 

Across  the  water,  half  hidden  by  trees  and  vines,  can  still  be 
discerned  the  black  mouth  of  the  mysterious  cave  which  gives 
its  name  to  the  place.  On  a  high  wooded  knoll  behind  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  21 

house,  but  easily  accessible  by  a  safe  road,  is  a  far  fair  view  of 
the  goodly  land  into  which  he  entered  and  took  possession, 
amply  wooded  and  watered,  framed  in  with  purple  hills,  fruit 
ful  under  a  caressing  sun. 

Joining  his  father,  or  perhaps  joined  by  his  father,  in  erecting 
and  supporting  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Carlisle,  his 
pew  in  the  church  was  steadily  occupied,  and  his  "stipend"  was 
as  regularly  found  on  the  treasurer's  list  —  among  the  highest 
contributors,  along  with  the  familiar  Byers  and  Galbraiths.  His 
children  were  reared  in  the  habit  of  attending  church,  and  of 
paying  their  share  of  money  and  of  moral  influence  in  sustain 
ing  the  institutions  of  the  gospel.  His  voice  was  wanting  in  no 
good  word,  his  hand  in  no  good  work. 

But  another  war-cloud  was  rising  in  which  the  red-coats 
were  to  be  vanquished  as  the  red-skins  had  already  been. 
Into  this  war  Ephraim  Blaine,  still  a  young  officer,  entered 
with  the  energy  of  youth,  with  the  enthusiasm  of  conviction, 
with  the  advantage  of  experience.  He  joined  at  once  in  raising 
and  officering  a  battalion  of  associators,  of  which  he  was  com 
missioned  lieutenant.  On  July  12,  1774,  a  meeting  of  the  cit 
izens  of  Cumberland  county  was  held  to  take  action  upon  the 
act  of  Parliament  closing  the  port  of  Boston.  At  that  meeting 
Colonel  Blaine,  together  with  his  old  teacher  and  friend  Francis 
Alison,  John  Armstrong,  Robert  Callender,  Jonathan  Hoge,  and 
others,  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  committee  "  to  corre 
spond  with  the  committee  of  this  province  or  of  the  other  prov 
inces  upon  the  great  objects  of  the  public  attention,  and  to 
cooperate  in  every  measure  conducing  to  the  general  welfare 
of  British  America." 

One  week  after,  he  made  his  last  return  as  sheriff  of  grand 
jurors,  and  gave  himself  wholly  to  the  greater  work.  In  De 
cember,  1775,  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  for  Cumber 
land  County  reported  to  the  Committee  of  Safety  that  they  had 
expectation  of  raising  an  entire  battalion  in  the  county  in  addi 
tion  to  the  twelve  companies  already  sent  to  the  front,  and 
among  the  officers  therefor  recommended  Ephraim  Blaine  as 
lieutenant-colonel.  The  next  month  Col.  Ephraim  Blaine,  of 
the  First  Battalion  of  Cumberland  County  Militia,  was  directed 
to  hold  an  election  for  field  officers  of  the  battalion.  But  his 


22  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

remarkable  executive  ability  had  brought  him  to  the  notice  of 
the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  and  on  April  first,  by  a  resolu 
tion  of  Congress,  Ephraim  Blaine  was  appointed  commissary  of 
provisions.  He  thereupon  resigned  his  commission  and  entered 
the  Commissary  Department. 

For  this  department  he  was  specially  fitted  by  his  superior 
business  qualifications,  his  large  personal  credit,  his  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  resources  of  the  Middle  States,  attested  by 
his  success  in  managing  his  own  private  affairs. 

August  sixth,  of  the  same  year,  lie  was  elected  deputy  com 
missary  general  of  purchases,  "  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Buchanan." 
On  the  transfer  of  Gen.  Nathaniel  Greene  to  field  service,  at 
the  personal  request  and  recommendation  of  General  Wash 
ington  he  was  made  commissary  general  of  purchases  of  the 
Northern  Department,  a  difficult  position,  demanding  not  only 
integrity,  but  infinite  patience,  prudence,  and  worldly  wisdom. 
To  this  position  he  continued  to  be  elected  and  reflected  by 
Congress. 

Colonel  Elaine's  life  thenceforth,  till  independence  was  at 
tained,  lay  in  furnishing  the  soldiers  with  food,  sometimes  to 
the  point  of  keeping  the  army  from  starving.  His  highest 
promotion  came  during  the  memorable  and  critical  winter 
of  Valley  Forge.  With  a  bankrupt  and  listless  Congress, 
with  an  army  perishing  of  hunger  and  cold,  and  saved  only  by 
the  gayety  of  the  British  officers  and  the  blandishments  of  the 
Tory  ladies  of  Philadelphia,  who  served  their  country  by  keep 
ing  the  Howes,  and  Andres,  and  Burgoynes  writing  verses  and 
dancing  Meschianzas  instead  of  going  out  in  the  snow  and  sleet 
to  destroy  Washington  and  his  remnant  at  Valley  Forge,  —  the 
terrible  winter  was  softened  and  made  tolerable  by  Colonel 
Blaine's  strenuous  exertions  in  the  service  of  his  country  and 
of  his  revered  chief  and  friend,  General  Washington. 

Every  school-child  remembers  Valley  Forge,  for  the  sufferings 
of  the  soldiers  and  the  footsteps  tracked  in  blood ;  but  every 
child  does  not  know  that  all  the  while  "-hogsheads  of  shoes, 
stockings,  and  clothing  were  lying  at  different  places  on  the 
roads  and  in  the  woods,  perishing  for  want  of  teams,  or  of 
money  to  pay  the  teamsters ; "  that  when  ordered  to  be  ready 
to  march  against  the  British,  the  army  answered  that  fighting 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  23 

would  be  preferable  to  starving.  Three  days,  reported  a 
commander,  we  "have  been  destitute  of  bread.  Two  days 
we  have  been  entirely  without  meat."  Washington  reported, 
an  "alarming  deficiency,  or  rather  total  failure,  of  supplies." 
On  the  23d  December,  1777,  he  reported :  "  Since  the  month 
of  July,  we  have  had  no  assistance  from  the  quartermaster- 
general  ;  and  to  want  of  assistance  from  this  department,  the 
commissary-general  charges  great  part  of  his  deficiency." 
"  We  have,  by  a  field  return  this  day  made,  no  less  than  two 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-eight  men  now  in  camp  unfit 
for  duty,  because  they  are  barefoot,  and  otherwise  naked." 

And  —  alas !  that  we  must  say  it  —  in  this  bitter  time 
critics  arose  to  carp  and  sting,  to  attribute  to  Washington  the 
misery  of  the  soldiers  and  the  low  estate  of  the  war.  Many 
men  in  the  region  round  about  preferred  to  send  their  grain 
to  the  British  dancing  in  Philadelphia  rather  than  to  the 
patriots  dying  at  Valley  Forge.  What  wonder  that  Wash 
ington  cherished  forever  a  tender  friendship  for  the  man  who 
stood  at  his  side  faithful  among  many  faithless ;  eager,  active, 
loyal,  helpful,  untiring,  self-suppressing,  through  that  season  of 
stress  and  test?  Back  and  forth  from  Carlisle  to  Valley  Forge, 
from  Valley  Forge  to  Carlisle,  went  Colonel  Blaine,  consult 
ing  friends  and  neighbors,  urging  the  laggard  traders  and 
farmers.  Then  it  was  seen  why  he  had  been  foreordained  a 
miller,  a  farmer,  a  tradesman.  Night  and  day,  every  mill  that 
he  owned,  every  mill  that  he  could  control  or  influence,  was 
kept  running  to  feed  the  soldiers.  He  ordered,  pleaded,  urged, 
remonstrated,  impelled.  I  have  heard  that  insistent  and  irre 
sistible  voice  bearing  down  all  opposition.  The  sore  need  of 
money  may  be  inferred  from  such  simple  facts  as  that  with 
an  estimate  of  $8,000,000  voted  for  a  year,  the  whole  sum 
actually  raised  by  the  States  during  the  first  five  months  was 
$20,000.  Out  of  his  own  means,  and  by  his  influence  over  his 
neighbors,  and  by  all  his  business  reputation  with  men  of 
means  and  affairs,  Colonel  Blaine  advanced  a  saving  fund, 
for  the  distressed  and  apparently  abandoned  army. 

At  one  time  (January,  1780)  the  Supreme  Executive  Council 
of  Pennsylvania  drew  a  single  warrant  in  his  favor  for  one 
million  of  dollars,  to  reimburse  him  for  advances  which  his  own 


24  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     I3LAINE. 

means  and  exertions  had  provided ;  and  at  another  time  a  war 
rant  for  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  was  credited 
to  him  by  the  same  authority,  in  payment  of  similar  obligations. 
And  while  he  was  gathering  in  provisions  and  pouring  out 
money  lie  was  also  hammering  away  at  Congress,  whose  jour 
nals  are  fretted  with  his  name.  April  5,  1777,  the  day  before 
his  promotion  to  the  generalship,  Congress  "  Ordered  that 
there  should  be  advanced  to  Ephraim  Elaine  Esqr.  in  part 
payment  of  the  balance  due  to  him  for  provisions  furnished  the 
troops,  and  in  advance  towards  his  furnishing  provisions  in 
consequence  of  his  late  appointment  $  15,000."  Another  time 
it  is  resolved  that  a  copy  of  the  letter  from  Ephraim  Elaine 
and  its  enclosures  be  transmitted  without  delay  to  the  several 
States,  who  are  hereby  requested  to  take  into  their  serious  con 
sideration  the  present  want  and  distress  of  the  army,  and  that 
they  furnish  and  forward,  by  means  the  most  efficacious,  the 
supplies  requested  from  them.  Even  as  early  as  1775  the 
Committee  reported  that  there  is  due  to  Ephraim  Elaine  for 
expenses  incurred  by  the  treaty  with  the  western  Indians,  and 
paid  by  him,  the  sum  of  "  533  odd  "  dollars.  There  is  a  "  Mem 
of  money  paid  sundry  persons  in  1776  when  out  with  the 
Militia."  By  1780  at  least,  Congress  opened  its  heart  to 
Colonel  Elaine,  and  "  Resolved  him  a  salary  at  the  rate  of 
$40,000  by  the  year  until  the  further  order  of  Congress,  also 
six  rations  a  day,  and  forage  for  four  horses,"  —  not  too  high 
a  salary  if  we  look  at  some  of  his  accounts : 

Feb.  14  1779  Col.  Blaine  bo't  at  vendue 
1  chafing  dish 
1  roasting  jack 

1  inaliy  [mahogany]  china  table 
1  chest  of  drawers 
1  maliy  tea  table 
1  china  bowl 
6  cups  &  saucers 

at  the  extraordinary,  if  one  may  not  say  extravagant,  price  of 
,£365  5s.  3d.1  The  "  1  mahy  tea  table,"  at  least,  is  still  in  good 
preservation,  and  is  held  in  affectionate  reverence  by  his  kin. 

aThe  pound  in  Pennsylvania  currency  was  of  the  value  of  $2.66  2-3.  The  value  of  pounds, 
shillings,  pence,  Pennsylvania  currency,  was  expressed  in  dollars  and  ninetieth  parts  of  a  dollar. 
The  penny  was  1-90,  the  shilling  12-90,  and  the  pound  240-90  of  a  dollar.  The  latter  was 
therefore  $2  60-90,  or  $2.66  2-3. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     HLAfNE.  25 

Mrs.  Irwin's  bill  for  sugar  and  coffee  is : 
274  Ibs.  of  sugar  and  112  Ibs.  of  coffee  £702-5-0,  at  $2.66|  per  £. 

1770,  John  Cox's  bill  for  a  night's  lodging  and  boarding  of 
Colonel  Blaine,  his  servant  and  two  horses,  is  <£64. 

Decemb  17.  1779.     Colo  Blum  Dr 

To  a  Mug  of  Toddy      ......£300 

Ruin  To  Sert 0  15     0 

Dinner  &  Club 400 

Quarts  of  Corn 1   10     0 

Supper 300 

Club 976 

2  Bottles  of  Clarrett 22  10     0 

Lodging 076 

Rum  To  Serv' 1  10     0 

Breakfast 300 

Ditto  for  Ser' 250 

Hay 500 

55     5     0 
One  account  is  not  so  surprising  as  the  receipt: 

Ephraim  Blaine  Esq.  bought 

1  Cag  old  spirits  10  gallons  .     .     .     .    £5  10     0 
Cag 36 


£5  13     6 

Reed  at  same  time  the  contents  in  full  for  Michael  Gratz 

ALEXK.  ABRAHAMS. 

Recd.  18th  Get— 1779  from  Eph".  Blaine  fifty  seven  thousand  Dollars 
which  I  promise  to  replace  in  two  Day 

57,000  Doll8  ROBERT  ALISON 

The  first  item  of  an  account  with  Mr.  Nichols,  but  well  after 
the  war,  is  for  "  Mhde  [merchandise]  delivered  Gen.  Wash 
ington,"  £78. 

<£31  14s.  2d.  Pennsylvania  currency  he  paid  to  Alexander 
Blaine  and  John  Holmes,  Esq.,  for  keeping  General  Morris's  gray 
horse  Ajax  through  the  winter,  by  order  of  Col.  George  Morgan, 
who  sent  him  down  from  Pittsburg. 

An  account  made  out  for  him  in  March,  1780,  by  George 
Morton,  who  was  an  assistant  in  Colonel  Elaine's  office,  is 


26  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

supplemented  with  a  note  in  Colonel  Elaine's  own  handwriting, 
whose  severity  scorches  still  through  the  century : 

SIR :  Annexed  you  have  a  statement  of  your  aect.  nearly  as  it  will  be 
settled  in  the  Creditors1  office  for  which  there  will  be  a  considerable  bal 
ance  against  you,  for  which  I  am  accountable — if  there  appears  any  error 
you  can  have  it  altered.  Mr.  Morton  knows  more  of  the  unit,  than  I  do. 
I  knew  nothing  of  Mrs.  Blaine's  being  indebted  to  you  untill  the  other  Day 
and  I  am  astonished  to  see  the  note  you  have  written  her  upon  that  subject. 
Mr.  Morton  will  regulate  the  charges  between  us  if  any  error  and  Mr. 
Russell  will  fix  the  Exchange  agreeable  to  rule.  If  money  due  to  you,  it 
shall  be  paid  and  if  the  balance  is  against  you,  I  shall  expect  it.  I  am  Sir 
Your  hble  Servt. 

Ern.  BLAINE. 

Colonel  Blaine  could  not  only  say  sharp  words  on  occasion, 
but  take  decisive  and  incisive  action,  as  the  records  show,  even 
against  Alexander  Hamilton  !  But  he  was  equally  prompt  to 
suppress  all  underhand  scheming.  Parts  of  an  interesting  little 
correspondence  between  Blaine  and  Harrison  attest  his  vigi 
lance  and  his  loyalty. 

TO   COLONEL   HARRISON. 

CAMP  1st  Jan.  1778. 

SIR  :  What  I  mentioned  to  you  yesterday,  thought  it  my  duty.  The 
person  who  gave  me  my  information  is  John  Jones,  Inn  Keeper,  near  the 
Windsor  Forge ;  he  told  me  a  Captain  Reese  belonging  to  one  of  the 
Penna.  Regiments,  his  brother  and  another  man  were  present ;  he  seemed 
a  little  guarded  in  mentioning  the  matter  to  me  and  said  he  was  astonished 
to  hear  the  gentleman  express  himself  so  publicly  ;  part  of  his  conversation 
was  to  the  effect,  that  the  General  was  not  the  man  people  imagined,  nor 
yet  the  General ;  and  that  he  was  unpardonable  for  missing  the  many 
opportunities  he  had  over  the  Enemy  ;  —  the  whole  conversation  can  be  had 
from  that  gentleman.  ...  A  very  little  time  will  discover  some  of 
those  ill-natured  malicious  men ;  he  assured  there  are  but  very  few  and  are 
preparing  weapons  to  break  their  own  heads. 

NOTE  BY  R.  B.  N.  HARRISON. 

Colonel  Blaine  in  a  conversation  the  day  preceding  the  date  of  this  letter 
told  me  General  Conway  had  said  G.  W.  —he  is  the  gentleman  alluded  to. 

General  Conway's  little  unpleasantness  at  that  time  made  it 
imperative  to  know  who  was  on  the  Lord's  side,  and  what  they 
were  doing  who  were  on  the  other  side !  In  his  intentness  Col. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    H.     RLATNE.  27 

Elaine  is  sometimes  brusque  ;  and  both  he  and  his  correspondents 
are  often  too  eager  to  be  elegant.  While  orthography  and  punc 
tuation  are  little  to  the  purpose,  I  have  supplied  both  when 
necessary  to  the  sense.  Homely  their  details  and  plain  their 
words,  but  the  place  whereon  they  wrought  is  holy  ground  : 

PHILADELPHIA,  March  Hi,  I77'.i. 

Busy  collecting  food  —  will  go  as  far  as  Winchester  in  Virginia.  Mv 
doubt  about  being  able  to  procure  a  plentiful  supply  of  Flour  for  our 
coming  is  very  great — there  are  near  seven  months  before  we  can  have- 
any  relief  from  the  Crops  now  in  the  Ground,  and  indeed  sorry  I  am  to 
inform  you  that  the  scarcity  of  grain  is  not  so  real  as  artificial.  Extortion 
seems  generally  to  prevail  with  mankind  —  some  from  a  desire  of  obtaining 
large  prices  hold  back  from  sale  —  others  from  disaffection  and  dislike  to 
our  currency. 

TO   ROBERT   L.    HOOPER,   JUN.,  ESQ., 
A.C.  OF  PURCHASES  AT  EASTON. 

12th.  I  am  afraid  of  Our  Salted  Provisions  Spoiling.  See  that  yours 
is  in  proper  Order  and  the  pickle  Sound.  —  One  Weeks  Neglect  may  occa 
sion  considerable  loss  in  that  Article  — 

16th.  "  Am  exceeding  sorry  to  find  that  there  is  the  least  Appearance  of 
any  of  your  Beef  spoiling,  it  will  be  a  great  loss,  and  give  the  malicious 
Room  to  charge  us  with  Neglect.  Let  every  Measure  be  adopted  to  pre 
serve  it —  believe  Severe  smoking  will  be  the  best  but  first  have  it  clear 
drained  from  the  Old  pickle  —  and  make  a  Strong  fresh  Pickle,  which  let 
it  lay  in,  twelve  Hours  before  you  hang  it 

24th  —  The  Acco'  I  have  received  of  Your  Salt  Provisions  being  Spoiled 
distresses  me  exceedingly.  Jt  will  oblige  us  to  buy  fresh  Beef  before  it  is 
fit  to  Use  ;  and  at  a  most  extravagant  Price,  and  exclusive  of  the  great  Loss 
the  publick  will  Sustain  it  will  occasion  great  Clamour  with  many  people — 

July  1st — I  have  had  Letters  from  the  Commissary  Gen1  of  Purchases 
and  Issues,  and  from  General  Sullivan  —  who  has  also  wrote  the  Board  of 
War  —  that  all  the  Salt  Provisions  are  Spoiled  —  beg  to  hear  from  you  by 
very  first  Express  — 

PRINCE  Toux  -J9lh  Jan'.,  1780  — 

SIR  :  I  have  done  all  in  my  Power  to  Obtain  Money  from  the  Treasury 
board  for  the  use  of  my  Department  but  have  been  disappointed  —  The 
Treasury  being  exhausted  of  the  Monies  limited  and  the  taxes  coming  in 
very  slow  —  have  Obliged  Congress  to  delay  payment  of  Large  sums 
wantd,  for  the  Commissary  and  Quarter  Master's  Department  —  I  have  not 
been  able  to  Obtain  a  sum  Necessary  for  the  present  Demands  of  my 
assistants  in  the  vicinity  of  Camp  for  the  daily  supplies  of  our  Army  at 
Head  Quarters  —  You  must  therefore  wait  till  Congress  have  it  in  their 


28  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JANES    G.     ELAINE. 

power  to  Obtain  money  by  tax  and  dispose  of  bill  of  Exchange  which  they 
are  now  about  selling,  —  without  the  Immediate  wants  of  the  Garrison  at 
Fort  Pitt,  call  your  attention.  In  that  case  you  will  make  Immediate 
application  to  the  Treasury  Board  for  a  sum  of  money  sufficient  to  make 
the  Necessary  Purchases  in  your  District,  for  the  above  purpose,  and  I 
make  no  doubt  they  will  furnish  you  with  it.  I  am  now  on  my  way  to 
New  England;  when  \  return  shall  give  you  every  Assistance  in  my 
Power,  and  am  with  much  regard  Sir 

Your  most  Obd1. 
and  most 

Hble  Serv', 

EPH  ELAINE  C.G.P 

PETARABAII  1".  of  May  1780 
SIR 

I  received  yours  of  the  16th.  of  April  and  have  noted  the  contents  — 
about  that  time  I  will  be  with  you  and  have  been  as  ready  some  time  past 
as  I  now  am.  —  Wou^d  request  you  to  use  your  influence  to  send  Mr.  Darah 
down  to  Elk  as  it  will  require  a  few  days  yet,  to  compleat  my  AcctB  — 
Some  ace18.  I  believe  I  never  shall  get  settled  as  people  are  not  disposed  to 
receive  such  money  as  I  have  to  pay  them,  and  we  have  no  tender  law  for 
any  species  but  hard  Stuff — Do  tell  Monsieur  the  French  Agent  if  he 
wants  any  Supplies  of  the  Victual  kind  fo  his  fleets  or  Armies,  I  am  his 
man,  provided  he  will  furnish  plenty  of  Gold  —  God  knows  I  have  made 
a  pretty  hard  time  past,  the  whole  of  my  Commission  not  worth  one 
Damn.  — 

I  am  with  Esteem  Sr 

Your  Obed'.  Serv*. 

PATRICK  EWING  — 
COL°.  EPHRAIM  BLAINE  — 

Philadelphia,  25th  May,  1780,  records  : 

Executive  and  Legislative  objection  to  his  plans  for  supplies.  He 
insists,  they  give  in. 

Philadelphia,  27th  May,  1780,  he  reports  that  he  will  send 
one  thousand  barrels  of  flour  soon : 

Be  assured  of  my  utmost  exertions  in  adopting  ways  and  means  to 
procure  supplies  t.ho'  I  am  loaded  with  debt  and  have  not  had  a  shilling 
this  two  months. 

TO  COL.  BLAINE. 

SPRINGFIELD  10  August  1780 
SIR 

I  receved  yours  of  9  today.  1  should  long  er  now  have  Settled  but 
having  a  Suit  out  ditermoned  that  I  brought  against  a  Miller  for  what  you 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  29 

are  pleased  to  call  frond  I  could  not  Settle  my  accounts  before  it  was  done 
I  purpose  to  be  with  you  in  a  few  days 

ANSWER. 
SIR 

Admitting  the  causes  above  stated,  it  was  your  indispensable  duty  to 
have  acquainted  me  with  the  circumstance  of  the  Miller,  which  you  urge 
as  an  apology  for  your  neglect,  and  by  such  information  you  would  have 
saved  me  the  trouble  of  writing  upon  such  a  disagreeable  subject  as  that 
of  embezzlement,  — 

The  performance  of  Colonel  Elaine's  duties  carried  him 
throughout  Pennsylvania,  and  from  New  England  to  the  Caro- 
liuas,  and  it  is  pleasant  sometimes  to  find  him  at  old  Donegal 
with  his  intimate  stanch  friend  Colonel  Lowrey,  whose 
home,  "Locust  Grove,"  stood  on  the  sunniest  slope  of  the 
Susquehanna,  a  half  mile  from  its  bank.  He  had  come  from 
the  north  of  Ireland  when  about  six  years  old.  He  had  been 
Colonel  Elaine's  companion  on  the  Bouquet  expedition,  he  had 
marched  with  General  Forbes  to  Duquesne,  and  had  escaped 
with  his  life  from  the  massacre  of  Bloody  run ;  more  happy 
than  his  brother  John,  who  had  been  killed  by  the  Indians  at 
the  "  Forks  of  the  Ohio,"  in  1750.  Both  land-lovers  and  land 
owners,  both  Indian  traders  of  many  years'  standing,  with  Indian 
trading-stores  in  Carlisle,  Colonel  Lowrey  and  Colonel  Blaine 
were  not  only  sentimental  friends  in  Donegal,  with  fresh 
Scotch-Irish  reminiscences,  but  hard-headed  business  friends  in 
the  world  of  money-making,  co-patriots  in  the  great  cause  of 
independence,  and  intimate  and  sympathetic  in  all.  Colonel 
Lowrey,  too,  had  become  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  war, 
and  distinguished  himself  by  his  bravery,  his  fidelity,  and  his 
sagacity.  His  home  on  the  river  nearly  opposite  Anderson's 
ferry  was  on  the  great  line  of  travel,  and  during  the  war  shel 
tered  many  officers  despatched  on  important  business  to  and 
from  headquarters.  When  Congress  was  in  session  at  York, 
many  distinguished  people  who  had  dealings  there  stopped 
over  at  Colonel  Lowrey's.  Sometimes  when  the  ice  prevented 
the  boats  from  passing,  the  travellers  were  detained  for  days, 
and  the  hospitable  owner  drew  liberally  upon  his  large  flocks 
of  turkeys  for  the  sustenance  and  good  cheer  of  his  friends. 
It  is  pleasant  to  think  of  neighborly  festivities  relieving  the 


30  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

stern  tension  of  war,  and  the  ample  rooms  of  the  hospitable 
Lowrey  house  echoing  between  the  roar  and  rush  of  battle  the 
inextinguishable  laughter  of  the  gods. 

They  had  need  to  hearten  each  other  in  Donegal,  for 
the  Pennsylvania  Quakers,  if  patriotic,  were  non-combatant. 
While  Howe  and  Cornwallis  could  get  no  forage  in  the  country 
around  New  York,  because  it  was  so  closely  watched  by  that 
arch-rebel  George  Washington  and  his  handful  of  starveling 
soldiers,  the  hills  and  valleys  of  Pennsylvania  mocked  them  with 
rich  granaries.  Bertram  Galbraith,  son  of  James,  therefore 
cousin  to  Rebecca  Galbraith  Blaine,  brought  the  battalions 
of  Donegal  and  the  country  to  arms;  but  the  non-combatants 
resisted  arms,  and  kept  Colonel  Galbraith  and  Colonel  Lowrey 
in  the  saddle  day  and  night,  arresting  the  rebellious,  encourag 
ing  the  loyal,  throwing  the  ring-leaders  into  jail  by  way  of  in 
timidation,  bailing  them  out  again  by  way  of  conciliation,  and 
giving  their  own  personal  obligation  to  the  farmers  for  payment 
of  forage  and  cattle  taken  for  the  use  of  the  army. 

On  a  Sunday  morning,  Colonel  Galbraith  sent  "an  express  to 
Donegal  to  Colonel  Lowrey  to  call  out  his  Donegalians  against 
the  advancing  British.  The  express  arrived  at  the  meeting 
house  during  service.  The  congregation  immediately  adjourned 
to  the  grove,  and  the  men  joined  hands  in  a  circle  around  one 
of  the  big  trees,  since  called  "  The  Witness  Tree,"  and  pledged 
themselves  anew  to  the  sacred  cause  of  freedom. 

Their  beloved  Scotch  minister,  Colin  McFarquhar,  had  not 
been  in  the  country  quite  long  enough  to  establish  a  clear 
record,  so  they  sweetly  forced  him  inside  the  circle  and  made 
him  take  off  his  hat  and  hurrah  for  the  Continental  cause, 
which  he  did  with  as  good  grace  as  possible,  whatever  may 
have  been  his  predilections,  and  lived  among  them  in  love  for 
many  years  thereafter  ;  while  Colonel  Lowrey  marched  on  with 
his  men  to  the  front,  and  when  they  could  find  no  red-coats 
for  a  target,  amused  themselves  by  firing  at  tavern-signs  which 
bore  any  relation  to  the  tyrant  George,  till  they  reached  the 
Brandywine,  where  the  joking  ceased. 

Washington  lost  at  Brandywine,  and  Gates  won  at  Saratoga. 
And  when,  forgetting  Schuyler,  he  came  down  from  Saratoga 
to  persuade  Congress  that  he  alone  had  won  the  battle  from 


niOUHArilY     OF    JAMKH    (/.     ULAINE.  81 

Burgoyne,  and  deserved  to  be  put  over  the  head  of  Washington, 
Colonel  Lowrey  met  him  on  the  river-banks,  as  a  loyal  brother- 
officer  needs  must,  and  having,  manlike,  bidden  him  to  his 
house,  hurried  up  apace  to  inquire  too  late  of  Mistress  Lowrey, 
"  My  dear,  can  you  entertain  company  to-day  ? "  "  No,  my 
dear,"  emphatically  protested  the  good  housewife,  "there  is 
nothing  —  "  'Sh  !  don't  say  a  word  !  "  interrupted  the  colonel, 
in  no  stage  whisper.  "  They  are  right  at  my  heels  !  v  Mrs.  Gates 
was  among  them,  and  the  little  girl  who  nestled  shyly  in  a 
corner  and  absorbed  everything  with  eager  eyes,  to  transmit  it  to 
this  generation,  remembered  even  the  ribbons  the  lady  wore ; 
but,  alas  !  she  transmitted  them  to  a  male  child,  and,  for  all  he 
can  tell  of  their  color  or  texture  or  fashioning,  they  might  as 
well  have  been  torn  to  tatters  in  Burgoyne's  defeat ! 

Gates  had  good  cheer  at  the  Lowrey  house,  but  Washington 
remained  at  the  head  of  the  army. 

Ah !  what  eager  ambitions,  what  high  hopes,  what  bitter 
rivalries,  what  splendid  determination  and  heroism,  have  trav 
elled  up  and  down  that  beautiful  slope  to  the  Susquehanna,  in 
the  old  days  when  the  slope  was  un vexed  with  houses,  and 
nothing  lay  between  the  home  and  the  majestic  river  but  the 
green  turf  or  the  unbroken  snow  ! 

The  lady  of  the  manor  was  as  heroic  as  there  was  any  call 
for ;  witness  the  courtesy  with  which  she  perforce  opened  her 
house  to  her  Gates  guests  and  made  them  welcome;  but  she 
also  loved  ornamentation  and  beauty,  and  Colonel  Lowrey 
being  away  when  she  was  ordering  the  trappings  of  her  new 
carriage,  she  innocently  enough  bespoke  a  coat-of-arms  to  be 
thereon  emblazoned,  meaning  no  treason,  only  decoration  ;  but 
when  the  colonel  came  home  and  saw  the  accursed  thing,  thun 
der  gathered  on  his  brows.  "  Bring  me  a  hatchet,"  he  com 
manded  a  waiting  servant.  The  hatchet  was  brought,  and  the 
pretty  bauble  was  hacked  off  the  carriage  and  buried  by  his 
own  hands,  and  no  man  knoweth  of  its  sepulchre  to  this  day. 

Colonel  Blaine's  children  were  too  young  to  serve  him  ex 
cept  through  their  bright  spirits,  their  fresh  interest,  and  the 
inspiration  of  their  free  future  beckoning.  He  was  but  thirty- 
four.  To  his  little  boys  of  seven  and  nine  the  war  was  but 
a  wide  playground  ;  but  his  brothers  Alexander  and  William 


32  HIOORAPIIY    OF    JAME8     O.     ItLAINE. 

were  his  loyal  and  able  assistants,  both  active  officers,  the 
former  in  his  own  department,  Assistant  Commissary  of  Issues. 
Alexander  is  represented  through  his  daughters  in  our  genera 
tion  by  his  descendant,  Judge  Shiras,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  by 
the  Hon.  Robert  J.  Walker,  and  until  within  a  few  years  by 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Anderson,  who,  Hearing  her  one  hundredth 
birthday,  carried  into  our  time  her  tall  figure,  her  striking 
presence,  and  traces  of  the  great  reputed  beauty  which  had 
made  her  young  days  brilliant. 

An  account  of  provisions  issued  to  the  Seventh  Pennsylvania 
Regiment,  detachments,  artificers,  wagoners,  etc.,  at  Carlisle, 
from  January  to  September,  1777,  by  Alexander  Blaine,  Assist 
ant  Commissary  of  Issues,  beautifully  ruled  and  written  by  his 
own  hand,  has  escaped  destruction,  to  show  that  our  patriot 
army  disposed  of  109,4034  Ibs.  of  bread  to  116,552  "Jills"  of 
"  Rum  or  Whiskey/' 

Alexander  Blaine  had  also  been  fitted  for  the  work  by  an 
excellent  education,  and  by  long  experience  in  business  affairs. 
So  early  as  1768,  when  he  could  have  been  hardly  more  than 
twenty-five  years  old,  he  received  from  the  Hon.  John  Penn, 
Esq.,  his  certificate  of  character  and  license  to  trade  with  the 
Indian  nations  and  tribes. 

To  the  wonderful  triumphant  end  of  the  war,  Ephraim 
Blaine  held  his  even  course,  strong,  sustained,  effective, 
untouched  by  envy,  unmoved  by  calumny,  unswerving  under 
opposition,  loyal  to  his  chief,  loyal  to  his  cause,  marshalling 
his  inglorious  flour  and  whiskey  for  the  preservation  of  life 
as  strenuously  as  if  he  had  been  intrusted  with  the  glory  of 
battle.  And  presently  even  the  dates  of  his  severe  business 
letters  and  the  dry  terms  of  his  orders  and  despatches  are 
musical  with  the  notes,  fragrant  with  the  blossoms,  of  approach 
ing  peace. 

PUBLIC  SERVICE. 
YORK  TOWN  30th.  May  1781, 
COLONEL  JAMES  WOOD 

Commanding  the  Convention  troops,  Lancaster. 
DEAR  SIR 

I  am  ordered  by  the  board  of  War  to  make  Provisions  for  the  Convention 
troops  and  their  guards  amounting  to  near  three  thousand  men,  and  have 
it  laid  in  at  convenient  places  upon  the  route  in  which  the  are  Ordered  to 


OF    JAMEK    d.     11LAINK.  ?> 

march  —  I  have  already  given  the  necessary  Orders  and  the  places  of  de 
posit  between  Frederick  Town  and  North  river  is  this  place,  Reading 
Easton,  Sussex  Court  House,  and  Fishkill  Landing  —  Flour  and  Whiskey 
will  be  procured  but  have  reason  to  doubt  a  difficulty  in  Obtaining  meat  — 
I  shall  Employ  some  person,  who  will  meet  you  at  this  places,  and  give 
attention  to  the  supply  of  those  troops  untill  they  reach  Rutland  in  Massa 
chusetts  Bav —  I  am  now  upon  my  way  to  Carlisle  where  T  shall  remain  a 
few  days.  If  you  cou'd  inform  me  the  time  you  expect  to  reach  this  place 
will  do  my  self  the  honor  of  waiting  upon  you  — 

COL.  WOOD. 

Commanding  the  Convention  Prisoners  : 

READING  17lh  June  1781, 
DEAR  SIR 

I  expected  to  have  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  at  this  place  but  am 
disappointed.  Captain  Alexander,  the  person  whom  I  have  appointed  to 
attend  the  Convention  Troops  upon  their  March  to  the  Eastward  and  use 
every  endeavour  in  his  power  to  procure  supplies  at  the  sundry  ports  upon 
the  route,  and  attend  to  your  Orders  and  Instructions,  upon  meeting  the 
Hessians  troops  in  Marsh  Creek,  and  thinking  you  would  be  up  Immedi 
ately  did  not  proceed  but  returned  with  them  to  this  place,  where  he  will 
remain  untill  he  hears  from  you.  He  is  a  Gentleman  on  whom  you  may 
rely,  and  will  closely  attend  to  your  Instructions  and  put  every  part  of 
them  into  execution 


That  his  even  course  was  sustained  only  by  loyalty  to  his 
chief  and  his  cause  is  occasionally  seen.  u  Please  your  Excel 
lency,"  he  wrote  from  Philadelphia  the  year  before,  "  it  has  not 
been  in  my  power  to  obtain  a  single  shilling  of  money  from  the 
Treasury  Board :  My  people  are  so  much  indebted  that  their 
credit  is  quite  exhausted  with  the  Country.  .  .  .  The  treasury 
being  exhausted,  my  Agents  greatly  involved,  the  delay  of  our 
public  nuances  and  the  general  change  in  the  system  of  the 
Quartermaster  and  Commissary-General  departments  has  made 
my  office  one  of  the  most  disagreeable  man  ever  experienced. 
Indeed  nothing  would  induce  me  to  continue  under  present 
appearances  but  the  duty  I  owe  my  country  and  regard  to  your 
Excellency,  which  ever  shall  be  motives  to  command  my  best 
services  and  surmount  every  other  difficulty." 


34  niOUKAPHY     OF    JAMES    (,'.     HLALVM. 


TTT. 

COLONEL  ELAINE'S  PEACEFUL  YEARS. 

COLONEL  BLAINE  came  out  of  the  war  still  a  young  man, 
his  eye  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated.  Instantly  he 
took  up  again  with  undiminished  ardor,  promptitude,  and  effect 
iveness  all  the  old  business  of  life  —  trade,  lands,  exchange  ;  all 
the  old  pleasures  of  life,  social  and  domestic.  The  establishment 
of  Congress  in  Philadelphia,  with  his  revered  friend  General 
Washington,  at  the  head  of  the  government,  made  that  city 
the  social  centre  of  the  new  nation,  and  Colonel  Elaine 
availed  himself  of  its  advantages  as  far  as  possible  by  making 
Philadelphia  his  winter  home,  and  taking  his  full  share  in 
its  duties  and  festivities.  His  fortune  had  been  impaired,  or 
at  least  diminished,  by  his  generous  contributions  to  the 
patriot  cause,  but  it  was  still  ample  for  a  gentle  and  wide 
hospitality,  for  the  best  rearing  of  his  children,  and  for  the 
demands,  small  or  great,  of  an  extensive  business. 

FROM  COLONEL  BLAINE,  FORT  PITT  25th.  Novr.  1783 
To  MR.  WILLIAM  BELL,  Merchant,  Philadelphia: 

DEAR  SIR 

I  have  this  moment  returned  from  being  up  the  Monongahala  River  in 
pursuit  of  One  of  the  Deputy  Surveyors  —  and  fortunately  met  with  Col°. 
Marshall  who  has  Fayette  County  which  Extends  from  the  Mouth  of  Sandy 
River  to  Kaintuck,  and  back  to  the  Mountains.  I  have  Obtaind  a  depu 
tation  for  M'  Lyon  who  goes  with  me  as  a  Surveyor  —  Mr  Marshall  has 
o-iven  me  bad  Encouragement  Respecting  Vacant  lands  —  however  I  shall 
proceed  on  Friday  Morning  and  adopt  every  possible  measure  to  accom 
plish  my  business.  I  shall  have  excessive  fituage  and  do  not  Expect  it 
will  be  in  my  Tower  to  return  before  the  last  of  February  —  After  I  reach 
the  Mduth  of  sandy  River  and  Explore  that  Country  and  locate  my  lands 
I  will  have  to  ride  One  hundred  &  fifty  Miles  to  Mr  Marshalls  Otfice  to 
Enter  them.  This  will  take  considerable  time,  then  after  the  surveys  are 
made  I  must  return  them  and  have  the  drafts  signed  and  Certified.  Mr 
Elliot  has  been  gone  some  days.  When  he  has  his  business  a  little  settled 


11 10(1  It  AT  II  r    OF    JAMKX    (,'.     1U,AINK.  35 

at  the  falls  he  will  proceed  to  Green  River  and  endeavour  to  lay  the 
warrants  I  have  sent  with  him.  You  will  be  so  kind  as  to  hury  up  the 
goods  which  I  wrote  for  by  Mr  Tate  and  Rather  add  to  the  list  as  many  of 
the  articles  are  much  wanted.  Speak  to  Mr  Ludhom  Mr  A  &  Co  and 
tell  them  to  keep  my  note  untill  I  return  at  which  time  they  shall  be  punctu 
ally  paid  with  Interest — You  will  much  Oblige  me  in  paying  Mr.  Gren 
the  Waggoner  who  Brought  up  part  of  my  goods  the  sum  of  fifty  pounds, 
and  I  forgot  to  settle  with  Mr.  Galaugher  in  record  that  for  some  delph 
ware  which  I  bought  from  him.  Pray  will  you  pay  him.  Pray  endeavour 
to  have  our  Indian  cargo  early  in  the  Summer  there  will  be  a  great  demand. 
I  shall  have  a  very  Considerable  Remmittance  to  carry  down  with  me  upon 
my  Return  in  money  and  piltry  — 

You  will  please  to  pay  attention  to  my  family,  and  should  my  son 
Return  from  France  before  I  come  home,  I  shall  take  it  a  very  particular 
favour  if  you  will  make  it  your  business  to  See  him  often  and  give  him 
your  friendly  advice.  He  is  an  unweildy  boy  and  will  stand  in  much  need 
of  it,  splease  to  present  my  Compliments  to  M".  Bell  and  believe  me  with 
much  Reguard  Dear  Sir 
MR  BELL. 

And  being  at  Fort  Pitt  he  improved  the  occasion  to  turn  an 
honest  penny,  for  we  find  a  conveyance  to  him  of  three  lots  in 
the  cit}r  of  Pittsburg,  by  John  Perm,  Esq.,  and  John  Perm,  Jr., 
—  grandson  and  great-grandson  of  William  Perm,  late  proprie 
taries  of  Pennsylvania. 

PHILADA.  26th  Apl.  1785 
GENTLEMEN 

we  find  by  information  you  have  not  been  able  to  dispose  of  the  goods 
you  had  from  us  neither  have  you  paid  us  the  money  agreable  to  Contract. 
We  have  therefore  sent  Mr.  Alexander  Blame  to  act  for  us  with  full  power 
to  receive  from  you  the  debt  due  to  us  —  We  think  from  the  best  Informa 
tion  you  cannot  proceed  to  Canada  without  the  greatest  danger  of  losing 
your  property,  and  therefore  deprive  you  of  your  good  intentions  (paying 
what  you  owe)  by  losing  verry  Considerably  on  your  adventure  and  put- 
ing  it  out  of  your  power  to  pay  at  a  future  day.  Mr.  Blaine  has  full  power 
and  authority  to  dispose  off  John  Laurnan  One  third  of  the  Cargo  for  cash 
or  piltry  upon  such  terms  as  he  may  think  prudent;  shoud  he  fail  in  this, 
he  has  special  instructions  to  Bring  the  goods  back  to  this  City,  we  there 
fore  advise  you  to  put  the  property  into  his  hands  to  sell  what  he  can  at 
Skenactady  for  Cash  or  peltry,  and  what  he  can  not  sell  to  bring  back  to 
this  City  where  they  may  be  sold  with  Little  or  no  loss  and  the  neat  pro 
ceeds  thereof  go  to  your  Credit.  We  again  Repeat  to  you  the  danger  in 
attempting  to  proceed  from  where  you  now  are,  as  we  have  undoubted 
information  of  the  Risque  and  the  property  is  too  Valuable  to  be  triffled 
with,  and  we  must  also  expect  punctuality  of  payment  in  a  very  short  time 


'><>  niodHAPiiy    or  .IAMKS   c.    HLAJXK 

—  We  also  think  your  Own  prudence  will  Immediately  Aequiese  with  the 
plan  we  have  proposed,  therefore  have  not  a  Doubt  of  your  Complying  in 
Opinion  and  doing  every  thing  for  your  own  advantage,  as  also  for  Gen 
tleman 

your  Obd'.  Hble  Serv'. 
P  Post 
To  GENL.  IRVINE. 

PHILADA.  Sept.  1787 
DEAR  SIR 

You  will  be  much  surprised  to  find  I  have  been  in  Philadelphia  ever 
since  you  left  it.  My  friend  Stewart  &  self  have  differed  and  have  been 
in  equal  distress  for  want  of  money,  indeed  he  has  been  very  diffident.  I 
could  say  a  groat  deal  but  shall  Omit  it  respecting  him.  I  would  have 
wrote  you  long  ere  this  but  the  perplexity  I  have  been  under  owing  to  this 
Virginia  affair  has  given  me  much  trouble  and  distress  —  Mr.  Pollock  has 
agreed  with  Mr.  Hamilton  for  Bird's  place  and  goes  up  in  a  day  or  two. 
He  has  taken  it  at  the  Stiff  Price.  I  had  a  good  deal  of  trouble  before  I  got 
them  to  a  Compromise  —  the  Convention  are  still  siting  and  perhaps  will 
not  break  up  this  month  yet,  various  are  the  Conjectures  Respecting  their 
deliberations.  Some  people  take  upon  them  to  say  that  the  Legislative 
branches  of  the  Respective  States  will  not  be  trusted  with  the  final  deter 
mination,  but  that  a  Convention  of  the  people  at  large  will  take  place  and 
that  their  delegates  will  have  the  finishing  of  the  business  —  and  I  am  of 
Opinion  it  will  answer  best,  as  the  prejudices  of  party  will  not  prevail  so 
powerfully  as  in  the  different  assemblys  — 

Pray  how  does  your  new  Government  come  on,  and  are  your  Officers  of 
Gover'  yet  appointed?  The  sale  you  have  made  is  a  Large  One.  I  know 
all  the  Boundaries  Except  the  town  North  of  Siota,  within  those  Lines  the 
Eastern  Gentry  have  secured  a  very  Valuable  tract  of  Country,  as  I  sup 
pose  they  will  have  all  the  Valuable  Lands  upon  Muskingum,  Hackhack- 
ing,  and  the  North  side  of  Siota  —  I  hope  they  have  given  a  Dollar  per  lot. 
1  wish  I  had  One  Township  wrhich  I  could  Locate  at  that  price  (within  their 
claim)  indeed  I  might  say  fifty.  Pray  favour  me  with  a  Line  upon  that 
Subject  &  who  are  supposed  to  be  the  Officers.  I  have  been  informed  the 
Candidates  who  are  in  Nomination  for  Governor,  are  Gen  S'.  Clair,  Gen1 
Parsons,  and  your  self.  I  should  suppose  the  appointment  of  Gen.  Parsons 
would  be  impolotick  as  he  is  one  of  the  Principle  Proprietors  concearned 
in  the  purchase,  and  it  would  be  giving  him  an  undue  influence  which 
might  be  attended  with  evil  Consequences.  This  is  an  idea  which  has 
struck  me  in  thinking  on  the  matter,  therefore  suppose  Congress  will  have 
the  same  Opinion  and  that  the  appointment  will  rest  between  you  and  the 
President. 

I  find  you  are  disposed  to  sell  some  ranges  of  Lots  in  the  Course  of  this 
month.  Pray  can  you  lay  your  hands  upon  a  few  thousand  Acres,  if  they 
are  sold  in  tracts  of  640  lots,  for  Instance  the  Mingo  Bottom.  There  is  a 
Valuable  tract  of  Land  upon  the  Ohio  River  about  fourteen  Miles  below 
Wheeling,  at  the  Mouth  of  a  Creek  Called  Captina  I  wish  you  could 


ELEANOR    BLAINE. 


r   or  JAMKS   <;.    IILAIVK.  :>7 

purchase  live  or  Six  Lots  at  this  place  to  include  the  Mouth  of  said  Creek 
and  Extend  an  Equal  distance  up  &  down  the  river.  The  Land  is  Valua 
ble  and  would  command  a  price  in  a  short  time.  I  will  Join  you  in  the 
purchase,  I  shall  leave  the  City  in  a  day  or  two,  and  you  will  not  see  me 
untill  I  return  from  Kentuckey 

My  Son  has  been  home  above  two  weeks;  he  knew  nothing  of  your 
being  in  New  York  altho  he  was  two  days  in  that  place,  and  called  at  Mr. 
Elsworths  to  get  Lodging.  He  promises  to  be  a  Cleaver  Likely  fellow, 
and  I  hope  will  do  well.  Tf  you  have  any  thing  to  do  in  that  Xew  Coun 
try,  I  wou'd  wish  to  get  him  an  Apointment,  such  as  his  Capacity  might  be 
equal  to,  say  Secretary,  or  what  Else  you  please, 


His  children  were  indeed  growing  into  maturity,  companion 
ship,  and  support.  His  two  sons  had  received  a  liberal  educa 
tion,  and  had  become  handsome  and  accomplished  gentlemen, 
known  in  life  and  to  be  remembered  long  after  they  had  left  it 
for  their  distinguished  bearing  and  social  graces.  Both  followed 
their  father  into  mercantile  pursuits,  including  also  traffic  in 
lands.  James,  the  eldest,  named  for  his  father's  father,  had  been 
sent  abroad  for  special  professional  training  to  Bordeaux,  and 
for  further  travel  and  wider  acquaintance  with  the  world.  Sou 
venirs  of  his  tour  yet  remain  to  his  great-great-grandchildren. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  the  young  gentleman  developed  abroad 
a  greater  fondness  for  society  than  for  business,  which  is  not 
improbable  considering  his  age,  for  he  was  not  seventeen  when 
he  returned  from  his  first  trip,  and  a  very  young  man  when  he 
returned  from  his  second.  John  Bannister  Gibson,  the  illus 
trious  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania, 
wrote  that  "James  Blaine,  at  the  time  of  his  return  from  Europe, 
was  considered  to  be  among  the  most  accomplished  and  finest- 
looking  gentlemen  in  Philadelphia,  then  the  centre  of  fashion, 
elegance,  and  learning  on  this  continent.  His  reputation  as  a 
model  gentleman  was  honorably  sustained  throughout  life.''  He 
and  his  brother  Robert  entered  upon  business  together  in  Car 
lisle,  and  gradually  came  into  the  management  of  their  father's 
affairs  as  well  as  their  own.  John  Adams,  President  of  the 
United  States,  willing  to  do  Colonel  Blaine  a  service,  nomi 
nated  his  son  James  as  captain  in  the  United  States  Infantry. 
Domestic  joys  came  to  crown  their  success.  Both  married 
young  and  married  happily  in  their  own  sphere  of  life.  The 


38  HKHiliAI'Hr    OF    .IAMKS     (,'.     ItLAINK. 

wife  of  the  eldest  was  Jane  Hoge,  daughter  of  David  Hoge,  Esq., 
a  public-spirited  citizen,  whose  name  is  closely  identified  with 
the  upbuilding  of  civilization  in  both  eastern  and  western 
Pennsylvania.  He  had  relinquished  the  sheriff's  office  to 
Colonel  Elaine  the  year  after  his  daughter's  birth,  and  threw 
in  his  interests,  though  not  his  residence,  to  the  formation  of 
Washington. 

December  22,  1791,  Robert  married  Susanna,  daughter  of 
Paul  Metzer,  of  McAllister's  town,  now  Hanover.  Their  happy 
home  in  Carlisle,  and  on  the  Cave  farm,  is  still  represented  not 
only  in  tradition,  but  in  living  charm  and  force. 

It  was  no  doubt  in  view  of  these  marriages  that  Colonel 
Elaine  bought  the  Middlesex  estate  which  became  so  dear  to 
him. 

It  had  happened,  in  the  order  of  events,  that  his  old  friend 
Robert  Callender,  who  had  been  his  surety  when  he  assumed 
the  office  of  sheriff,  died  in  1776,' leaving  by  will  his  Middlesex 
estate  to  his  son  Robert  Callender,  then  a  minor.  Fifteen  years 
afterwards  the  property  was  sold  from  this  son  at  sheriff's  sale, 
Robert  Euchanan  being  the  sheriff,  and  Ephraim  Elaine  Avas 
minded  to  buy  it.  In  the  deed  which  conveyed  it  to  him, 
Oct.  12,  1791,  it  is  described  as  containing  "  563  as  139  prs." 
called  "  Middlesex,"  with  fifty  acres  adjoining.  At  an  earlier 
date  it  had  belonged  to  the  Chambers  family,  and  as  James 
Galbraith's  wife,  Mrs.  Ephraim  Elaine's  great-grandmother,  was 
a  Chambers,  it  is  not  improbable  that  in  reverting  to  her  the 
estate  had  come  to  its  own  again. 

In  1792  the  father,  James  Elaine,  passed  away  from  earth, 
well  stricken  in  years.  He  had  lived  through  the  storm 
and  stress  of  Indian  and  civil  war,  supporting  his  sons  with 
his  patriotism,  and  rejoicing  with  them  in  the  triumph  of 
the  cause  which  all  upheld  with  all  their  strength,  the  one 
giving  to  it  the  blessing  and  approval  of  his  patriarchal  years, 
the  others  their  prime  and  power.  He  had  lived  to  see  that 
his  experiment  of  a  change  of  home  had  not  been  a  mistake. 
For  the  petty  restrictions  of  the  British  government  and  the 
consequent  exasperations  and  hardships,  he  had  come  into  a 
land  where  freedom  was  limited  only  by  the  laws  which  he 
and  his  wise  compeers  had  made  in  their  wisdom,  and  where 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  39 

possessions  were  limited  only  by  the  ability  of  brain  and  hand 
and  honor.  He  had  been  able  to  rear  his  children  in  com 
fort  to  intelligence  and  self-respect,  and  he  saw  them,  all  but 
the  one  who  had  gone  before  him,  clothed  in  the  sovereign 
power  of  self-governing  citizens,  held  in  esteem  by  the  republic 
which  they  had  served.  Surely  he  could  wrap  the  drapery  of 
his  couch  about  him  and  lie  down,  not  to  pleasant  dreams,  for 
dreams  were  no  part  of  the  faith  of  Scotch  Presbyterians.  Their 
creed  was  110  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of.  They  died 
under  contract  with  God,  in  full  expectation  that  he  would,  and 
moral  demand  that  he  should,  grant  them  immortal  life  in  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

James  Elaine's  will  made  no  bequest  to  his  eldest  son,  to  whom 
he  had  already  given  great  gifts,  but  commended  his  family  and 
his  estate  to  the  care  of  that  beloved  and  trusted  son. 

A  deeper  sorrow  came  to  the  family  the  next  year  —  deeper, 
because  not  in  line  with  nature's  intent.  A  large  business  at 
that  time  was  carried  on  between  Carlisle  and  New  Orleans 
and  other  points  south.  A  common  mode  was  to  load  flat- 
boats  with  provisions,  float  down  to  New  Orleans,  and  remain 
until  the  cargo  was  sold  at  what  profit  the  times  permitted, 
sometimes  only  after  a  three  months'  waiting  in  the  use  of 
means. 

From  one  of  these  long  absences  James  Blaine  returned  to 
find  only  a  grave  instead  of  his  young  wife  and  the  child 
whom  he  had  never  seen. 

A  letter  from  Carlisle,  April  18,  1793,  says  with  quaint 
pathos  : 

"  We  lost  a  very  worthy  female  inhabitant  of  Carlisle  a  few 
days  ago  (the  wife  of  Mr.  James  Blaine)  who  died  &  was 
buried  in  the  absence  of  her  husband.  He  arrived  the  day 
after  the  Funeral ;  &  upon  hearing  of  the  sad  disaster,  ran  to 
the  graveyard,  almost  distracted,  &  there  remained  a  good 
while  fixed  in  the  deepest  sorrow." 

In  the  deepest  sorrow  he  looked  again  upon  her  face  and  ob 
tained  some  locks  of  her  hair,  from  which  ten  rings  were  made 
for  remembrance  —  five  with  her  hair  and  his  own  entwined, 
five  with  such  mourning  emblems  as  love  could  command  from 
the  art  of  that  period. 


40  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Two,  at  least,  of  these  rings  remain  to-day  in  the  ownership 
of  a  granddaughter  of  the  young  wife's  sister. 

Jn  the  old  graveyard  at  Carlisle  her  brief  story  is  told : 
kt  In  Memory  of  Jane  Blane,  Wife  of  James  Elaine,  who  died 
the  15th  of  April,  1793,  in  the  24th  year  of  her  age. 

"  Reader  behold  and  drop  a  tear 
Beauty's  remains  lie  bury'd  here ; 
But  Heav'n  which  lent  the  transient  boon 
Hath  bid  her  sun  go  down  at  noon. 
Ye  fair  since  hers  may  be  your  case 
Forget  the  beauties  of  the  face. 
Go  first  in  virtues  paths  and  tread, 
Then  safely  mingle  with  the  dead, 
And  you'll  with  Sister  Seraphs  join 
Where  Heaven's  refulgent  glories  shine." 

In  June,  of  the  same  year,  Colonel  Elaine's  life  was  touched 
by  another  tragedy,  as  far  as  possible  from  the  dignity  of  his 
father's  composed  farewell,  or  the  pathos  of  his  daughter's  early 
death.  John  Duncan,  a  brother  of  Judge  Duncan,  had  some 
political  dispute  with  James  Lamberton,  the  grandfather  of  the 
late  Hon.  Robert  A.  Lamberton,  LL.D.,  President  of  Lehigh 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  —  a  dispute  which  presently  be 
came  an  altercation,  so  violent  and  personal  as  seemed  in  the 
judgment  of  those  days  to  demand  blood.  A  challenge  was 
sent  and  accepted,  and  Col.  Ephraim  Elaine  was  chosen  second. 
The  duel  was  fought,  and  Duncan  was  killed  at  the  only  ex 
change  of  shots  between  them :  departing  "  this  life  June  22nd 
1793  aged  thirty-one  years." 

Eut  for  all  grief,  disappointment,  or  death,  the  world 
goes  on.  In  May,  of  the  next  year,  the  bereft  husband  was  in 
New  Orleans  again  on  his  three  months'  business  trip,  and  in 
October  he  was  back  in  Carlisle  helping  his  father  to  entertain 
the  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  whiskey  insurrection  was  testing  the  new  government. 
Like  most  insurrections,  it  had  a  reasonable  side.  The 
Scotch-Irish  had  emigrated  for  liberty,  which  for  them  in 
cluded  freedom  from  restrictions  in  trade.  They  had  hardly 
fought  through  their  last  fight  with  the  old  home  tyrant, 
when  here  was  their  own  chosen  government  putting  an  enor 
mous  tax  on  whiskey.  Ent  in  the  extreme  West,  whiskev  was 


-JP1 


I 


ROBERT    BLAINE. 


.  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  41 

the  chief  currency !  Rye  was  the  chief  product.  As  rye  it 
could  not  be  taken  to  market.  A  horse  could  carry  only  four 
bushels.  Of  rye  changed  into  whiskey,  he  could  carry  twenty- 
four  bushels.  Freight  in  wagons  to  Philadelphia  was  from  $5 
to  $10  a  hundred  pounds,  and  such  freight  ate  up  both  profits 
and  rye.  There  was  no  trade  down  the  Ohio,  and  lower 
Mississippi  was  held  by  Spaniards.  Whiskey  was  the  only 
high  road  to  salt,  which  was  15  a  bushel ;  to  iron  and  steel, 
which  were  $15  and  $20  the  hundred  weight.  Consequently 
distilleries  were  everywhere,  but  few  of  them  paid  cash  for 
grain.  The  men  of  the  interior  saw  the  men  on  the  coast 
drinking  their  imported  wines  which  transportation  by  land 
would  make  too  costly ;  and  they  said  among  themselves,  If  we 
cannot  import,  why  shall  we  not  make  ?  Why  should  we  be 
called  upon  to  pay  duty,  for  drinking  our  grain,  any  more  than 
for  eating  it  ?  And  it  is  hard  to  see  that  the  question  was  ever 
more  logically  answered  than  with  Light  Horse  Harry's  fifteen 
thousand  troops.  But  that  logic  carried  the  day.  President 
Washington,  Colonel  Blaine,  and  the  others  drank  their 
'•cags"  of  wine,  and  decided  that  law,  whether  good  or  bad, 
must  be  enforced.  The  nation  was  not  seated  firmly  enough 
in  the  saddle  to  permit  the  horse  to  take  the  bits  in  his  mouth 
for  a  moment. 

"  September  30,  1794,"  says  Jacob  Holtzheimer,  "  that  great 
and  good  man  General  Washington,  President  of  the  United 
States,  set  out  from  his  house  on  Market  street,  with  Secretary 
Hamilton  on  his  left  and  his  private  secretary  on  his  right,  to 
head  the  Militia  to  quell  the  Western  Insurrection."  His 
arrival  in  Carlisle  gave  a  great  week  to  the  stirring  little  town. 
The  President's  body-guard  Avas  composed  of  New  Jersey 
cavalry,  handsomely  uniformed,  and  himself  had  no  superior 
for  personal  dignity  and  imposing  presence.  But  public  sen 
timent  in  Pennsylvania  was  republicanism  flavored  with 
whiskey,  and  the  soldiers  and  the  citizens  were  often  at  odds 
—  once  at  so  great  odds  that  Governor  Mifflin  found  it  neces 
sary  to  soothe  the  excited  crowd  from  the  balcony  of  the 
hotel  on  South  Hanover  street.  Mr.  Paul  Metzger,  father  of 
Mrs.  Robert  Blaine,.  and  his  twelve-year-old  son,  George,  were 
then  on  a  visit  to  Carlisle,  dividing  their  time  between  Mrs. 


42  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Robert's  house  and  that  of  Dr.  McCoskrey,  father  of  the  late 
Bishop  McCoskrey.  General  Washington  had  visited  at  Mr. 
Metzger's  home  in  Hanover,  and  of  course  little  went  on  which 
the  lively  lad  did  not  see.  When  his  host  gave  a  dinner-party 
to  the  President,  Governor  MirHin,  Colonel  Blame,  and  other 
distinguished  men,  George,  being  his  guest,  was,  though  but  a 
lad,  invited,  or  be  it  said  permitted,  to  appear  at  the  table. 
This  honor  he  was  too  shy  to  accept,  but  in  the  prospect  of  a 
street  fight  the  small  boy's  shyness  vanished,  and  through  the 
whole  commotion  he  stood  at  the  Governor's  elbow,  and  so  was 
able  to  tell  us  all  about  it. 

The  President's  headquarters  were  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  street,  where  both  Colonel  Elaine's  houses  were  devoted 
to  his  accommodation  and  entertainment.  In  the  one  which 
Colonel  Blaine  himself  occupied  on  the  corner  just  south  of 
the  public  square,  the  President  and  staff  were  guests  at  his 
table.  In  the  one  adjoining  they  were  lodged.  Mrs.  Blaine 
was  at  this  time  an  invalid,  attended  and  cheered  by  her  young 
niece,  Margaret  Lyon,  who  had  been  almost  reared  in  her 
uncle's  house ;  and  the  young  daughter-in-law  mounted  her 
horse  every  day,  and,  leaving  her  little  brood  at  home,  rode 
in  through  the  green  fields,  from  the  Cave  Farm,  and  as 
sumed  supervision  of  the  President's  entertainment  and  chap- 
eronage  of  the  young  maiden.  The  sons,  Captain  James  and 
Robert,  took  charge  of  the  outdoor  arrangements,  seeing  that 
"the  President's  horses"  and  accoutrements  were  properly 
cared  for,  and  all  expenses  promptly  met ;  as  witness  many 
a  bill,  order,  and  account : 

SIR,  Deliver  four  bushels  of  Oats  for  the  President's  Horses. 

JAS  BLAINE 
7th.  Ootr.  1794 
MR.  ROBT.  BLAINE. 

Received  of  John  Logan,  one  Load  of  Hay  for  the  President's  Horses  — 

JAS.  BLAINE. 
fth.  October  1794 
Pay  him  three  pounds 
E.  BLAINE. 

Tli us  the  father  had  only  to  devote  his  time  to  his  distin 
guished  guest,  who,  in  turn,  made  himself  thoroughly  agreeable, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  43 

especially  delighting  young  Margaret,  by  praising  her  " flannel 
cakes,"  and  begging  her  to  give  him  her  receipt  for  them  that 
he  might  carry  it  home  to  his  Patty !  Yes,  "  My  Patty."  Cum 
berland  county  and  Washington  county  join  hands  on  that ! 

History  says  that  while  the  President  was  at  Carlisle  he 
heard  that  the  insurrection  had  been  quelled.  A  private  theory, 
firmly  held,  is  that  he  enjoyed  his  visit  there  so  much  that  he 
was  willing  to  believe  the  insurrection  had  never  arisen !  This 
theory  all  must  adopt  who  know  what  that  Elaine  home-circle 
was  —  the  host  dignified,  courteous,  hospitable,  brilliant,  the 
centre  of  all  life  and  love  and  gayety  ;  the  children  young, 
bright,  strong,  devoted,  —  an  harmonious  family  circle ;  the 
guests  pleased,  stimulated,  happy,  and  giving  happiness ;  every 
comfort,  convenience,  and  entertainment  that  money  and  gen 
erosity  and  native  elegance  could  supply  —  all,  hosts  and 
guests,  at  their  best  in  mind,  body,  and  estate. 

And  the  next  January  James  and  Margaret  were  married; 
but  when  he  bought  the  engagement  ring,  Mistress  Peggy 
used  to  tell  her  grandchildren,  the  French  jeweller,  Pierre 
Lorette,  asked  him  what  initials  were  to  be  engraved  on  it. 
"  Oh,  your  own,"  replied  the  light-hearted  lover.  "And  I  was 
so  vexed  !  "  laughed  the  grandmother.  For  "  Peggy  "  was  just 
entering  one  of  its  periodical  obscurations  as  a  fashionable 
appellative,  and  its  owner  aspired  to  the  dignity  of  "  Mar- 
garet,"  —  but  she  wore  the  ring  on  her  faithful  hand  to  her 
life's  end. 

Margaret  Lyon  brought  to  the  family  not  only  her  win 
ning  personality  and  her  Elaine  inheritance,  but  the  strength 
of  another  stock.  When  Ephraim  Elaine  went  his  way  from  his 
father's  house  to  wealth,  credit,  and  renown,  his  sister  Eleanor 
went  her  way  and  found  them  all  in  Samuel  Lyon,  who  had 
also  come  over  from  that  fruitful  north  of  Ireland,  with  his 
father  John  Lyon  and  his  mother  Margaret  Armstrong.  Now 
the  father,  John,  was  a  strong,  true  man,  and  having  chosen  for 
himself  two  hundred  seventy-three  acres  and  sixty-three  perches 
of  fine,  fertile,  romantic  country,  besides  the  proprietary  grant 
to  John  Lyon  et  al,  of  twenty  acres  of  land  for  the  use  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  of  Tuscarora,  he  worshipped  God,  and 
there  he  lies  buried.  Eut  Margaret  Armstrong,  whom  he 


44  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JANES    G.     BLAINE. 

took  to  wife  in  Ireland,  lias  come  down  to  us  through  the 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  all  a-sparkle  with  brilliant  in 
tellect,  witli  wise  and  wide  intelligence;  fit  to  adorn  any 
society,  but  better  employed  in  the  upbuilding  of  a  State;  — 
sister  of  that  Homeric  hero  who  never  found  his  Homer, 
John  Armstrong,  the  fearless  warrior  who,  with  two  hundred 
and  eighty  farmer-soldiers,  marched  two  hundred  miles  up  the 
west  branch  of  the  Susquehanna,  across  an  ambushed  moun 
tain  wilderness,  to  the  great  encampment  of  the  Indians  at 
the  Great  island,  quietly  surrounded  them  in  their  midnight 
revelry  in  that  stronghold  of  Kittarming,  at  daybreak  fell  upon 
them,  —  and  Pennsylvania  had  rest  from  slaughter  for  a  while. 

In  1758  Colonel  Armstrong  and  Colonel  Washington,  march 
ing  ahead  with  the  Provincials  under  Colonel  Bouquet,  in 
General  Forbes's  expedition  against  Fort  Duquesne,  formed  an 
acquaintance  which  ripened  into  a  warm  personal  friendship. 
When  the  French,  taking  alarm,  fired  their  fort  and  fled,  it  was 
Colonel  Armstrong's  own  hand  which  raised  the  British  flag 
over  the  ruins  of  Fort  Duquesne,  and  it  became  Pittsburg. 

In  the  Revolutionary  war,  as  brigadier  and  major-general, 
he  took  as  active  a  part,  and  fought  the  battle  of  the 
Brandywine  as  earnestly  as  that  of  Kittanning.  When,  in 
1779,  Col.  Stephen  Bayard  wished  to  name  the  fort  he  had  built 
at  Kittanning  for  Colonel  Brodhead  —  or  himself,  that  sturdy 
soldier  disdained  the  compliment,  and  disdained  to  return  it  to 
Colonel  Bayard.  He  replied  frankly,  not  to  say  bluntly,  "  I 
think  it  a  compliment  due  to  General  Armstrong  to  call  that 
fort  after  him ;  therefore,  it  is  my  pleasure  from  this  time  for 
ward  it  be  called  Fort  Armstrong,  and  I  doubt  not  we  shall 
soon  be  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  place  where  greater  regard  is 
paid  to  saints  than  at  Kittanning,  where  your  sainthood  may 
not  be  forgotten."  And  this  answer  not  being  considered  final, 
he  wrote  again  nine  days  after :  "  I  have  said  that  I  thought  it 
a  compliment  due  to  General  Armstrong  to  name  the  fort  now 
erecting  at  Kittanning  after  him ;  and  I  should  be  very  sorry  to 
have  the  first  fort  erected  by  my  direction  in  the  department 
named  after  me.  Besides,  I  should  consider  it  will  be  more 
proper  to  have  our  names  at  a  greater  distance  from  our 
metropolis.  I  never  denied  the  sainthood  of  Stephen  or  John 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <V.     BLAINE.  46 

but  some  regard  to  priority  must  be  necessary  even  among 
saints/'  The  fort  has  sunk  into  the  past,  but  grateful  Penn 
sylvania  erected  a  monument  more  durable  than  brass  to  the 
hero  of  Kittanning ;  for  she  not  only  presented  him  with  a 
piece  of  plate  and  a  silver  medal,  but  gave  the  name  of 
Armstrong  to  the  county  which  included  the  battlefield. 

A  year  after  this  more  than  Homeric  hero  had  led  his  host 
to  Kittanning  he  was  writing,  "  To-morrow  we  begin  to  haul 
stones  for  the  building  of  a  meeting-house  on  the  north  side  of 
the  square."  When  the  Indians  had  been  subdued  and  the 
stone  church  reared,  the  next  project  of  these  lofty  State- 
builders  was  a  college,  and  Dickinson  College  arose ;  the 
witness  on  the  spot  is  that  "  nothing  of  that  kind  could  have 
gone  forward  at  this  period  without  the  ardent  sympathy  and 
cooperation,  if  not  the  controlling  influence,  of  Gen.  John 
Armstrong."  His  education,  his  wealth,  his  political  and 
social  position  made  him  the  first  man  to  be  consulted,  and  gave 
his  opinions  the  highest  influence  in  all  questions  of  general 
interest  in  Church  or  State. 

It  was  natural  that  such  a  man  should  work  out  the  Pauline 
faith,  and  think  him  worse  than  an  infidel  who  provideth  not 
for  his  own  house.  With  the  aid  of  his  nephews,  Margaret 
Armstrong's  sons,  and  by  order  of  the  Proprietaries,  he  had 
laid  out  the  town  of  Carlisle,  and  marked  the  corner  lots 
that  Ephraim  Blaine  afterwards  bought.  As  fast  as  his 
nephews  became  available  he  availed  himself  of  them  and 
swept  them  into  places  of  honor  and  profit  and  hard  labor  — • 
surveyors,  justices  of  the  peace,  assessors,  holders  of  all  the 
honorable  offices  through  which  a  free  people  governs  itself. 
And  when  he  could  command  no  more  offices  he  created  new 
ones,  all  tending  to  the  grace  and  glory  of  the  blossoming 
wilderness.  Like  himself,  mighty  men  of  war  these  boys 
became,  fighting  the  foe  wherever  he  appeared,  Indian  or 
Quaker  or  British,  or  even  their  own  too  liberty-loving  Scotch- 
Irish,  if  it  came  to  revolt  against  the  established  order ;  for 
though  they  loved  liberty,  it  was  liberty  under  law. 

Samuel  Lyon,  father  of  Margaret  Lyon,  son  of  Margaret  Arm 
strong,  settled  on  land  adjoining  his  father's,  and  presently 
inherited  one-half  his  father's  farm.  In  addition  to  his  state 


46  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

and  town  offices  he  was,  in  1780,  made  commissary  general 
of  purchases  for  the  Revolutionary  army,  doubtless  through 
the  representations  of  his  brother-in-law ;  for  nepotism  in  that 
serious  time  seems  to  have  been  the  guide-post  to  appoint 
ment  and  promotion,  men  taking  for  vitally  important  work 
the  men  they  knew  best.  Establishing  himself  in  Carlisle,  he 
was  brought  into  close  official  relations  with  his  brother-in- 
law,  until  in  due  time  the  family  tie  was  further  established 
by  the  union  of  Margaret  Lyon  with  James  Elaine. 

In  less  than  one  month  after  his  son's  second  marriage,  Feb. 
5,  1795,  Colonel  Elaine  lost  the  wife  of  his  youth  —  Rebecca, 
daughter  of  the  Galbraiths.  A  second  month,  and  the  bride's 
great-uncle,  John  Armstrong,  "  eminently  distinguished  for 
patriotism,  valor,  and  piety,"  joined  her  in  the  unseen  world : 
the  stern  and  strenuous  life,  the  sweet  and  cherishing  life, 
going  out  alike  in  the  odor  of  sanctity.  The  last  years  of 
the  mother  had  been  spent  in  comparative  seclusion,  on  account 
of  illness  and  increasing  infirmities  which  banished  her  from 
the  activities  of  society,  and  from  all  but  the  ministrations  of 
the  family.  The  household  niece,  Margaret,  could  no  longer 
make  her  uncle  her  first  thought,  because  her  cousin  had  appro 
priated  it.  It  is  not  then  strange  that  the  beautiful  young 
widow,  with  whom  Colonel  Elaine  had  been  thrown  into  pecul 
iarly  close  and  pathetic  relations  four  years  before,  should 
come  into  his  mind  and  into  his  heart.  He  was  fifty-six  years 
old  and  she  was  thirty-eight  —  no  forbidding  disparity  where 
the  man  was  courtly  and  commanding,  rich  and  distinguished, 
handsome  and  cultivated,  in  the  prime  of  a  successful  life, 
enlarged  and  softened  by  experience,  in  charity  with  all  the 
world,  a  man  of  quick  as  well  as  wide  views,  of  prompt 
decision,  unflinching  resolution,  successful  execution,  eminent 
unselfishness,  sought  by  the  humblest,  valued  by  the  highest. 

Some  years  before,  Colonel  Elaine,  among  other  transactions, 
had  bought  a  lot  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  North  Hanover 
street,  on  the  public  square  at  Carlisle,  not  far  from  his  own 
houses,  which  were  on  the  east  side  of  South  Hanover  street, 
just  south  of  the  public  square.  On  this  lot  he  built  two 
houses,  whose  every  line  speaks  the  lavishment  of  love  and  the 
love  of  beauty.  In  his  sheriff's  receipt-book  is  a  receipt  for 


nnKiRAriiY   OF  JAMKH   a.    HLAINK.  47 

brick,  whose  date  indicates  that  its  destination  was  to  these 
houses.  Their  fine  and  stately  architecture  is  still  a  pleasure 
to  the  eye  and  a  repose  to  the  soul.  No  modern  Eastlake  sen 
timent  can  draw  more  heavily  on  *'  sincerity  "  than  these  doors, 
with  their  massive  colonial  bulk,  their  hinges  reaching  nearly 
across  the  door,  and  showing  to  the  most  careless  their  easy 
ability  to  sustain  the  swing.  The  arched  windows,  the  ornate 
yet  elegant  mantels,  the  ample  and  cheerful  rooms,  are  given 
over  to  business,  but  speak  yet  of  the  home  courtesies  and  com 
forts  of  the  past.  These  houses,  complete  in  every  detail,  the 
loving  father  —  wise  man  —  conveyed  to  his  proud  and  devoted 
sons,  Sept.  18,  1797;  to  James  Elaine  the  one  on  the  south 
erly  part  of  the  lot,  together  with  three  hundred  acres  of  land ; 
to  Robert  Blaine  the  one  on  the  northerly  lot,  together  with  the 
Cave  mill  and  farm  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  and  four 
hundred  acres  of  mountain  land. 

Two  days  afterwards,  September  20,  he  married  Sarah  Eliza 
beth  Postlethwaite  Duncan,  the  granddaughter  of  Joseph  Rose, 
a  distinguished  Irish  barrister  from  Dublin  who  had  died  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  widow  of  him  who  had  fallen  in  the  fatuous 
duel ;  and  thus  he  gained  for  the  solitude  of  a  saddened  hearth 
seven  years'  companionship  with  a  woman  whose  Irish  wit  and 
beauty,  whose  elegance  and  social  accomplishments  brought 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  living  witness  of 
the  charm  which  had  been  confessed  by  three  generations. 

One  son  was  born  to  them,  whom  they  named  for  his 
father  Ephraim,  and  to  whom  the  happy  father  gave  the  Mid 
dlesex  home  which  he  seems  to  have  loved  best  of  all,  from 
which  he  could  never  stay  long  away,  and  in  which  he  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  closing  years.  But  his  beloved  wife,  Sarah 
Elizabeth,  besides  personal  devises,  was  to  enjoy  the  whole 
estate  at  Middlesex  during  her  life,  "  if  she  continues  unmarried'' 
(with  ample  provision,  however,  even  if  she  should  not  continue 
unmarried),  paying  out  of  the  same  "all  that  may  be  necessary 
for  the  proper  support  and  education  of  my  son  Ephraim  Blaine 
until  he  shall  arrive  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years."  When 
Ephraim  was  twenty-one  he  was  to  enter  into  possession  of 
the  estate,  but  was  to  pay  one-half  the  profits  to  his  mother 
during  her  life  and  widowhood  ;  "  and  if  my  said  son  Ephraim 


48  ItHM.'KAf'IIY     0/-'    JAMES    <,'.     HLATHK. 

should  die  before  he  would  arrive  at  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years  and  without  having  lawful  issue  to  inherit  the  same 
estate,  then  I  give  and  devise  to  my  grandson  Ephraim  Blame 
son  to  my  son  James  Elaine,  all  the  mills  and  water  powers 
erected  on  my  said  estate  at  Middlesex  with  two  hundred  and 
fifty  acres  of  land  adjoining  to  the  said  mills  to  be  laid  off  at  the 
discretion  of  such  of  my  Executors  as  shall  be  void  of  all  in 
terest  in  the  said  division  and  the  remainder  of  my  said  lands  at 
Middlesex  I  give  to  my  Grandson  Ephraim  Blaine  son  of  my 
Son  Robert  Blaine  ; "  and  after  various  other  and  ample  devises 
to  wife  and  son  Ephraim,  "  all  the  residue  of  my  estate  real  and 
personal  I  do  give  and  devise  to  be  equally  divided  between  my 
two  sons  James  and  Robert,  and  I  do  hereby  appoint  my  two 
sons  James  Blaine  and  Robert  Blaine  and  my  Friend  David 
Watts  Executors  of  this  my  last  will  and  Testament."  The 
will  of  a  just  man  mindful  of  his  obligations  and  acquainted 
with  human  nature. 

The  three  young  Ephraims  were  not  far  apart  in  years  — 
the  nephews  a  little  older  than  the  uncle ;  but  he  was  not 
destined  to  enter  into  his  inheritance.  Of  the  many  children 
who  played  around  the  water-brooks  of  Cave  farm  and  the 
Letort  mill-race,  it  was  the  infant  heir  of  those  broad  lands,  the 
beautiful,  curled  darling  of  his  father's  old  age,  whose  little  feet 
stumbled  on  the  brink.  Margaret  Lyon,  Mrs.  James  Blaine, 
was  spending  the  day  at  Middlesex.  The  little  boy,  dressed  in 
his  pretty  white  suit,  with  his  long,  fair  curls  freshly  brushed, 
was  brought  in  to  be  duly  admired  and  petted  by  the  guest,  his 
cousin  and  sister-in-law,  then  dismissed  to  run  about  at  his 
liking.  Shortly  afterwards,  not  hearing  him  at  play,  they 
called  and  sought  him  • —  in  vain.  He  had  wandered  down  to 
death  in  the  swift-rushing  mill-race. 

The  father  did  not  long  survive  him,  but  died  in  his  bereaved 
home  on  Feb.  16,  1804,  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age. 

His  beloved  Avife,  Sarah  Elizabeth,  was  loath  to  remain  in  the 
house  of  her  repeated  sorrow,  and  withdrew  to  Philadelphia, 
where  she  "continued  unmarried,"  leading  such  a  life  of  dignity 
and  distinction  as  beseemed  her  blood  arid  name,  till,  in  1850, 
she  passed  away  at  the  ripe  old  age  of  ninety. 


JAMES    BLAINE. 


r     OP    JAMKN    (f.     JiLAINK. 


TV. 

JAMES  BLAINE. 

^ 

~l  ["IS  father  gone,  the  old  Scotch-Irish  rover  reappeared  in  the 
-* — ^-  son  Avith  renewed  vigor.  The  large  business  in  new, 
rich  lands,  which  to  the  hereditary  Blaine  vision  that  saw  clearly 
into  the  future,  were  big  with  promise,  had  a  tendency  to  keep 
the  land-hunger  ever  alive.  With  all  his  graces  and  amenities, 
James  Blaine  had  a  watchful  outlook  for  business,  and  could 
be  short,  sharp,  and  decisive  upon  occasion.  The  records  of 
the  court  at  April  sessions  in  1798  present  a  true  bill  of 
indictment  against  James  Blaine  for  assault  and  battery,  and 
defendant  being  charged  submits  to  the  court  with  protestations 
of  innocence,  whereupon  the  judgment  of  the  court  is  that  the 
defendant  pay  a  fine  of  four  dollars  towards  the  support  of  the 
government,  pay  the  costs  of  prosecution,  and  stand  committed 
until  this  judgment  be  complied  with.  But  though  the  court 
pronounced  this  stern  decree,  it  is  to  be  noted  in  a  marginal 
"  aside  "  that  clerk  and  attorney  forgave  their  fees  ;  whence  we 
may  infer  that  the  weight  even  of  the  court  opinion  was  oil 
the  side  of  the  defendant,  whose  most  accomplished  kinsman, 
worthily  wearing  and  transmitting  the  family  honor,  affirms 
that  whipping  the  other  fellow  is  often  worth  more  than  four 
dollars,  and  only  hopes  he  was  well  whipped  ! 

To  James  Potter,  Esq.,  he  writes  : 

CARLISLE  12th  April  1802 

By  your  agreement  with  my  Father  you  engage  to  Patent  the  Land  you 
exchanged  with  him  in  Woods'*  district,  when  you  were  called  upon  for 
that  purpose;  I  now  request  you  will  perform  your  part  of  said  agreement 
as  soon  as  you  conveniently  can,  as  [  have  an  opportunity  of  selling  to 
advantage 

Please  to  answer  this  Letter  by  some  one  of  your  Gentlemen  &  oblige 

Sir 

Yours  &c 

BLAINE 

for 
Eph.  Blaiue. 


50  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <!.     KLA1NE. 

As  an  executor  of  his  father's  estate  he  writes  from  Carlisle 
in  1804  : 

SlK 

I  am  much  surprised  that  I  have  not  heard  from  you  respect8,  the 
Patent  for  the  tract  in  Armstrong  County.  You  certainly  ought  to  have 
procured  it  for  us  before  this.  My  Father  left  my  Brother  &  me  Executors, 
I  now  write  as  such  and  must  urge  you  to  take  out  the  Deed  and  transmit 
it  to  us  between  first  of  May  next  as  by  that  time  we  mean  to  proceed  to 
that  Country  &  make  sale  of  some  of  our  Lands. 

At  the  first  and  second  session  of  the  Ninth  Congress  (1805) 
James  and  Robert  Elaine,  executors  of  their  father's  estate, 
presented  a  petition  for  compensation  for  Revolutionary  services 
in  the  Commissary  Department ;  but  I  find  no  record  and  no 
tradition  that  such  petition  was  ever  granted. 

From  time  to  time  they  kept  alive  before  an  unheeding 
Congress  the  indebtedness  of  the  country  to  their  father,  for 
services  rendered  and  money  advanced. 

So  late  as  1818  the  journal  of  Congress  calmly  records  that 
%t  Mr.  Baldwin  also  presented  a  petition  of  James  and  Robert 
Elaine,  executors  of  the  last  will  and  testament  of  their  father, 
Ephraim  Elaine,  deceased,  a  deputy  commissary  general  and 
commissary  general  of  purchases  in  the  Revolutionary  army, 
praying  compensation  for  the  services  of  their  said  father,  and 
for  a  reimbursement  of  the  moneys  advanced  by  him  for  the 
purchase  of  various  supplies  for  the  said  army ;  "  but  I  find  no 
record  that  Mr.  Baldwin  got  any  reply  to  his  petition. 

Boys  and  girls  grew  up  around  them,  and  the  two  homes 
were  filled  with  young  life.  It  is  pleasant  to  remember  that 
when  a  little  daughter  was  laid  in  Margaret's  arms,  the  divinity 
in  her  remembered  that  other  young  mother  lying  out  in  the 
churchyard  with  her  dead  child  on  her  heart,  whom  the  young 
father  had  never  seen,  and  she  gave  to  her  own  warm  living 
baby  the  dead  mother's  name,  Jane  Hoge.  "  How  did  you  like 
to  call  her  that?"  used  her  grandchildren  to  ask,  with  infantile 
mercilessness.  C'I  did  not  care,  my  dear,"  was  the  reply  of 
gentleness  from  which  experience  had  banished  all  pain. 

An  infant  child  who  lived  barely  long  enough  to  receive  the 
seal  of  baptism  on  his  forehead  bore  to  the  grave  the  name  of 
George  Washington.  "Why  did  you  give  him  that  name?" 


rilY     OF    JAMES    G.     HLAINE.  51 

prattled  another  grandchild.  "  Oh  !  my  dear,  we  knew  he  would 
not  live  !  "  In  the  hour  of  sudden  grief  and  danger  and  pain, 
his  was  the  rirst  name  they  thought  of,  whose  renown  was 
not  then  a  cold  and  remote  splendor  but  a  living  household 
fame. 

Ephraim,  named  for  his  grandfather,  with  his  mother's  Lyon 
name  incorporated,  bright,  handsome,  debonair,  was  early  sent 
to  school  and  college  —  which  was  then  probably  hardly  more 
than  a  school,  but  in  its  moderate  and  modest  bills  was  a  full- 
fledged  college. 

15th.  August  1807 

Recd :  from  James  Blaine  eight  dollars  being  the  tuition  due  to  Wash 
ington  College  up  to  the  first  day  of  this  month  for  Ephraim  Blaine  — 

D:  8:00 

PARKER  CAMPBELL 

Treas'.  W.  C. 

At  one  time  there  were  four  Ephraim  Blaines  in  Washington 
College.  Their  distinguishing  sobriquets  were  "  big  Eph," 
"little  Eph,"  "red  Eph,"  "devil  Eph,"*  and  "gentleman 
Eph,"  scattered  somewhat  promiscuously  among  the  group. 
The  big  and  devil  Eph  seem  mostly  to  have  been  confined  to 
the  son  of  James,  and  little  Eph  and  gentleman  Eph  to  the 
son  of  Robert.  That  these  sobriquets  were  not  distributed 
from  mere  caprice  may  be  inferred  from  many  anecdotes  still 
current,  perhaps  the  earliest  being  that  when  devil  Eph's  mamma 
called  attention  one  day  to  the  swift  ruin  attending  his  trousers' 
knees  the  very  young  gentleman  retorted,  "  That  is  because  Dr. 
Brown  [the  President]  keeps  us  at  prayers  so  much." 

Leaving  college,  Ephraim  Lyon  studied  law  in  the  office  of 
Mr.  Watts,  son  of  David  Watts,  an  intimate  friend  of  his 
father,  and  father  of  H.  M.  Watts,  late  District  Attorney  of  the 
United  States,  and  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Pleni 
potentiary  to  Austria  in  1868,  who  presently  became  an  intimate 
friend  of  Ephraim's  son.  Ephraim  also,  like  his  father,  was  sent 
to  travel  in  Europe,  as  a  matter  of  mental  and  social  finishing. 
But  there  is  no  tradition  that  he  or  his  father  ever  visited  the 
land  from  which  they  came — that  north  of  Ireland,  that  Lon 
donderry  and  Donegal,  which  had  done  so  much  more  for  them 
than  all  the  splendors  of  the  grand  tour.  Mr.  Watts  had  the 


52  itiovhAi'iir   OF  JAMES   a.    it 

pleasure  of  seeing  his  pupil  admitted  to  the  bar  before  he 
removed  from  Carlisle  ;  and  the  younger  Watts,  who  as  a  boy 
knew  him  well  in  Carlisle,  renewed  the  acquaintance  after  his 
removal  to  Pittsburg  to  practise  law. 

All  the  going  back  and  forth,  the  inspection,  survey,  ex 
change  of  lands,  and  the  other  traffic,  only  increased  the  rest 
lessness  of  these  land-lovers;  and  presently  they  left  —  never 
to  return  — -  the  heritage  of  Middlesex,  their  beautiful  finished 
Carlisle  home,  and  all  the  fair  hill-country  round  about,  the 
waterbrooks  of  the  Conodoguinet  and  the  Letort,  just  as  their 
forebears  had  left  Donegal  run  and  the  Chicquesalunga,  —  and 
pitched  their  tents  on  Muddy  creek  in  Greene  county,  in  what 
was  then  the  far  West ;  but  Margaret  found  it  too  far  and 
lonely,  and  even  James  missed  his  good  Carlisle  society.  So 
back  they  fared  to  Brownsville,  where  he  owned  lands  in  and 
about  the  town,  thence  to  Sewickley,  an  outpost  of  Pittsburg, 
011  the  Ohio  river. 

In  his  various  wanderings  he  tarried  long  enough  to  acquire 
local  interest  and  influence,  and  everywhere  he  carried  on  his 
mercantile  business  in  connection  with  his  investments  and  other 
transactions  in  land.  In  Brownsville  he  was  commissioned  as 
justice  of  the  peace,  and  entered  into  the  social  and  business 
life  of  the  place  with  zeal  and  sympathy.  Indeed,  all  the 
Blaines  seem  to  have  considered  all  Pennsylvania  as  their 
natural  home  and  heritage,  and  wherever  James  Blaine  went 
he  could  feel  that  the  feet  of  his  father  had  trodden  the  path 
before  him,  and  all  the  landed  property  had  been  his  father's 
choice,  prevision,  and  judgment  as  well.  Gordon,  one  of  the 
earliest  travellers,  braved  the  contempt  of  the  Old  World  by 
testifying  that  "  This  country  may,  from  a  proper  knowledge, 
be  affirmed  to  be  the  most  healthy,  the  most  pleasant,  the 
most  commodious,  and  the  most  fertile  spot  of  earth  known 
to  European  people." 

At  Sewickley,  not  ill  chosen  for  beauty  or  for  business, 
James  Blaine  established  himself  in  a  comfortable  and  even 
imposing  house,  with  the  river  that  seemed  necessary  to 
Blaine  contentment,  and  the  plateau  commanding  a  lovely 
view  and  allied  with  a  historic  past.  In  the  centre  of  an 
orchard  of  twenty-five  acres  is  a  large  mound  where  tradition 


HIOGKAPIIY    OF    JAMES    (!.     HLAINE.  53 

fought  a  tierce  battle  between  French  and  Indians,  and  after 
the  fight  buried  braves  and  valuables.  This  mound  has  never 
been  disturbed,  and  the  ghosts  of  the  fallen  wander  at  will, 
harming  nobody. 

Here  lived  and  prospered  James  Blame,  and  here  his  son 
Ephraim  Lyon  brought  his  bride.  A  letter  of  1820,  from  one 
of  their  friends,  says  playfully,  if  somewhat  incoherently, 
u  The  Duke  of  Sewickley,  late  Middlesex,  it  is  said,  will  take 
a  wife  from  the  backwoods,  and  has  selected  Maria  Gillespie 
as  the  object." 

Maria  Gillespie,  thus  summoned  from  the  "  backwoods "  to 
the  suburbs  of  lofty  Pittsburg,  was  from  the  same  radiating 
north  of  Ireland,  but  of  another  clan  and  religion.  Neal  Gil 
lespie,  senior,  according  to  family  tradition,  came  from  Scotland 
to  Donegal  county,  barony  of  Inisowen,  Ireland,  famous  for  its 
whiskey-smuggling.  There  he  made  a  runaway  match  with 
Eleanor  Dougherty,  was  married  by  some  wandering  priest, 
and  came  immediately  to  this  country.  Under  the  penal  laws, 
unless  it  were  by  a  registered  priest  the  marriage  was  counted 
invalid.  To  ensure  the  legality  of  the  tie,  and  prevent  question 
of  the  legitimacy  of  their  children,  a  subsequent  marriage  cere 
mony  was  performed  by  a  Protestant  Episcopal  rector  in  this 
country,  in  lieu  of  a  priest  willing  to  assume  the  risk  of  such 
a  service.  Neal  Gillespie  was  a  man  distinguished  for  force 
of  character,  for  penetration  and  executive  power.  He  saw 
the  possibilities  of  the  West,  and,  leaving  wife  and  children 
behind  him,  went  out  and  selected  a  location  full  of  promise 
and  richer  in  fulfilment. 

During  the  middle  of  the  last  century  a  friendly  Indian, 
named  William  Peters,  yet  more  generally  known  as  ''  Indian 
Peter,"  lived  on  lands  in  the  Youghiogheny  valley,  adjoining  a 
German,  with  whom  he  could  not  agree.  Thereupon  Indian 
Peter  wrote  the  Proprietaries'  agent,  saying  that  he  could  not 

get  along  with  the  "  d d  Dutchman,"  and  wished  to  give  up 

his  land  for  another  tract.  Mis  request  was  promptly  complied 
with.  On  the  5th  day  of  April,  1769,  but  two  days  after  the 
land-office  was  opened,  a  warrant  was  granted  him  for  a  tract 
containing  three  hundred  and  thirty-nine  acres  situated  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Monongahela  river.  This  land  was  surveyed 


54  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

Oct.  7,  1769,  by  James  Hendricks,  Deputy  Surveyor-general, 
who  gave  it  the  name  of  "  Indian  Hill." 

Indian  Peter  at  once  left  his  "  d d  Dutchman  "  and 

took  up  his  abode  on  Indian  hill.  On  the  22d  day  of  February, 
1775,  the  Virginia  court  licensed  Michael  Cresap  "  to  keep  a 
ferry  over  the  Monongahela  from  his  house  at  Redstone  Old 
Fort  to  the  land  of  Indian  Peter." 

On  this  ferry  Neal  Gillespie,  pushing  westward,  fixed  his 
eyes,  and  on  Indian  Peter's  hill  he  laid  his  hand.  Washington 
county  was  rapidly  filling  up,  and  Redstone  Old  Fort  was 
becoming  a  business  centre,  by  land  and  water.  The  first 
natboat  that  ever  descended  the  Mississippi  went  from  Red 
stone  Old  Fort  in  1782.  The  tide  of  emigration  from  East  to 
West  broke  at  Brownsville.  After  long  and  toilsome  journeys 
over  mountain  roads  and  by  Indian  trails  the  emigrant  could 
embark  peacefully  on  Kentucky  or  New  Orleans  boats,  and 
float  pleasantly  towards  the  desired  haven ;  or  if  his  destina 
tion  was  nearer  at  hand,  he  crossed  the  ferry  and  made  his 
way  to  the  delectable  mountains  of  Washington  and  Greene. 

Indian  Peter  was  gone,  but  Marey  Fetters  and  William 
Petters  remained,  and  they  did  "  bargain  and  seal  to  said  Neal 
Gillespie  the  Tract  of  land  which  we  now  poses  and  all  the 
tenements  and  boundries  of  said  Land  at  forty  five  Shillings  pr. 
Acker  the  tearm  of  Peaments  the  15th  of  next  October  fower 
hundred  Pounds  to  be  Paid  in  money  or  moneys  worth  for  this 
Peament  two  ton  of  Iron  at  teen  pence  Pr  pound  and  one 
Negro  at  Preasment  of  two  men,  one  hundred  pound  more  to 
be  pead  at  the  same  time  of  this  Preasment  or  Else  to  Draw 
In  Trust  for  one  Year,  the  Remainder  of  the  Purches  money  to 
be  Pead  in  two  Peaments  • —  First  in  the  [year]  1786,  the  Next 
the  year  1788,  Each  of  these  Peaments  to  be  mead  in  October 
15th  the  above  Bound  marey  Petters  and  william  Petters  asserts 
to  meak  the  said  Neal  Gillespee  a  proper  Right  for  said  land  for 
which  we  have  seat  our  hands  and  Seals." 

Signed  with  the  mark  of  Marey  Petters  and  William  Petters, 
and  in  consideration  of  the  sum  of  £56  15s.  9d.  was  granted  by 
the  Commonwealth  unto  Neal  Gillespie  "  a  certain  tract  of  land 
called  '  Indian  Hill,'  excepting  and  reserving  only  the  fifth  part 
of  all  Gold  and  Silver  ore  for  the  use  of  this  Commonwealth, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  55 

to  be  delivered  at  the  Pit's  mouth  clear  of  all  charges,  whereof 
the  Hon.  Charles  Biddle,  Vice-President  of  Supreme  Executive 
Council,  hath  hereto  set  his  hand  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
Jan.  31,  1787,  and  of  the  Commonwealth  the  eleventh." 

Thus  Neal  Gillespie  obtained  full  title  and  control  of  Indian 
hill  and  of  the  ferry  on  the  great  thoroughfare  from  Cumber 
land  to  Wheeling,  —  a  route  as  important  in  that  day  as  the 
great  Pennsylvania  system  of  railroads  in  the  present;  and 
there  he  built  up  a  fortune  with  strong  hand,  and  there  he 
brought  his  family  and  lived  "  in  his  palace  "  on  Indian  hill ; 
and  when  his  wife  Eleanor  died  he  buried  her  beside  his 
"'  palace,"  and  married  Anna  Brown,  the  sister  of  Thomas  and 
Basil  Brown,  the  founders  of  Brownsville.  His  son  Neal 
succeeded  to  the  business  and  the  estate ;  and,  possessing  the 
energy  and  the  force  of  his  father,  added  to  both  business  and 
wealth  through  the  rapid  growth  of  the  country. 

The  other  son,  John,  was  equally  vigorous  and  brilliant. 
Both  had  the  true  rollicking  Irish  temperament,  and  were 
impetuous,  impatient,  outspoken.  This  temperament,  in  John 
especially,  sometimes  burst  forth  in  a  way  that  astonished  even 
the  strong,  racy  individualities  that  surrounded  him  ;  as  when 
once,  conducting  a  lawsuit  in  court,  across  the  river  at 
Brownsville,  it  suddenly  dawned  upon  him  that  he  was  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  case.  The  evidence  was  not  turning  out 
satisfactory.  He  instantly  rose  in  his  wrath,  kicked  over  the 
table,  spilling  ink  and  scattering  books  and  papers  in  all  direc 
tions,  picked  up  his  hat,  strode  from  the  courtroom,  and  never 
touched  the  case  again. 

Susan,  a  daughter,  married  Philemon  Beecher,  an  able 
and  distinguished  lawyer,  long  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Lancaster,  Ohio,  and  became  a  strong  Scriptural  Presbyterian. 
Another  sister,  Eleanor,  married  Hugh  Boyle,  also  of  Lancaster, 
Ohio. 

Young  Neal  Gillespie  led  a  busy  life,  always  taking  heed  to 
mingle  pleasure  with  business.  Every  year  he  loaded  his 
flatboats  with  all  the  corn  and  wheat  and  other  produce  he 
could  raise  or  buy  in  the  region  round  about,  and  sent  it  down 
to  New  Orleans,  while  he  and  his  brother  went  by  land,  —  by 
stage  or  horseback,  —  at  least  part  of  the  way,  through  all  the 


56  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

cousinable  and  otherwise  social  part  of  the  route.  Coming  back 
with  his  pocket  full  of  money  and  his  mind  free  from  care,  he 
would,  as  a  certain  descendant  said  of  him,  make  the  wilder 
ness  blossom.  The  home  of  his  intellectual  and  religious  sister 
Susan  lay  in  the  way  of  his  journeying,  and  he  never  failed  to 
pay  her  a  visit  of  duty  and  affection.  The  sister  would  wel 
come  her  brother,  but,  having  a  reputation  to  sustain  as  a 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  church  and  of  the  best  society  in 
Ohio,  would  take  the  sisterly  liberty  of  locking  herself  into  her 
own  room,  not  having  the  heart  to  lock  her  brother  out  of  the 
house,  while  the  young  lawyers  and  other  rising  young  men  of 
Lancaster  held  high  festival  with  the  brothers  in  her  house, 
or,  if  too  jovially  inclined,  adjourned  to  the  Swan  tavern  to  drain 
the  last  drop  of  festivity.  Thus  they  celebrated  the  memory  of 
Inisowen. 

The  home  of  Mr.  Purcell  in  Virginia  was  another  rendezvous 
of  young  Neal  Gillespie.  "  Sit  just  there,"  said  a  descendant 
of  Mr.  Purcell  not  long  since,  to  a  descendant  of  Neal  Gillespie, 
whom  he  had  invited  to  dinner;  and  directing  the  old  lion- 
footed  table  to  be  moved  a  little  further  forward,  "  There,  now 
you  are  at  the  very  table  and  in  the  very  place  where  your 
grandfather,  Neal  Gillespie,  used  to  sit.  He  would  come  here 
bringing  eighteen  or  twenty  of  the  very  best  horses  from  Ken 
tucky.  There  were  a  lot  of  pretty  girls  around,  and  when  he 
came  we  would  have  a  party,  and  oh !  how  he  would  dance !  " 

But  the  prettiest  girl  of  all  to  him  was  a  daughter  of  the 
house,  Tamar  Elizabeth  Purcell,  who  became  his  wife  and  suc 
ceeded  the  Irish  Eleanor  and  the  Indian  "Marey"  as  mistress 
of  Indian  hill. 

Of  their  children,  John,  the  eldest,  known  for  his  fine  Greek 
and  Latin  scholarship,  died  before  his  father,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
eight,  leaving  a  daughter,  to  become  Mother  Angela,  the  first 
superior  of  the  Sisters  of  The  Holy  Cross  in  America.  William 
Louis  was  educated  for  a  priest,  but  fell  in  love  with  a  girl  and 
resumed  the  world  with  its  natural  cares,  joys,  and  responsi 
bilities.  Maria  Louise,  said  by  her  admirers  to  have  been  the 
most  beautiful  woman  in  Pennsylvania,  and  who  was  indeed 
fair  to  look  upon,  even  in  her  old  age,  and  as  gentle  and  loving 
as  she  was  beautiful,  was  the  young  woman  of  whom  Ephraim 


MR.    BLAINE'S    FATHER 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  o7 

Lyon  bethought  himself  on  the  heights  of  Sewickley,  and  her 
he  went  into  the  "  backwoods v  to  bring.  From  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  at  Pittsburg,  the  Rev.  Father  Maguire  came 
down  to  marry  them,  at  the  old  Indian-hill  farm ;  and  Ephraim 
Blaine  bore  her  home  on  a  characteristic  wedding-journey, 
handling  his  horses  himself,  loving  with  an  ardent  if  not  equal 
love  both  bride  and  steed.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  was  on 
this  or  a  later  or  an  earlier  journey  that  he  began  to  indoctrinate 
her  into  horsemanship  with  his  daring  feats.  "  Maria,  do  you 
see  those  two  trees  yonder  ?"  "  Oh  !  my  dear,  don't  —  don't  try 
to  go  between  them ! "'  cried  her  prophetic  soul.  "  Oh,  no 
danger  ! '"  And  away  they  would  whirl  and  never  hit  a  tree ! 
"  I  don't  know  how  many  years,''  gasped  the  poor  lady,  with 
smiling,  pathetic  pride,  "  I  was  in  terror  of  my  life  when 
your  father  asked  me  to  drive.'' 

But  they  reached  Sewickley  in  safety  and  shared  also  the 
social  and  business  life  of  Pittsburg. 

There  children  were  born  to  them,  and  there,  alas !  they  died. 
The  first  little  boy  bore  the  name  of  his  grandfather  and  his 
great-great-grandfather  scarce  one  swift  year,  and  then  was 
laid  in  the  old  Roman  Catholic  burying-ground  at  Pittsburg. 
Twenty-one,  twenty-three,  twenty-five,  twenty-seven,  through 
the  decade  of  1820,  came  little  Blaines  in  regular  succession, 
and  the  declining  health  of  the  Brownsville  father  drew  the 
mother  to  her  old  home  on  the  Monongahela.  The  Sewickley 
father  also  was  falling  into  decline.  The  same  year  that 
brought  him  a  daughter-in-law  had  taken  away  from  him  a 
daughter — Eleanor,  by  her  marriage  with  John  Hoge  Ewing. 

When  David  Hoge  delivered  up  his  sheriff's  staff  to  Ephraim 
Blaine  in  Cumberland  county  in  1771,  he  went  straightway 
West  and  bought  up  a  large  portion  of  the  Chartiers  valley, 
and  upon  it  he  laid  out  the  town  of  Washington  to  be  the 
capital  of  the  new  Washington  county.  In  the  log  house  of 
David  Hoge  the  first  court  of  the  county  was  held,  Oct.  2, 1781. 
Having  thus  secured  the  capital,  he  followed  up  his  advantage 
by  giving  four  lots  for  a  courthouse  and  prison,  two  lots  to  His 
Excellency  George  Washington,  who  dearly  loved  land,  and  who 
especially  had  an  abiding  faith  in  corner  lots,  and  who  accepted 
them  without  a  qualm  of  bribery.  Seventy  or  eighty  acres 


58  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

wise  David  Hoge  laid  aside  for  a  common,  and  then  speedily 
sold  the  whole  enterprise  to  his  sons  John  and  William,  who 
took  up  residence  there,  while  he  preserved  for  himself  his 
own  homestead  in  Cumberland  county. 

The  son  William  married  Isabella  Lyon,  Margaret's  sister, 
which  may  have  made  it  easier  for  her  to  call  her  own  little 
daughter  for  Jane  Hoge,  who  had  been  William's  sister.  It 
had  also  established  a  special  personal  interest  and  family 
.centre  for  the  Blaines  in  Washington.  William  Hoge  was 
elected  and  reflected  member  of  Congress,  and  was  afterwards 
made  associate  judge.  After  his  death,  his  wife  married  Alex 
ander  Reed,  from  Donegal,  son  of  Robert  Reed,  who  was  called 
to  Ireland  from  Scotland  to  preach  against  the  Arian  heresy,  and 
preached  it  so  successfully  that  his  church  at  one  time  had 
one  thousand  communicants,  and  his  children  and  great-grand 
children  became  sole  occupants  of  its  pulpit  for  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years.  His  first  wife  had  been  daughter  of  that  Colin 
McFarquhar  who  preached  in  Donegal  church  for  thirty  years, 
and  who  had  been  fain  to  attest  to  his  loving,  but  doubting, 
parishioners  his  loyalty,  by  going  inside  the  circle  around  The 
Witness  Tree  and  swinging  his  hat  with  a  hurrah  for  the 
Continental  cause  ! 

Mr.  Reed  was  a  public-spirited  citizen  whom  all  the  world 
delighted  to  honor,  and  Isabella's  house  had  thus  been  a  pleas 
ant  and  wholesome  home  to  her  kinsfolk,  and  there  her  young 
niece,  Eleanor,  had  met  an  extremely  clever  and  promising 
young  man,  by  the  name  of  Ewing.  His  father,  coming  down 
from  that  inexhaustible  Scotch-Irish  hive  through  York,  had 
received  his  education  under  the  direction  of  his  kinsman,  Dr. 
John  Ewing,  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Phila 
delphia,  and  provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
had  served  his  country  on  weighty  public  and  political  commis 
sions,  and  braver  still,  had  breasted  Dr.  Johnson  with  the  soft 
answer  that  not  only  turned  away  his  wrath,  but  turned  it 
into  complacency  for  the  ignorant  Americans  who  "  never  read 
anything."  "We  have  all  read  '  The  Rambler,'  sir,"  returned  — 
it  is  so  bland  one  cannot  say  retorted  —  the  suave  Ewing.  An 
intimate  friend  of  John  Hoge,  Mr.  Ewing  had  given  the  name 
to  his  son,  and  when  the  boy  came  to  Washington  to  attend 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  59 

the  college,  John  Hoge  took  him  into  his  own  family.  After 
his  graduation  the  young  man  remained  in  Washington  study 
ing  and  practising  law,  practising  the  gospel  also  by  every 
good  word  and  work.  It  was  this  young  man  whom  Eleanor 
Elaine  had  met  on  her  visits  to  her  aunt  Isabella  in  Washing 
ton.  On  the  footing  of  a  cousin,  though  in  fact  no  relation, 
a  classmate  of  her  brother  Ephraim  and  born  the  same  year, 
it  befell  that  one  week  after  Ephraim  Blaine  married  Maria 
Gillespie,  Eleanor  Blaine  married  John  Hoge  Ewing  —  in  her 
Aunt  Isabella's  house,  — because,  if  married  in  Sewickley,  the 
way  thence  was  so  rough,  and  the  steamers  so  uncertain,  that 
they  ran  the  risk  of  having  to  take  their  wedding  journey  in  a 
flatboat,  with  all  and  sundry  of  its  inconveniences  and  dis 
comforts. 

Another  daughter  of  James  Blaine  had  also  married  in  Wash 
ington, —  the  little  Jane  Hoge,  — whose  husband  was  the  founder 
of  the  first  newspaper  established  in  Washington.  Thus  when 
age  was  drawing  on  and  Sewickley  grew  too  remote  from 
kindred  for  the  repose  of  the  evening  of  life,  the  elder  Blaines 
could  but  be  attracted  to  the  place  where  so  many  of  their 
family  had  gathered.  Moreover,  a  house  awaited  them,  not 
too  far  for  neighborhood  or  too  near  for  independence,  to  which 
John  Hoge  Ewing  and  his  wife  Eleanor  besought  and  brought 
her  parents.  Here  James  Blaine  —  a  tall  and  handsome  man 
still,  with  figure  scarcely  bowed  and  only  a  becoming  portli 
ness,  with  head  whitened  by  years  and  bright  eyes  undimmed 
—  came  with  Margaret  Lyon  to  the  society  and  vicinity  of 
their  own  people,  and  there  on  the  green  hillside  that  might 
well  suggest  the  Cave  farm  of  his  youthful  years,  he  passed 
the  serene  evening  of  his  life  among  his  children  and  his 
grandchildren. 

The  Sewickley  homestead  went  to  strangers  —  a  sect  or  com 
munity  called  the  Economites,  who  gladly  bought  the  Blaine 
lands  and  added  thereto.  The  old  Blaine  dwelling-house 
still  stands,  but  was  moved  to  a  different  site  and  used  for 
a  school-house,  though  still  some  personal  belongings  remain 
to  speak  of  the  refined  and  cultured  family  that  once  occu 
pied  it.  The  earth  yields  her  increase  as  of  old,  and  the 
breezes  sing-  as  freshlv,  but  the  factories  of  the  Economites 


60  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

are  as  deserted  as  the  drawing-rooms  of  James  Elaine,  and 
the  life  of  the  place  is  garnered  in  the  wine-cellars  where  the 
fifty-year-old  wine  and  the  year-old  cider,  drunk  instead  of 
water,  mock  the  Prohibitionists  with  their  witness  that  the 
Economites  know  no  drunkenness  or  peevishness,  but  are  rich, 
charitable,  musical,  and  happy  ! 

It  has  often  been  said  that  if  James  Elaine  and  Ephraim  his 
son  had  kept  this  farm  instead  of  selling  it,  the  heirs  would 
have  been  worth  millions.  Yes ;  and  if  Lord  Donegal's  prede 
cessors  had  retained  their  property  and  managed  prudently, 
his  income  would  have  been  $1,250,000,  whereas  his  whole 
Irish  property  is  1205,000.  And  as  James  Elaine's  grandson 
was  wont  to  quote,  —  what  we  may  adopt,  as  Virgil  did  his 
Homer,  with  variations,  —  if  Columbus  had  sold  the  feather 
in  his  cap  and  put  the  money  out  at  compound  interest,  the 
Duke  of  Veragua  would  have  been  richer  than  all  the  United 
States  of  America,  to  which  he  is  holding  out  his  hat ;  but 
nobody  desired  to  pay  interest  on  Columbus's  feather,  and 
Columbus  needed  the  feather  to  wear;  and  James  Elaine  and 
his  son  wanted  the  $25,000  more  than  they  wanted  to  live  in 
Sewickley  and  compound  interest  for  their  descendants  —  not 
to  suggest  that  it  was  better  for  the  descendants  to  compound 
their  own  interest.  So  there  is  no  discredit  to  be  visited  either 
upon  heart  or  head  ;  for  how  could  James  Elaine  or  Ephraim 
his  son  see  that  the  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago  Railroad 
and  all  the  Panhandle  lines  were  coming  around  by  Sewickley, 
and  that  the  angel  of  the  bottomless  pit  would  turn  the  key  at 
the  forks  of  the  Ohio,  and  its  smoke  and  fire  should  be  belched 
through  a  thousand  chimneys  as  the  smoke  of  a  great  furnace, 
and  the  sun  and  the  air  be  darkened  by  reason  of  the  smoke  of 
the  pit  ? 

So  Ephraim  and  Maria  went  to  Erownsville  —  first  in  the 
grand  old  house  which  their  father  built,  the  first  stone  house 
erected  west  of  the  Monongahela ;  afterwards  colonizing  in  a 
house  of  their  own  building  close  at  hand.  And  there  on  Sun 
day,  the  31st  of  January,  A.D.  1830,  from  all  the  sturdy 
strength,  the  unconquerable  will,  the  joyous  vigor,  the  civic 
virtues,  the  patriotic  passion,  the  home  sanctities  of  all  the 
Galbraiths  and  Blaines  and  Armstrongs  and  Lyons  and  Gilles- 


MR.    ELAINE'S    MOTHER. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  61 

pies,  a  boy  was  born,  whom  for  his  grandfathers  on  the  one  side 
they  named  James,  and  for  his  grandfathers  on  the  other  side 
they  named  Gillespie,  to  whom  it  was  given  to  serve  his 
country  on  the  heights,  and  to  uplift  in  her  name  the  stand 
ard  of  peace  on  earth,  goodwill  to  men — James  Gillespie 
Blaine. 


Here,  but  for  the  one  little  unknown  quantity,  this  biography 
would  IP-  finished.  But  for  the  one  fact  of  differentiation,  the  man 
is  accounted  for.  The  mental  soil  from  which  he  sprang  turns  up 
rich  in  all  the  qualities  that  nurture  statesmen  ;  yet  proof  need 
not  be  furnished  that,  without  the  mysterious  germ  of  genius,  all 
the  fruitful  soil  is  no  more  fruitful  than  the  arid  sand-bank. 
Therefore  the  quest  goes  on.  Man,  by  searching,  cannot  find  out 
G-od,  but  the  search  is  the  noblest  effort  and  occupation  of  human 
ity.  We  may  not  solve  the  mystery  of  the  Divine  germ,  but  having 
studied  its  habitat  we  may  further  seek  its  actual  environment 
—  what  sun  fed  it,  what  deivs  refreshed  it,  of  what  rains  it  drank 
vigor,  what  rocking  winds  nerved  its  tender  roots  and  shoots  to 
sinewy  strength  and  steadfastness,  till  it  brought  forth  boughs 
and  bore  fruit  and  became  a  goodly  cedar. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (/.    BLA1NE. 


V. 

EARLY   EDUCATION. 

rpHUS  the  new  little  life  placed  itself ;  in  the  open,  hills  climb- 
-*-  ing  to  the  sky,  the  broad  eternal  river,  and  along  and 
across  its  eternal  current  the  eternal  ebb  and  flow  of  human 
life  and .  human  interests ;  parental  tenderness  and  parental 
culture  to  cherish  growth;  a  large  and  varied  family  circle 
to  represent  the  great  human  family  outside. 

It  was  a  happy  life,  and  the  memory  of  it  never  faded - 
unless  memory  itself  fades  in  the  grave.  Development  was 
healthy,  natural,  simple.  There  was  no  precocity.  The  man's 
own  theory  of  his  boyhood  was  that  he  was  uncommonly  slow 
and  dull,  so  that  some  of  his  elders  believed  him  deficient.  He 
did  not  learn  to  read  till  he  was  seven  years  old.  He  lived  out 
doors  with  his  magnificent  playthings,  the  river,  the  woods,  the 
hills,  the  farms;  with  his  sympathetic  and  agile  play-fellows, 
the  birds  and  squirrels  and  horses,  the  farmers  and  the  gardeners. 
All  the  seed  sown,  all  the  harvests  gathered,  all  the  bloom  of 
spring,  all  the  ripening  autumn,  was  his  interest  and  his  sport. 
If  he  learned  no  books,  he  had  the  culture  of  obedience  to 
parental  law,  and  of  intimacy  with  his  father  and  mother. 

He  had  also  the  liberal  education  of  the  National  Road  on 
which  the  Elaine  and  Gillespie  homes  were  located,  and  which 
brought  Brownsville  to  the  forefront  of  the  world,  while  Pitts- 
burg  was  considered  and  called  by  Brownsville  "  the  back  door." 

Washington  had  made  it  his  first  duty  after  his  retirement 
from  the  command  of  the  army  to  arrange  for  easy  communica 
tion  between  East  and  West,  either  by  land  or  water,  and  thus 
make  a  community  of  interests  and  prevent  the  new  nation 
from  falling  to  pieces.  The  country  had  had  glory  enough. 
What  it  now  needed  was  stability.  Just  as  Rome  built  her 
Appian  Way,  just  as  Egypt  bordered  the  Nile  with  her 


64  ttTOGKATHY     <>/•'    JAMES    U.     HLAIVK. 

National  Roads  to  all  points  whithersoever  the  tide  of  travel 
could  flow,  so  Washington  projected  for  the  young  nation  its 
channels  of  life.  As  a  surveyor  and  a  soldier  he  had  marched 
through  the  wilderness,  and  he  knew  where  to  go.  It  is 
said  that  he  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Albert  Gallatin  sit 
ting  on  a  log  on  the  Monongahela,  surrounded  by  frontiersmen 
talking  about  the  best  route  for  a  new  road.  To  one  of  them 
with  a  foreign  look  who  had  volunteered  an  opinion,  George 
Washington  vouchsafed  a  surprised  glance  and  no  reply  till  he 
had  completed  his  examination,  when  he  announced,  "  Young 
man,  you  are  right.  Your  route  is  the  true  one."  The  young 
foreigner  came  to  be  his  secretary  of  the  treasury  and  right- 
hand  man,  Albert  Gallatin. 

During  his  administrations  and  the  succeeding  ones  to 
1811  the  road  was  before  Congress,  and  in  the  summer  of  1820 
it  was  open  for  travel  from  Cumberland  in  Maryland,  to  Wheel 
ing  in  Virginia,  contiguous  on  the  East  to  Braddock's  line  of 
inarch  from  Cumberland  to  Fort  Duquesne.  It  had  cost  the 
government  nearly  $1, 700,000,  and  of  it  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  just  as  truly  as  of  the  Central  and  Pacific  roads  in  its 
later  years,  might  Edward  Pierrepont  say,  "  It  matters  little 
what  the  government  advanced  to  build  them.  This  great 
highway  is  of  priceless  value  to  the  nation.  Had  it  cost  the 
Federal  treasury  ten  times  more  than  it  did,  it  were  money 
well  invested." 

All  the  expectations  which  had  been  cherished  of  the  travel 
and  trade  that  would  pour  through  it  fell  far  short  of  the 
reality.  The  stories  of  its  glories  are  innumerable.  Twenty- 
five  stage-coaches,  with  every  seat  occupied,  would  pull  out  at 
the  same  time  from  Wheeling  on  the  west,  from  Cumberland  on 
the  east.  Thirty  stages,  fully  loaded,  stopped  at  one  hotel  in  a 
single  day;  sixteen  coaches,  crammed  with  passengers,  in  close 
procession  crossed  the  bridge  at  West  Brownsville.  If  one  is 
to  believe  the  reports,  an  unbroken  line  of  presidents,  presidents- 
elect  and  ex-presidents,  senators  and  representatives  and  secre 
taries,  were  passing  through  Brownsville  on  their  way  to  and 
from  Washington  the  great.  Little  Washington,  as  the  county 
seat  of  Washington  is  affectionately  called,  was  for  a  while  left 
aside,  but  by  vigorous  urging  of  her  claims  she  had  induced 


HIOGRAPHY     OF    .IAMKS    (!.     HLAIXE.  65 

the  great  road  to  come  her  way.  Over  this  road  the  world 
rolled  past  the  Elaine  house,  and  the  little  ones  became  a 
part  of  it.  There  were  long  lines  of  wagons  going  east  with 
produce  of  the  fields,  going  west  with  the  produce  of  the  mines 
and  manufactories.  There  were  men  on  horseback  and  in  pri 
vate  carriages,  and  foot  passengers  and  four-foot  passengers  innu 
merable.  This  made  an  army  of  men  to  feed  and  lodge,  which 
caused  public  houses  to  spring  up,  one  for  every  two  miles  along 
the  road.  Drovers  with  their  teams  stopped  anywhere  upon 
the  route  ;  but  passengers  were  lodged  chiefly  at  the  large 
towns,  like  Brownsville  and  Washington ;  stations  precisely  as 
far  apart  as  were  the  stations  on  Egypt's  national  roads  —  with 
the  difference  only  that  the  Coptic  drivers  rested  their  camels 
by  day  and  the  Pennsylvania  drivers  rested  their  horses  by 
night.  Forty  great  Conestoga  six-horse  teams,  carrying  from 
five  to  six  tons  each,  would  be  picketed  around  the  yard  and 
on  the  commons  of  a  single  tavern,  and  a  continuous  procession 
of  these  huge  caravansaries  passed  daily  over  the  great  road. 

In  all  this  stirring  world  the  accomplished  father,  still  in  his 
early  prime,  took  an  active  and  leading  part,  and  the  eager 
sympathetic  mind  of  the  boy  was  in  full  touch  with  affairs,  and 
quickened  by  the  contact.  The  Monkey-box  mail  and  the 
Oyster  express  had  as  many  charms  for  a  boy  as  had  the  states 
men  and  merchants,  the  Monroes  and  Jacksons,  the  Polks  and 
Bells  and  Clays,  who  stopped  to  rest.  The  National  Road  was 
turned  over  to  the  State,  but  without  loss  of  importance.  Of 
the  times  and  seasons  of  the  stage  lines,  the  National,  the 
Good  Intent,  the  June  Bug,  and  the  Pioneer,  the  boy  knew  the 
arrivals  and  departures  and  prowess,  as  well  as  the  drivers. 
He  knew  which  drivers  could  harness  four  horses  in  four 
minutes  and  change  teams  before  the  stage  ceased  rocking,  and 
he  shared  their  ambitions  and  their  successes.  The  drivers' 
orders  were  to  make  time  on  the  ten  or  twelve  mile  relays  even 
if  they  killed  horses,  —  ten  miles  at  full  run  if  they  were  a  little 
behind ;  and  if  a  poor  horse  fell  disabled  he  was  unharnessed 
and  dragged  aside.  Even  so  late  as  President  Polk's  day  sucli 
trouble  came,  and  the  President-elect,  on  his  way  to  his  inau 
guration,  alighted  and  lent  his  helping  hand  to  the  poor  off 
wheel-horse  that  had  failed.  Henry  Clay,  arriving-  from  the 


66  lilOGKAPUY    OF    JAMES    <7.     ELAINE. 

South  at  Cincinnati,  and  finding  the  Ohio  river  frozen,  came 
by  stage  to  Lancaster ;  thence  the  roads  were  impassable  till  a 
young  German  was  induced-  to  drive  him  to  Wheeling,  won  by 
the  fifty  dollars  offered,  which  fifty  dollars  became  the  basis  of 
the  largest  farm  in  the  county.  In  1841,  driver  Noble  was  driv 
ing  Henry  Clay  down  the  hill  at  Brownsville  to  the  bridge,  when 
the  wheels  encountered  a  rut  and  Clay  \vas  thrown  through  the 
window  and  left  standing  upon  his  head  in  the  mud,  and  the 
historian  would  bate  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  that  perpendic 
ular,  out  of  regard  to  the  proprieties  or  even  necessities  of 
the  story.  The  Monkey-box  mail  and  other  mails  brought  to 
the  Blaine  doors  the  earliest  and  widest  news  of  the  world's 
doings.  One  of  the  lad's  first  literary  recollections  was  of  the 
arrival  of  the  English  illustrated  newspapers,  and  his  father 
reading  them  aloud  and  exhibiting  their  pictures  to  such  as 
gathered  to  listen,  of  family  and  neighbors.  Thus  he  grew 
familiar  with  much  that  was  interesting  the  people  long  be 
fore  he  could  read  it  himself,  and  as  his  retentive  memory 
served  him  for  a  somewhat  intelligent  judgment  he  became 
actively  concerned  for  the  girl-queen  of  England,  and  a  violent 
Whig  partisan  at  the  early  age  of  seven.  Perhaps  his  first 
lesson  in  French  History  was  given  him  by  his  father's  French 
gardener,  who  was  setting  out  strawberry  plants,  and  said  to 
the  little  lad  who  was  watching  him  :  "  That  is  the  way  the 
king's  strawberries  are  set."  "  What  king  ? "  asked  the  boy. 
"  Louis  Philippe."  And  thus  the  story  became  a  personal 
association. 

His  happy,  careless,  busy  life  at  Indian  hill  continued  till  he 
was  nearly  ten  years  of  age  —  varied  by  occasional  attendance  at 
neighboring  schools.  His  first  sally  into  the  great  world  was  in 
the  winter  of  1839  —  when,  nothing  loth,  he  visited  a  houseful  of 
Gillespie-Ewing  cousins  in  Lancaster,  Ohio.  Hugh  Ewing,  who 
was  three  years  his  senior,  and  Thomas,  who  was  about  his  age, 
grandsons  of  Eleanor  Gillespie,  who  had  married  Hugh  Boyle, 
were  his  most  intimate  friends  and  companions.  They  attended 
a  private  school  on  Wheeling  street  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  kept 
by  William  Lyons,  an  Englishman,  a  younger  brother  of  Lord 
Alfred  Edward  Lyons,  who  Avon  fame  in  the  Crimean  war, 
and  an  uncle  of  Lord  Lyons,  who  was  British  minister  at 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     HLAINE.  t>7 

Washington  soon  after  our  war  of  the  Rebellion.  Mr.  Lyon 
numbered  among  his  accomplishments  portrait-painting,  and, 
after  the  fashion  of  England,  offered  a  prize  to  the  most  merito 
rious  scholar,  which  in  this  case  was  the  portrait  of  the  winner 
painted  by  Mr.  Lyon.  Thomas  was  so  inconsiderate  of  his 
guest  as  to  win  the  prize  from  him,  and  even  rejoice  over  the 
success.  His  cousin  James,  however,  came  in  as  a  handsome 
second.  We  may  afford,  perhaps,  to  turn  aside  long  enough  to 
drop  a  tear  over  the  ignoble  fate  of  the  prize.  The  portrait  was 
hung  in  the  proud  father's  office.  When  the  elder  Mr.  Ewing 
went  to  Washington  to  enter  President  Harrison's  cabinet,  the 
office  was  rented  to  two  dress-makers,  and  they,  heedless  of  its 
high  emprise,  used  the  canvas  for  a  pin-cushion,  to  its  utter  ruin 
as  a  work  of  art. 

When  school  was  over  and  summer  came  on,  the  boys  made 
many  visits  about  the  beautiful  country  surrounding  Lancaster 
—  going  forty  miles  south  to  the  home  of  Mrs.  Ewing's  sister, 
Mrs.  Samuel  Denman,  a  first  cousin  of  Mrs.  Blaine.  Mr. 
Denman  was  a  salt  manufacturer  on  Sunday  creek,  two  miles 
above  its  mouth.  Here  the  boys'  club  was  increased  by  the  ad 
dition  of  the  two  Denman  boys,  "  Hamp  "  and  Matthias,  of  about 
the  same  age,  and  the  five  had  "  royal  fun  "  for  several  weeks 
that  summer,  blaekberrying,  swimming  in  the  Hocking  river  and 
Sunday  creek,  building  salt  furnaces  and  boiling  salt,  collecting 
from  the  coal  mines  impressions  of  sigillaria  and  lepidodendra, 
club  mosses  and  tree  ferns,  in  which  the  roofs  of  the  coal  mine 
abounded. 

As  the  visit  in  Lancaster  drew  toward  a  close  in  the  early  fall 
of  1840,  it  was  crowned  with  a  trip  to  Columbus,  thirty  miles 
from  Lancaster.  The  father,  willing  to  do  the  boys  a  pleasure 
and  give  them  a  taste  of  independence,  provided  them  with  his 
carriage  and  horses  and  a  proper  supply  of  money  for  a  holiday 
excursion.  Hugh,  being  the  older  and  more  masterful,  was 
given  the  purse  and  the  reins,  with  implied  general  command. 
It  was  a  fresh,  cool  September  morning  ;  the  country  was  lovely 
and  bountiful  with  ripening  harvests,  and  they  set  out  in  high 
glee. 

At  Greencastle,  a  village  eight  miles  from  Lancaster,  they 
drove  bv  a  street-corner  where  the  Democrats  -  -  the  Loco 


ti8  RJOGKAPtir    OF    JAMRS    W.     hLAINE. 

Focos,  as  they  were  then  called  —  had  just  erected  a  pole  with 
the  Van  Buren  and  Johnson  flag  floating  from  it,  its  top  sur 
mounted  by  a  hickory  bush,  or  brush,  signifying  that  the 
Democrats  of  the  Old  Hickory  type  would  prove  to  the  Whigs 
the  besom  of  destruction  and  sweep  them  all  away.  This 
aroused  in  the  small  West  Brownsville  politician  a  resentment 
which  his  high  spirits  and  independent  position  at  that  moment 
would  not  allow  him  to  suppress.  Several  "  loafers "  were 
standing  by.  As  Hugh  drove  past,  young  Blaine  stood  up,  put 
his  finger  to  his  nose,  and  shook  his  hand  in  derision.  At 
this  Hugh  was  greatly  offended.  He  told  Blaine  that  every 
body  knew  that  this  was  his  father's  carriage,  and  that  they 
were  of  his  family,  and  would  regard  this  conduct  as  person 
ally  insulting.  The  youngster  was  in  too  high  spirits  to  be 
snubbed,  and  felt  that  Hugh  was  taking  on  airs  of  superiority 
over  a  free  and  independent  State.  He  stoutly  maintained  his 
right  to  make  the  unseemly  gesture.  Hugh  said  he  must  not 
do  it  again,  or  he  would  get  into  trouble.  "  I  will  do  it  again. 
I  will  do  it  when  we  come  back/'  "  If  you  do,  I  will  put  you 
out  of  the  buggy,"  declared  the  commander  resolutely ;  and 
they  rode  on  full  of  fight,  but  as  the  danger-point  vanished  in 
the  lengthening  distance,  full  of  fun. 

They  had  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Col.  John  Noble,  father 
of  Hon.  John  W.  Noble,  recently  Mr.  Ewing's  successor  as 
Secretary  of  the  Interior.  Colonel  Noble  owned  the  principal 
hotel  in  Columbus,  and  he  and  Mr.  Ewing  were  warm  friends. 
They  were  cordially  welcomed  by  Colonel  Noble,  and  informed 
as  to  all  that  a  party  of  boys  would  wish  to  see  and  do  at 
the  capital.  They  ate  the  fat  and  drank  the  sweets.  They 
fished  in  Alum  creek,  they  swam  in  the  Scioto  and  under 
went  a  distressing  experience  in  having  their  clothing  stolen 
and  hidden  in  the  bushes  while  they  were  in  swimming,  by  a 
couple  of  young  ruffians  who  made  great  sport  of  their  trouble, 
but  who  relented  at  last  and  told  them  where  to  find  the 
clothes.  They  visited  the  penitentiary  and  the  asylum,  and 
as  a  special  favor  were  admitted  to  the  yard  inclosing  the 
State  capitol,  then  being  built  by  convicts. 

They  had  been  in  Columbus  a  week  or  more,  but  had  not 
exhausted  the  novelty  when  their  money  began  to  run  low 


BIOGRAPHY    Of'    JAMES    (J.     HLAIJUE.  69 

and  after  calculating  as  well  as  they  could  what  their  hotel 
bill  would  be,  found  it  very  plain  that  they  would  have  no 
more  to  spend  for  ice  cream,  ginger  beer,  and  other  luxuries 
so  necessary  to  an  outing.  Wherefore,  they  believed  that  the 
hand  of  prudence  on  the  clock  of  time  pointed  to  the  hour  for 
departure.  Hence,  after  breakfast  one  morning,  Hugh  stepped 
up  to  Colonel  Noble,  who  sat  in  the  shade  in  front  of  his 
hotel,  and  asked  to  have  the  carriage  and  horses  brought.  The 
Colonel  rang  the  stable  bell  and  ordered  the  carriage.  Hugh 
then  —  a  little  shyly,  but  proudly,  as  becomes  a  man  —  asked 
for  the  bill.  "  Oh,  boys,"  was  the  unexpected  answer,  "  I  won't 
charge  you  anything,  not  a  cent."  This  sudden  change  in 
the  situation  nearly  wrought  a  panic.  A  council  of  war  was 
hurriedly  summoned  in  the  corner  of  the  piazza,  and  a  unani 
mous  agreement  was  reached  that  it  would  be  the  height  of 
folly  and  flying  in  the  face  of  Providence  to  go  home  with  all 
that  money  in  their  pockets,  and  they  accordingly  went  back 
to  Colonel  Noble,  thanked  him,  and  said  they  would  stay  a 
while  longer !  This  was  too  much  for  the  polite  Colonel's 
gravity,  and  he  sank  back  in  his  chair  with  unaccountable 
laughter.  "  Here,  John,  take  back  those  horses  —  the  young- 
gentlemen  don't  want  them  !  "  And  another  week  of  independ 
ence  flew  by,  till  the  money  was  satisfactorily  disposed  of  and 
there  was  no  question  of  further  stay.  They  therefore  bade 
their  genial  and  generous  host  good-by,  and  set  out  for  home. 
They  were  merry,  jocose,  and  noisy  till  they  drove  up  a  hill 
and  saw  Greencastle  and  the  hickory  pole  floating  the  Van 
Buren  flag.  Then  old  memories  returned.  An  ominous  silence 
fell  simultaneously  upon  the  trio.  Not  a  word  was  said  till 
they  came  to  the  pole.  The  hickory  brush  still  swept  the  sky. 
There  was  no  escape.  Three  hearts  beat  high  with  suspense, 
two  with  resolution.  The  horse's  head  was  on  line  with  the 
pole,  when  a  small  scapegrace  in  a  flash  was  on  his  feet  and  the 
offensive  gesture  was  in  full  swing.  But  in  an  instant  he  was 
off  his  feet,  for  the  equally  resolute  driver  reined  in  his  horse 
so  quickly  that  the  offender  was  nearly  thrown  over  the  dash 
board.  He  did  not  wait  to  be  ordered  out,  but  sprang  lightly 
and  defiantly  from  the  carriage,  jumped  over  a  fence  into  a 
field,  and  struck  out  towards  Lancaster  without  a  word,  with- 


70  niOGKAHHY    OF    JAMES    G.     KLAINE. 

out  even  so  much  as  looking  back.  Little  Torn,  who  lived  to 
be  the  historian  of  the  occasion,  like  most  historians  was  not 
in  the  fight,  held  indeed  a  divided  sympathy,  but  well  knew 
that  wherever  his  sympathies  might  be,  his  big  brother  would 
make  short  work  of  him  if  he  attempted  to  put  in  a  word, 
and  so  wrapped  his  valor  in  discretion  and  silence.  They 
watched  the  withdrawing  rebel  a  moment,  till  Hugh  felt 
assured  from  the  direction  taken  that  he  was  making  for  the 
farm  of  a  near  relative,  Aunt  Gillespie,  widow  of  the  brilliant 
Uncle  John,  whose  house,  though  not  on  the  direct  road, 
was  two  miles  nearer  across  lots  than  Mr.  Swing's.  Fearing 
that  he  might  poison  Aunt  Gillespie's  mind  arriving  thus 
alone  and  footsore,  Hugh,  like  the  wise  general  he  was,  deter 
mined  to  leave  the  Lancaster  road,  and  get  there  first.  So 
the  small  villain  was  left  to  his  lonely  way,  poor  lamb,  with 
his  load  of  guilt,  for  he  must  have  known  he  was  wholly 
wrong ;  and,  doubtless,  Hugh  was  not  altogether  light-hearted, 
though  knowing  he  was  wholly  right  in  defending  his  father's 
dignity,  —  for  the  courage  of  our  convictions  sometimes  fails 
us. 

Of  course  Hugh  made  the  desired  connection.  They  paid 
their  respects  to  Aunt  Gillespie,  who  bade  them  be  of  good 
cheer,  while  a  bountiful  luncheon  was  prepared  for  boy  and 
beast.  They  had  eaten  and  were  full,  when,  peering  about  the 
grounds,  they  soon  discerned,  to  their  great  joy,  a  little  figure 
striding  sturdily  across  the  fields  ;  whereupon  the  happy  pair 
went  out  to  meet  the  prodigal,  and  instantly  and  amicably 
joined  forces,  attended  him  through  his  belated  luncheon, 
visited  the  cows  and  pigs  and  ducks  and  chickens,  the  young 
mules  and  jackasses  and  calves  and  colts,  in  unbroken  harmony, 
bade  their  aunt  good-by  with  the  innocence  of  infancy  and 
clear  conscience,  and  made  safe  port  at  home  in  the  most 
cordial  good-fellowship,  without  any  awkward  reference  to  the 
past,  either  in  conversation  with  Aunt  Gillespie,  with  the  home- 
stayers  or  each  other ! 

The  next  year  Master  Thomas  returned  the  visit  with  his 
father,  who  was  going  over  the  National  Road  to  Washington  to 
be  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Harrison.  Another  happy 
season  of  study  followed,  though  under  a  teacher  of  far  less 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  71 

education  and  culture  than  Mr.  Lyon.  The  cousins  organized 
a  debating  society  among  the  pupils  and  other  young  men  of 
the  village,  and  got  a  good  deal  of  useful  practice  in  debate. 
Two  of  Mr.  Elaine's  horses  were  devoted  to  their  use  out  of 
school  hours, —  "dappled-gray  and  splendid,"— on  which  they 
scoured  the  country  far  and  wide.  Their  longest  ride  was  to 
Washington  springs  in  Virginia.  "  Uncle  Will "  was  often 
with  them,  and  to  their  memory  no  man  was  ever  so  adapted 
to  going  about  with  boys  —  escort,  comrade,  teacher  —  as  the 
gentle,  home  and  child  loving,  yet  somewhat  sad-hearted  man, 
while  the  loving  mother,  beautiful  and  kind,  found  time  in  the 
midst  of  all  her  social,  domestic,  and  religious  duties  to  minister 
to  the  pleasure  of  the  boys  and  leave  a  memory  scarcely  less 
dear  and  bright  in  the  heart  of  her  guest  than  of  her  son. 

In  1842  the  father  was  elected  prothonotary  of  Washington 
county,  an  office  for  which,  perhaps,  his  legal  education  better 
fitted  him  than  for  the  business  in  which  he  was  often  tempted 
to  engage.  Of  this  office  Timothy  Pickering,  of  Washington's 
and  Adams's  cabinets,  when  contemplating  it  in  his  own  inter 
ests,  said:  "The  Register's  and  Prothonotary's  offices,  more 
especially  in  Pennsylvania,  require  much  law-knowledge  and 
the  more  the  incumbent  possesses  Avith  the  more  propriety  and 
facility  he  will  execute  them.  More  than  ever  law-knowledge 
in  the  Prothonotary,  will  now  be  useful  and  important,  on 
accpunt  of  the  increased  importance  of  the  Court  under  the 
new  constitution." 

When  Ephraim  Elaine  had  come  down  from  Sewickley, 
Erownsville  was,  in  modern  language,  "booming,"  and  he 
lent  a  quick  hand  to  the  boom.  In  1830  he  became  one  of 
the  corporators  for  the  building  of  a  bridge  over  the  Monon- 
gahela.  For  twenty  years  there  had  been  talk  of  such  a  bridge, 
but  it  had  proved  only  talk.  Now  the  amount  of  traffic  and 
travel  over  the  National  Road  justified  the  expenditure,  and  the 
bridge  was  built,  and  proved  a  most  profitable  investment  to 
the  stockholders,  especially  until  railroads  knocked  away  the 
profits,  if  not  the  props,  of  both  bridge  and  road. 

The  next  year,  in  furtherance  of  the  boom  and  its  profits, 
Mr.  Elaine  laid  out  the  Indian-hill  farm  into  lots  sixty  feet  wide 
and  of  varying  depth,  owing  to  the  abrupt  hill-side,  from  ninety- 


7  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

three  to  two  hundred  and  seventy  feet,  —  the  plot  of  the  town 
of  West  Brownsville.  He  also,  with  the  hereditary  tendency, 
adventured  a  partnership  in  a  steam  saw-mill,  under  the  title 
of  "  Crumrine  and  Elaine,"  who  were  to  be  equally  interested 
owners  of  the  property,  which  Blaine  chiefly  furnished  and 
Crumrine  was  to  superintend. 

But  the  boom  was  slow  of  development  in  West  Brownsville, 
and  had  to  be  patiently  nursed,  awaited  indeed  a  new  " plant" 
of  boat-building,  while  a  growing  family  to  be  reared  and  edu 
cated  made  it  hard  to  wait.  A  generous  disposition,  abounding 
hospitality,  expensive  tastes  without  the  frugality  which  natu 
rally  attends  the  slow  accumulation  of  fortune,  had  drawn  the 
Middlesex  estate  and  the  Sewickley  estate,  and  other  outlying 
estates,  to  very  tenuous  proportions.  Handsome,  fascinating, 
popular,  u  always  beautifully  dressed,"  says  one,  "  ah !  Mr. 
Blaine  was  a  man  of  ability.  I  remember  yet  his  courtlv  air 
as  he  came  up  the  street,  his  bow  so  elegant  and  noticeable, 
yet  nothing  Chesterneldian  about  it  —  but  he  made  the  money 
fly !  '  There  is  a  report  in  Washington  that  when  he  drove 
over  to  assume  his  office,  his  horses'  fore  feet  were  shod 
with  silver,  which  shows  the  same  picturesque  imagination  in 
interior  Pennsylvania  as  that  which  flourished  in  Nero's  stables 
and  furnished  Poppsea's  horses  with  shoes  of  gold.  An  in 
choate  museum  in  Washington  still  holds  the  ruins  of  the 
famous  T-cart  which  the  silver-shod  steeds,  driven  tandem,  s\yept 
around  her  street  corners  amid  much  gazing  from  quiet  win 
dows.  Fine  stables  Mr.  Blaine  certainly  kept,  and  two  of  his 
magnificent  chestnut  sorrels  dwell  in  the  memory  of  men  yet 
living  —  Bolivar  and  Beaver ;  the  first  named  in  admiration  of 
Simon  Bolivar,  the  South  American  dictator,  the  second  in 
honor  of  General  Beaver,  an  old  family  friend  of  the  Blaines. 
The  deeds  of  derring  doe  performed  with  that  team  still  make 
timid  blood  run  cold. 

The  grandfather,  Neal  Gillespie,  had  his  own  loves  and  tastes 
in  the  matter  of  horses,  which  in  the  mental  lapse  of  his  later 
years  took  somewhat  grotesque  forms,  —  like  galloping  with 
three  horses  abreast,  or  insisting  upon  sleigh-riding  in  the  sum 
mer, —  yet  left  a  certain  set  of  mental  faculties  in  all  their 
pristine  keenness.  His  eccentricities  at  length  so  increased  that 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  73 

his  sons  and  his  son-in-law  agreed  that  a  proceeding  de  lunatico 
inquirendo  should  be  instituted  to  save  the  estate  from  waste. 
His  ferries  were  losing  money,  and  his  business  in  general  was 
suffering.  The  old  Anak  drew  his  Irish  wits  together,  defended 
himself  in  person  with  great  force  of  argument,  humor,  and  good- 
natured  sarcasm.  He  described  his  business  career  and  accu 
mulation  of  fortune,  and  admitted  that  there  was  plausible 
ground  for  the  inquiry  of  lunacy  because  he  was  permitting  his 
large  and  well-earned  fortune  to  go  to  the  support  of  those  fine- 
gentleman  loafers,  his  sons,  and  his  tandem  son-in-law  !  The 
court  broke  up  in  roars  of  laughter,  in  which  none  joined  more 
heartily  than  father  and  sons.  But  the  wavering  faculties  were 
steadied  only  for  the  time. 

One  of  his  "  chums  "  was  Father  Murphy,  the  Catholic  priest, 
who  lived  over  the  river,  on  the  top  of  the  high  hill  in  Browns 
ville  adjoining  the  Catholic  church.  In  those  later  days  his 
feet  wandered  thither  so  often  as  sometimes  to  interfere  with 
priestly  duties.  On  one  evening  as  he  climbed  the  hill,  he  saw 
the  priest's  head  above  the  low  curtain  of  the  lighted  win 
dow  ;  but  when  he  reached  the  house  the  servant  said 
Father  Murphy  had  gone  out.  u  Ah,  gone  out,  has  he  ?  "  said 
Mr.  Gillespie  blandly.  u  Give  my  compliments  to  Father 
Murphy,  and  tell  him  the  next  time  he  goes  out  to  take  his 
d d  old  bald  head  with  him." 

But  Neal  Gillespie  was  lying  beside  his  father  and  his  mother, 
at  rest  on  Indian  hill,  with  his  son  John  at  his  side,  and  knew 
nothing  of  waning  means  or  growing  needs. 

When  Ephraim  Blaine  became  Whig  candidate  for  prothon-* 
otary,  the  charge  was  trumped  up  against  him  that  he  was  a 
Catholic,  to  which  his   marriage   into   a   Catholic  family  gave 
currency.      Straightforward  and  straightway  he   went  to  the" 
family  priest  for  a  certificate  of  non-membership.     The  priest, 
with  a  gleeful  twinkle,  wrote  him  the  certificate  on  the  spot : 

"  This  is  to  certify  that  Ephraim  L.  Blaine  is  not  now  and 
never  was  a  member  of  the  Catholic  church ;  and  furthermore, 
in  my  opinion,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  a  member  of  any  church." 

Mr.  Blaine  knew  his  people.  He  caught  up  the  certificate, 
flung  it  to  the  breeze,  and  rode  into  office  on  the  crest  of  the 
laugh,  and  with  the  goodwill  of  both  parties. 


74  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

So  the  household  gods  were  borne  to  Washington  over  the 
National  Road,  only  another  stage  of  the  old  westward  journey 
from  Donegal.  Leaving  the  Monongahela  on  the  left  to  find 
or  fashion  its  own  way  to  the  Ohio,  skirting  the  lovely 
woods,  climbing  the  green  hills,  we  only  see  rich,  rolling 
green  hill-farms  to  the  horizon.  With  the  limitless  substratum 
of  limestone,  the  ridges  seem  fertile  as  the  hollows,  and  all  the 
hollows  are  ripening  to  unknown  harvests,  and  all  the  hills 
dotted  with  countless  sheep;  for  when  the  whiskey  rebellion 
foamed  and  broke  against  these  hills,  and  the  farmers  found 
themselves  forbidden  to  profit  by  their  crops  of  whiskey,  they 
wisely  turned  their  attention  to  wool,  and  made  their  country 
famous  for  its  quality  and  quantity.  Up  all  the  way  to 
Hillsborough,  eighteen  feet  above  sea-level,  with  a  glimpse 
of  Laurel  Hill,  thirty  miles  distant.  On  arid  on,  descending 
now  to  the  Gals'  house,  founded  before  women  had  thought 
much  about  their  rights,  but  when  three  women,  without 
other  points  in  law  than  possession,  took  them  and  their  share  in 
the  National  Road's  bounty  by  keeping  tavern,  and  an  excellent 
tavern,  whose  yards  were  crowded  with  teams  by  night,  and 
whose  tables  were  crowded  with  guests  by  day.  Past  Eggnogg 
hill,  a  very  mildly  suggestive  name  for  this  whiskey  insurrection 
locality;  past  coal  mines  still  producing,  that  were  opened 
ninety  years  ago ;  and  one  sight  we  see  which  the  boy  did 
not  —  the  scaffolding  of  countless  oil-wells  bubbling  and 
bursting  with  a  wealth  undreamed  of  in  his  day,  although  the 
hint  was  given  long  before  his  day;  for  George  Washington 
reported  that  he  saw  gas  escaping  in  the  Great  Kanawha  and 
ceded  his  land  for  a  public  curiosity.  Unluckily  some  in 
formality  in  the  deed  of  conveyance  had  balked  his  pleasant 
purpose,  and  caused  the  reversion  of  the  gift  to  his  heirs,  but 
nothing  balks  our  increasing  conviction  that  there  were  few 
things  which  escaped  the  eyes  of  George  Washington.  Past 
Sam  Hughes's  station,  which  so  pleased  Andrew  Jackson  that 
he  used  to  stop  there  over  night  in  preference  to  the  town 
hostelries,  till  one  unlucky  day,  in  a  fit  of  enthusiasm,  lie 
sent  "  Sam  "  to  manage  the  Hermitage,  to  which  he  speedily 
showed  himself  less  adapted  than  to  "  keeping  tavern,"  and  was 
quickly  recalled,  to  the  satisfaction  of  both ;  past  Pancake, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G,     ELAINE.  75 

derived  by  the  archaeologist  from  the  tavern's  pancakes,  whose 
flavor  was  such  that  the  mouths  of  the  stage-coach  passengers 
began  to  water  for  them  as  soon  as  they  left  Cumberland,  and 
not  from  the  commonplace  suggestion  that  one  George  Pan 
cake  kept  the  tavern,  —  we  come  to  the  bright  and  pleasant 
town  which  had  been  Cat  Fish,  but  upon  which  a  great  man 
smiled  and  it  became  Washington.  Here  also,  as  at  Browns 
ville,  and  even  perhaps  more,  young  Blaine  had  the  education 
of  the  outer  world,  of  a  short,  but  stirring  and  heroic  past 
pictured  all  around  him,  and  the  same  vivid  and  eager  contact 
with  a  thrilling  and  active  present.  County  and  town,  the 
first  that  had  been  called  by  that  great  name,  had  been  Wash 
ington's  own  hunting-ground.  A  part  of  the  very  land  on 
which  Washington  College  stood  had  been  Washington's 
property,  presented  to  him  by  Jane  Hoge's  father,  gracefully 
returned  by  Washington  in  the  shape  of  a  gift  to  the  college 
that  bore  his  name.  The  very  house  which  was  to  be  for  a  time 
the  boy's  college-home  had  belonged  to  a  James  Blaine,  of  his 
blood.  This  house,  still  standing  quaint  and  comely,  had  also 
been  the  house  of  David  Bradford,  the  leader  and  soul  of  the 
whiskey  insurrection,  Deputy  Attorney-General  of  the  State. 
Here  had  been  planned  that  first  revolt  against  the  infant 
nation  which  Washington  had  come  as  far  as  Ephraim  Blame's 
house  to  put  down — the  assault  and  burning  of  Revenue 
Officer  Neville's  house,  the  robbery  of  the  mails,  the  march  on 
Pittsburg.  Here,  too,  it  was  that  the  tramp  of  Light  Horse 
Harry's  fifteen  thousand  was  heard,  and  from  one  of  these 
back' windows  the  agile  leader  leaped  to  fight  another  day, 
rushed  down  the  Ohio,  down  the  Mississippi,  nor  ever  stopped 
till  he  had  reached  the  Spanish  settlements  and  Tom  the 
Tinker's  house. 

Here,  too,  the  young  scholar  had  opportunity  to  learn  that 
there  is  another  side  to  all  things  human.  Although  the  name 
of  Washington  was  a  household  word  to  the  people,  repre 
senting  an  actuality,  yet  thereabout  still  live  men  who  have  a 
personal  grievance  against  Washington.  All  this  region  he  had 
explored  with  discerning,  prophetic,  possessing  eyes.  By  Vir 
ginia  patent  for  services  rendered  the  colonists,  a  great  tract  of 
country  had  been  given  to  him.  This  land  had  been  located  by 


76  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

his  warm  personal  friend,  Captain  Crawford,  of  Fayette  county, 
who  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  took  care  that  George 
Washington's  twenty-eight  hundred  acres  should  be  worth 
having.  But  Colonel  Croghan,  of  Fort  Pitt,  had  bought  from 
Indians  and  sold  to  settlers  parts  of  the  same  tract  of  country, 
and  some  of  them  had  squatted  on  Washington's  lands,  along 
Miller's  run  and  Raccoon  creek,  a  few  miles  away,  and  when 
he  could  take  breath  between  battles  he  came  hither  to  adjust 
a  settlement.  His  diary  says  na'ively:  "Lodged  at  a  Col. 
Canon's,  on  Shurtees  Creek,  a  kind,  hospitable  man,  and 
sensible.  Sept.  19  Being  Sunday,  and  the  people  on  my  lands 
being  Ceceders  and  very  religious,  it  was  thought  best  to 
postpone  going  among  them  till  to-morrow."  Of  course,  so 
watchful  and  politic  a  man  was  not  to  be  caught  in  a 
common  settlers  trap.  The  law  was,  as  the  courts  and  nature 
had  settled  it,  that  the  right  belonged  to  the  first  comers. 
Thus  the  squatters  had  to  pay  him  for  a  quitclaim,  and  they 
hate  him  yet! 

Besides  its  historic  interest,  Little  Washington  was  swaying 
in  the  full  current  of  passing  political  life.  Statesmen  and 
merchants  from  the  East  and  West  had  tarried  there  on  their 
journeys.  Jackson  and  Harrison  had  gone  through  on  their 
way  to  their  inaugurations ;  Polk  and  Taylor  were  yet  to  go 
-probably  the  last,  for  the  old  order  changed,  giving  place 
to  new.  Stories  of  them,  and  of  Monroe  and  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  Lafayette,  of  Calhoun,  Crittenden,  Clay  and 
Bell,  filled  the  air.  At  many  a  dinner-table,  in  after  years, 
the  gay  old  Washington  College  boys  laughed  over  their 
Tangle  wood  Tales,  and  rehearsed  how  General  Taylor,  Presi 
dent-elect,  had  been  driven  by  Jack  Bayless,  a  Democratic 
coachman,  to  McDaniels',  the  Democratic  resort,  and  stayed 
an  hour  in  that  sequestered  place  before  his  Whig  friends  dis 
covered  him  and  rescued  him  to  the  banquet  of  the  Mansion 
House,  where  he  felt  u  only  one  thing  missing,  flitch  and 
eggs  "  -  how  Henry  Clay,  returning  to  the  stage-coach  after  din 
ner,  with  his  wife  on  his  arm,  between  double  lines  of  waiting 
admirers,  to  whom  he  was  politely  bowing  right  and  left,  was 
touched  on  the  shoulder  just  as  he  had  reached  the  carriage 
door,  by  a  belated  editor,  who  in  a  shrill  excited  voice  intro- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  77 

duced  himself  as  A.  B.  C.,  of  the  "Commonwealth."  "I  know 
your  4  Commonwealth,' "  shouted  back  the  irate  statesman,  in 

the  same  high  pitch,  "but  I'll  be  d d  if  I  know  who  you 

are,"  —  for  which  he  deserved  defeat  at  the  polls ;  how  the 
same  statesman,  once  obliged  to  stay  overnight  at  the  Mansion 
House,  fell,  like  Taylor,  a  prey  to  the  mischievous  Democrats. 
The  Whigs,  learning  of  the  godsend,  gathered  in  the  dining- 
room,  which  was  also  a  meeting-place  of  the  local  Democratic 
club,  and  invited  Clay  to  address  them  in  the  evening,  to  which 
he  gave  willing  assent.  The  meeting  was  held,  but  after  wait 
ing  in  vain  for  the  great  Kentuckian,  they  were  obliged  to 
fall  back  on  commonplace  oratory,  and  the  meeting  came  to  an 
untimely  and  inglorious  end.  Investigation  proved  that  the 
wicked  Democrats,  fearing  his  eloquence,  had  flocked  to  his 
room,  bolted  the  door,  and  engaged  him  in  such  friendly 
and  flattering  debate  that  he  had  forgotten  all  about  his 
Whig  meeting;  how,  one  unlucky  Sunday  when  old  Father 
McCurdy  was  to  preach  in  Dr.  Jenkins's  pulpit,  word  came 
that  General  Jackson  was  coming  through  and  would  attend 
church.  "What  will  you  do?"  asked  some  of  the  anxious 
parishioners,  who  thought  no  gospel  grand  enough  for  grand 
hearers  unless  it  came  from  Dr.  Jenkins's  lips.  Then 
quietly  answered  Father  McCurdy,  "  I  shall  preach  to  General 
Jackson  just  as  I  would  to  any  other  sinner,"  and  preached  so 
well  that  the  sinner  in  question  went  up  and  shook  hands 
with  him  and  thanked  him  for  the  discourse. 

So  good  use  did  the  boy  make  of  his  mind  that  his  father 
was  able  to  put  him  into  college  when  he  was  little  past 
thirteen  —  younger  than  any  other  member.  But  his  mental 
action  was  quick,  and  he  never  lost  ground,  or  suffered  from 
imperfect  preparation  or  too  great  effort  to  keep  in  step.  Indeed, 
he  seemed  never  to  make  effort.  Work  was  the  natural,  easy 
action  of  his  mind  and  did  not  fatigue  him. 

His  college  course  was  apparently  one  of  unalloyed  pleasure 
and  unbroken  success.  Three  years  after  its  close  he  wrote: 

"  Old  Washington  is  endeared  to  me  by  a  thousand  ties,  and 
though  I  can  now  look  back  upon  many  acts  of  my  College  life, 
as  strongly  marked  with  folly,  they  are  not  on  this  account  re 
membered  with  less  affectionate  regard  —  not  a  single  one  of 


78  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

them  would  I  wish  to  be  blotted  out  —  friendships,  enmities, 
follies,  disappointments,  mortifications  and  all  —  a  glorious  four 
years  —  such  as  I  shall  never  see  again." 

His  college  mates  unite  in  representing  his  scholarship  and 
his  character  in  college  as  unexceptionable.  He  was  not  over- 
fond  of  athletic  sports,  or  of  "  street  fun/'  or  even  of  the  games 
of  the  campus ;  but  he  took  his  full  share  in  riding,  walking, 
driving,  dancing,  and  is  remembered  as  the  best  euchre-player 
in  college  or  town.  He  was  joyous,  friendly,  attractive, 
answering  still  to  General  Sherman's  picture  of  uJim  Blairie 
and  Tom  Ewing,"  in  Lancaster  seven  years  before,  "  two  boys, 
cousins,  as  bright  and  handsome  as  ever  were  two  thoroughbred 
colts  in  a  blue-grass  pasture  of  Kentucky." 

One  of  his  young  friends  of  that  early  time  writes : 

You  know,  and  perhaps  he  knew,  what  my  feeling  toward  him  was, 
always  has  been,  with  no  weakening  or  shadow  of  turning.  He  buckled 
one's  heart  to  him  "with  hooks  of  steel/1  I  so  well  remember  when  and 
where  I  saw  him  first.  It  was  when  he  was  in  college,  in  Washington, 
at  a  gay  little  picnic.  He  was  the  life  and  the  light  of  the  fete,  so 
joyous  were  his  spirits,  so  incessant  the  play  of  his  wit. 

It  seems  to  me  I  can  see  his  frank  young  face,  hear  his  merry  laugh, 
at  this  moment. 

And  of  about  the  same  time  1  remember  that  old  Esquire  M.  admitted 
with  some  amusement :  "  Why,  that  young  Elaine  pushed  me  harder  in  the 
argument  than  any  man  I  know  three  times  his  age  ! " 

The  young  student  had  the  great  advantage  during  nearly 
all  his  college  course  of  being  at  home,  and  in  the  midst  of  a 
large  circle  of  his  kinsfolk.  Hence  there  was  no  room  for 
homesickness.  The  grandfather  had  only  lived  to  hear  the 
inarticulate  prattle  of  his  namesake  and  grandson,  and  then 
the  long  procession  bore  him  to  the  house  appointed  for  all 
living,  to  the  succinct  record  of  the  grave:  "In  memory  of 
James  Elaine  Esqr.  who  departed  this  life  September  6th.  in 
the  66th.  year  of  his  age  A.D.  1832."  Two  years  afterwards 
his  daughter  Ellen  died  in  the  arms  of  her  brother  Ephraim, 
and  then  Margaret  Lyon  went  to  the  house  of  her  son-in- 
law,  to  fill  her  daughter's  place  in  caring  for  the  motherless 
children.  There,  sweetest  of  women,  she  grandmothered  her 
great  brood.  On  all  the  youthful  tumult  her  mild  eyes  looked 


Y     <>V    JAMES    U.     HLAINE.  79 

calmly  down,  and  being  "sweet  and  nice"  herself,  everything 
around  her  soothed  itself  presently  to  sweetness  and  peace.  As 
no  antagonisms  ever  sprang  from  her,  she  was  the  centre  of  coin- 
fort  and  cheer,  the  meeting-place  of  all  interests  and  dependen 
cies.  There  her  grandson  had  the  advantage  of  constant  easy 
access  to  his  Uncle  Swing's  large  family  of  young  people,  a 
throng  of  boys  and  girls  near  his  own  age ;  but  rushing  in  to 
his  gay  young  cousins  he  seldom  failed  to  pass  through  his 
grandmother's  room  first,  on  the  way  to  theirs,  to  give  a  cordial 
greeting  that  gladdened  her  heart  more  than  he  knew.  The 
society  of  his  uncle,  who  served  in  Congress  with  Clay, 
Webster,  and  Calhoun,  and  served  at  home,  as  a  lawyer,  to 
keep  his  neighbors  away  from  lawsuits,  beneficent,  gentle,  highly 
educated,  and  of  a  most  liberal,  powerful,  and  original  mind, 
was  in  itself  education. 

His  uncle  William,  who  had  attended  him  on  his  wild-wood 
jaunts,  and  ministered  to  the  fun  he  shared,  retained  his  deep 
interest  in  his  nephew,  and  whenever  the  youngster  and  the 
elder  met  in  visits  to  Indian  hill,  the  uncle  would  bid  him  bring 
out  his  books  and  would  examine  him  in  his  Greek  and  Latin. 
"  I  am  rusty,"  his  uncle  would  admit,  "  but  I  should  think 
you  were  doing  very  well."  Many  a  delightful  hour  they 
passed  together  —  the  dreamy  and  perhaps  somewhat  dis 
appointed  uncle,  who  had  not  fulfilled  the  career  which  his 
friends  wished,  but  who  at  least  knew  the  happiness  of 
following  his  own  heart's  leading,  and  the  fresh  eager  student ; 
and  when  apart  the  elder  depended  much  on  the  younger 
for  tidings  from  the  passing  world. 

From  Greene  county,  Aug.  29,  1846,  he  writes  to 

DEAR  JAMES: 

I  expected  a  letter  from  you,  thinking  that  among  my  numerous 
acquaintances  you  might  spin  out  a  long  letter  which  would  be  interesting 
to  me  —  whilst  I  in  the  wilds  of  Greene  could  not  pen  anything1  to  you  that 
you  would  care  about,  except,  perhaps  the  health  of  my  family ;  beginning 
in  this  wise:  "we  are  all  well  thanks  be  to  God  hoping  these  few  lines 
may  find  you  in  the  same  state  of  health."  .  .  .  Now  do  you  not 
see  how  much  easier  it  would  have  been  for  you  to  indite  a  letter  than 
for  me.  Still  I  must  not  forget  yr.  many  kindnesses  in  sending  me 
papers,  which  have  served  to  enliven  many  a  dull  hour.  You  are  almost 
the  only  one  that  has  remembered  me  at  all  in  that  way.  Your  Pap  has 


80  KIOGRAPHY    OF    JAAfES    <f.     BLAINE. 

occasionally  sent  me  one,  but  owing  I  suppose  to  his  want  of  health,  he 
has  not  thought  of  me  as  often  as  formerly.  I  have  no  news  worth 
mentioning  except  the  fun  I  have  with  the  long-faced  Democrats 
about  the  tariff;  they  have  all  been  obliged  to  sell  their  wool  at  prices 
that  did  not  suit  them  and  I  comfort  them  by  telling  them  that  it  is  good 
for  them.  Were  it  not  for  the  fun  I  have  with  them  I  should  get  the  blues 
myself ;  but  as  I  am  a  believer  in  Ike  Mayhem's  philosophy,  which  teaches 
never  to  take  more  trouble  on  one  foot  than  we  can  kick  off  with  t'other, 
I  bear  the  evil  like  a  true  philosopher.  .  .  . 

Now  don't  forget  to  write  and  give  me  all  the  news  particularly  about 
your  own  folks.  Give  me  also  all  the  Washington  news  —  Deaths  mar 
riages  all,  all  —  tell  me  particularly  if  I.  R.  be  married  yet — if  not  why 
the  deuce  he  is  not  —  Tell  me  how  many  graduates  you  have  —  how  Mr. 
A.  M.  is  —  tell  me  all  and  T  am  sure  you  will  have  no  lack  of  materials  for 
making  out  a  long  letter. 

What  are  your  views  now  on  the  Trinity  —  are  they  as  wild  and  infidel 
like  as  they  were  when  we  conversed  upon  the  subject.  With  this  I  will 
send  you  a  paper  with  the  views  of  three  candidates  for  ordination  in  the 
Methodist  Church  on  that  subject — after  you  have  read  it  1  would  like  to 
know  which  of  the  three  you  agree  with.  —  When  you  answer  me  tell  me 
who  is  your  Pastor  now,  or  rather  who  is  Presbyterian  Pastor.  T  suppose 
though  whoever  he  is  he  occasionally  gets  astride  the  old  Pope  and  ham 
mers  away  at  his  seven  heads  and  ten  horns  (wonder  they  dont  among 
them  break  some  off.)  .  .  .  And  now  dear  James  I  must  conclude 
with  assurances  of  my  affection. 

YR.  UNCLE  WILL 


He  left  the  college  campus  thoroughly  furnished  not  only 
with  character  but  with  certificates  of  character  from  the  fac 
ulty,  collectively  and  separately.  From  first  to  last  it  was  a 
trait  of  his  nature  to  trust  nothing  to  chance  or  to  the  inspi 
ration  of  the  hour,  but  to  go  well  armored  and  well  armed. 
The  groundwork  of  his  inspiration  was  preparation. 


Mr.  James  G.  Blaine  having  gone  through  a  regular  &  full  course  in 
Washington  College  Penn'.  was  graduated  Septr,  29th,  1847.  During  the 
whole  period  of  his  connexion  with  College  lie  maintained  the  character  of 
a  very  punctual,  orderly,  diligent,  &  successful  student.  His  demeanor 
was  always  respectful,  &  becoming  a  gentleman.  When  graduated,  to  him 
with  two  others  was  awarded  the  first  Honor  of  a  large,  &  respectable 
class  of  thirty-three.  He  is  of  one  of  the  most  respectable  families  of 
Washington  County;  &  by  propriety  of  conduct,  polite  &  pleasing  man 
ners  will  entitle  himself  to  a  place  in  the  best  society.  If  he  should  be 
come  an  Instructor  in  a  High  School,  Academy,  or  College,  his  talents, 


BIOGRAPHY    0V    JAMES    (!.     KLATNE.  81 

literary  acquirements,  dignity,  decision,  fidelity,  &  prudence  will  not  fail 
to  merit  the  confidence,  &  approbation  of  those  who  may  obtain  his 
services. 

October  1st.  1847. 

DAVID   M.  CONAUGHY  President  of 

Washington  College  Penn«. 
W.  P.  ALDKICH,  Prof.  Math,  et 

Chern.  etc. 

RICHARD   H.  LEE   Profr,  B  L  P 
NICHS.  MURRAY  Prof,  of  Lang 
RORT.  MILLIGAN  Prof,  Eng  Lit 


It  is  noticeable  that  each  of  the  professors  specialized  the 
proficiency  of  his  pupil  in  his  own  department.  The  professor 
of  languages  considered  it  "  due  to  you  as  matter  of  private 
friendship  that  I  should  add  my  individual  testimony  to  that 
which  I  have  united  with  my  colleagues  in  bearing  to  your 
worth  as  a  man,  your  diligence  as  a  student,  and  your  attain 
ments  as  a  scholar.  Permit  me  to  say,  sir,  that  during  your 
long  connection  with  the  college  your  conduct  has  been  such  as 
greatly  to  endear  you  to  those  of  us  who  have  known  you  best. 
You  indeed  are  one  of  the  few  who  have  passed  through  their 
collegiate  course  without  a  fault  or  a  stain. 

"  Of  your  qualifications  for  teaching,  so  far  as  these  depend 
upon  character  and  scholarship,  I  may  speak  with  the  highest 
confidence.  Your  knowledge  of  the  languages  especially,  being 
critical  beyond  what  is  often  attained  at  college,  fits  you  in  a 
special  manner  for  the  office  of  instructor  in  this  department. 

"  In  a  word,  sir,  I  feel  assured  that  those  who  may  be  so  fort 
unate  as  to  secure  your  services  in  this  capacity  will,  when  you 
become  known  to  them  as  you  are  known  to  us,  be  satisfied  that 
no  recommendation  of  ours  has  been  in  the  least  exaggerated." 

The  professor  of  mathematics  thought  it  "  but  justice  to  him 
to  say  that  in  my  department  Mr.  Blaine  specially  excels. 
From  the  commencement  of  his  course  in  mathematical  studies 
lie  manifested  a  peculiar  fondness  for  them ;  his  recitations 
gave  evidence  of  thorough  investigation,  and  his  demonstrations 
were  characterized  by  clearness,  accuracy,  and  precision.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  kindred  branches,  as  natural  philosophy, 
astronomy,  etc.,  yet  his  taste  for  the  exact  sciences  seems  to 


82  UlOGHAPllY     Ob"    JAM titi    (V.     KLALNK. 

indicate  that  in  that  department  he  would  secure  enjoyment 
with  success." 

The  professor  of  English  literature  praised  his  "Latin  and 
Greek  classics,  and  the  various  branches  of  mathematics,  but 
particularly  his  sound  and  thorough  English  education,"  while 
he  specially  commended  Mr.  Elaine  to  his  personal  friends  as 
"a  young  man  of  superior  talents,  of  good  moral  and  indus 
trious  habits,  of  many  personal  virtues,  of  a  liberal,  generous, 
and  amiable  disposition,  and  of  one  of  the  most  respectable 
families  of  Western  Pennsylvania,"  and  assured  them  that  he 
"  should  be  much  disappointed  if  he  does  not  prove  himself 
entirely  worthy  of  their  confidence." 

His  attachment  to  the  college  and  community  of  Washington 
was  deep  and  lasting.  He  ever  counted  the  circumstances  of 
his  college  days  as  among  the  fortunate  events  of  his  life. 
Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  he  had  left  them,  he  noted 
his  peculiar  gratification  at  words  of  remembrance  and  regard 
"  from  those  who  knew  me  in  my  youth,  and  to  whom  I  am 
allied  for  more  than  one  generation  by  ties  of  blood,  affinity, 
and  friendship.  I  have  the  warmest  attachment  to  Washington 
and  all  its  surroundings.  To  the  good  old  college  I  owe  a  debt 
of  gratitude  which  I  can  never  repay." 

After  the  death  of  his  uncle,  John  Hoge  Ewing,  at  the  age 
of  ninety  years,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  from  Hamburg,  Germany,  to 
Mr.  Ewing's  daughter : 

SEPT.  6,  87. 

Notwithstanding  his  weight  of  years,  and  the  gradual  failure  which 
betokened  the  end,  the  death  of  Uncle  was  a  great  grief,  I  might  well  say 
a  great  shock  to  me.  For  nearly  fifty  years,  ever  since  I  measured  human 
character  and  felt  the  warmth  of  human  affection,  ever  since  as  a  boy  he 
noticed  me  so  kindly,  he  has  been  an  example  to  me  of  lofty  character. 
No  better  or  nobler  man  ever  lived.  I  can  even  now  feel  the  thrill  of 
pleasure  I  felt  when  at  the  closing  examinations  of  my  first  year  in  college 
he  spoke  to  me  so  approvingly  and  so  encouragingly  of  the  examination 
I  passed  and  of  my  conduct  for  the  year.  From  that  hour,  though  often 
separated  for  years,  we  were  even  more  than  relatives,  we  were,  friends 
in  the  highest,  broadest,  best  sense. 

To  all  the  loving  circle  in  which  he  was  the  centre  and  the  light  and 
the  life,  my  most  affectionate  sympathy  goes  out  in  full  measure ;  indeed, 
I  hope  I  may  count  myself,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  a  member  of  that  circle. 
Aside  from  my  own  immediate  family,  my  deepest  love  goes  out  to  my 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     HLAINE.  83 

Ewing  cousins.  Even  if  this  were  not  so  from  my  own  impulse,  and  from 
my  own  heart,  it  would  flow  out  naturally  from  the  great  love  my  dear 
Mother  bore  to  all  of  you,  and  the  love  you  bore  to  her. 

Those  early  days  when  we  were  all  young  together  (in  a  circle  of 
kinship  that  was  inspired  by  the  most  unselfish  love),  come  back  to  me 
freshly  and  vividly  in  this  foreign  land  and  blind  my  eyes  with  tears  as  I 
write.  God  bless  you  all  and  sustain  you  all.  The  wife  who  is  widowed, 
the  children  who  have  lost  the  best  of  fathers,  are  all  in  my  mind  and  in 
my  heart,  and  I  can  only  say  again  to  all,  God  have  you  in  his  keeping. 
Affectionately  and  devotedly, 

Your  cousin, 

JAMES   (i.   BLAINE. 


84  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <V.     RLAINE. 


VI. 

FINDING    THE    ROAD. 

r  I  iHE  seven  years  after  leaving  college  were  as  truly  a  time 
-*•  of  preparation  as  the  preceding  years  had  been.  Mr. 
Blaine's  experience  in  the  Military  Institute  of  Kentucky  and 
in  the  school  for  the  blind  at  Philadelphia,  riveting  and  in 
creasing  his  knowledge  of  books  and  compelling  close  study  of 
human  nature  in  its  most  pathetic  as  well  as  its  most  stirring 
phases ;  his  reading  of  law  with  the  view  of  adopting  it  as  a 
profession ;  his  personal  investigation  of  business  methods,  re 
quirements,  and  successes  in  the  South,  with  the  same  practical 
purpose ;  his  marriage,  which  led  him  to  New  England  and 
ultimately  to  his  permanent  establishment  there ;  the  premature 
death  of  his  father  and  brother,  intensifying  his  sense  of  respon 
sibility  as  an  elder  son  and  brother,  —  all  had  their  specific  and 
important  part  in  fitting  him  for  and  impelling  him  towards  the 
work  of  his  life. 

Pie  had  earnestly  desired  to  take  a  two  years'  supplementary 
course  at  Yale  College,  but  finding  it  impracticable  he  struck 
out  into  the  world  at  once  by  way  of  Kentucky.  His  first  ex 
perience  was  the  unheroic  one  of  deathly  homesickness.  Forty 
years  afterwards  he  wrote  of  this  time  to  Mrs.  Jane  W.  McKee, 
Allegheny  Arsenal,  Pittsburg : 

PAHIS,  Oct.  11,  /87. 
MY  DEAR  MKS.  McKEE: 

On  the  28th  of  this  month  it  will  be  forty  years  since  on  one  half-rainy 
Sunday  morning  in  Lexington  I  entered  your  house  for  the  first  time. 
The  welcome  you  gave  me,  the  cordiality  with  which  you  received  me, 
made  an  indelible  and  most  grateful  impression  on  my  mind.  Every  in 
cident  connected  with  lhat  day  mines  to  me  afresh  as  1  sit  down  to  write. 
How  you  sent  William  to  Child's  Hotel  for  my  trunk,  and  how  my  home 
sickness  which  had  made  me  so  miserable  for  ten  days  was  changed  to 
the  joy  of  the  fireside  and  the  delightful  sensation  of  being  with  people 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMEtf    W.     KLAINE.  85 

who,  if  not  akin,  were  connected  in  sympathy  through  common  ties  with 
the  Reed  family,  all  whose  members  were  elaborately  discussed  on  that 
blessed  Sunday.  I  fell  to  thinking  of  all  those  things  to-day,  and  I  could 
not  help  writing  to  repeat  my  gratitude  to  you  and  to  renew  the  expression 
of  an  affection  which  has  followed  you  with  tender  recollection  through 
this  long  period.  The  veiy  small  things  which  now  and  then  I  have  been 
able  to  do  for  you  seem  so  inadequate  a  return  for  all  you  did  for  me. 
Miss  M.  was  on  that  Sunday  morning  of  October,  1847,  a  connecting  link, 
for  I  had  met  her  more  than  once  at  Aunt  Reed's,  but  I  had  not  learned  to 
have  the  affection  which  I  soon  acquired  for  her  as  your  sister.  I  cannot 
realize  I  was  then  four  months  short  of  being  eighteen  years  of  age,  and 
that  through  all  these  forty  years  of  "  storm  and  sunshine,"  little  as  I  have 
seen  of  you,  my  memory  of  you  has  been  so  vivid.  .  .  .  Give  my  sincerest 
regards  to  your  good  son  and  my  good  friend. 

To  his  college  friend  "  Count  ee,"  Mr.  James  Murray  Clark, 
he  frankly  owned: 

A  thousand  times  have  I  regretted  that  I  left  Pennsylvania,  but  since  I 
have  left  resolved  to  rely  for  a  year  or  two  upon  my  own  exertions,  I  feel 
a  pride  within  me  too  strong  to  allow  me  to  return  home. 

In  1869  he  wrote  to  a  friend : 

"The  day  is  dark  and  gloomy,  unsettled  and  uncertain  like  the  chang 
ing  destinies  of  human  and  of  national  life."  Now  who  said  that?  With 
all  your  learning  and  reading  you  cannot  tell,  so  let  me  instruct  you  ! 

Many  years  ago,  —  to  wit,  on  the  13th  day  of  November,  A.D.  1847,  — 
Henry  Clay  spoke  in  the  great  public  market-house  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  on 
the  subject  of  the  Mexican  war,  which  was  "flagrant,"  if  not  "fragrant," 
and  the  words  I  havo  quoted  were  the  very  first  utterances  of  his  majestic 
lips.  Among  the  crowd,  close  up  to  the  great  commoner,  "might  have 
been  seen"  a  stray  and  eager  youth  with  note-book  and  pencil  in  hand, 
ready  to  report  the  words  of  the  Whig  oracle,  and  they  were  taken  down 
by  this  youth  of  seventeen  green  summers  and  carefully  preserved  ever 
since.  From  Lexington  he  went  to  Louisville,  thence  to  Maysville,  thence 
to  Cincinnati,  and  the  morning  he  left  the  last-named  place,  December  4, 
he  heard  that  Robert  C.  Winthrop  was  just  elected  speaker  of  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives.  He  immediately  notified  his  friends  that 
he  was  a  candidate  for  the  succession,  and  in  the  incredibly  brief  space  of 
twenty-two  years  he  attained  tho  place  —  a  remarkable  instance  of  faith, 
patience,  and  despatch  harmoniously  combined.  But  I  do  not  mean  to 
imply  that  there  is  any  immediate,  or  palpable,  or  recognizable  connec 
tion  between  the  rainy  Sunday  of  Lexington  in  November,  1847,  and  my 
election  to  the  speakership  in  1869. 


>  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    W.     KLAINti. 

To  Mr.  J.  M.  Clark,  Dec.  :>,  1847 : 


I  have  procured  a  situation  as  assistant  teacher  of  languages  in  the 
Western  Military  Institute  located  at  Georgetown,  Scott  county,  about 
twelve  miles  from  Lexington.  It  is  an  institution  of  some  celebrity  in 
this  State ;  has  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  students  and  a  faculty  of  seven 
professors ;  is  pretty  much  on  the  same  plan  as  West  Point,  or  probably 
more  like  the  Virginia  Military  Institute.  They  attend  to  the  military 
training  of  the  students  some  hours  every  day.  Their  course  in  college 
studies  is  a  good  deal  like  Washington,  except  that  they  have  a  far  more 
extensive  course  of  mathematics,  embracing  the  whole  course  at  West 
Point.  The  students  wear  a  beautiful  uniform,  and  go  through  a  regular 
drill  every  day  in  the  college  grounds.  Georgetown  is  the  county  seat  of 
Scott  county  (one  of  the  richest  in  the  State,  joins  Fayette  and  Bourbon) 
and  contains  fifteen  hundred  or  eighteen  hundred  inhabitants  —  about  as 
large  as  Washington.  My  situation  will  be  a  very  pleasant  one,  I  expect, 
though  I  cannot  say  for  certain  until  I  try  it ;  I  will  not  commence  my 
duties  until  the  8th  of  January.  The  session  will  end  the  4th  of  July, 
and  then  will  there  be  a  vacation  of  six  or  eight  weeks,  so  that  I  shall 
not  be  in  Pennsylvania  before  that  time,  and  very  probably  not  even  then 
if  I  like  the  situation  and  they  like  me.  I  shall  stay  there  for  some  time, 
at  least  until  I  think  of  entering  upon  the  study  of  a  profession,  which 
will  not  be  for  two  or  three  years  yet  anyhow.  The  way  in  which  I 
happened  to  get  the  situation  was  accidental.  I  heard  of  it  when  I  was 
up  in  Lexington— just  got  into  a  buggy  and  drove  down  one  morning, 
and  they  told  me  they  would  give  me  an  answer  in  a  day  or  two,  and  the 
very  next  day  I  received  a  letter  stating  that  I  could  have  the  situation 
if  I  chose.  I  immediately  accepted  it,  and  am  now  only  waiting  until 
the  next  session  opens.  I  will  have  to  teach  the  preparatory  course  in 
Latin  and  Greek,  and  have  a  class,  in  Davis's  Elementary  Algebra,  so 
you  see  my  situation  will  be  a  very  pleasant  one  as  regards  the  branches 
I  have  to  teach ;  what  it  will  be  in  other  respects  I  cannot  of  course  say 
until  I  try  it  awhile.  It  is  at  least  something  to  be  a  teacher  in  a  corpo 
rate  college.  ...  I  will  send  you  a  copy  of  the  regulations  after  I  get 
there.  I  shall  go  up  in  two  or  three  weeks.  I  will  give  you  due  notice 
of  my  removal  before  I  start.  I  may  not  be  in  Pennsylvania  again  for 
some  time,  and  although  I  would  greatly  prefer  being  there,  yet,  when  I 
see  it  so  obviously  to  my  interest  to  remain  in  Kentucky,  I  endeavor  to 
reconcile  myself  to  it.  I  shall  stay  for  a  year  or  two,  at  least,  as  I  said. 
Three  of  the  professors  in  this  institute  are  graduates  of  West  Point,  and 
one  of  them  is  a  graduate  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute.  It  is  intended 
to  be  the  military  school  of  Kentucky.  There  is  a  female  seminary  in  the 
same  town  pretty  near  as  large  as  Miss  Foster's  —  quite  a  literary  place, 
you  will  perceive.  Old  Dick  Johnson  lives  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
place;  he  has  a  brother  living  in  the  town,  and  the  superintendent  of 
the  institute  i«  a  cousin  of  his  :  his  name  is  T.  F.  Johnson  —  rather  a  John- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  87 

sonian  settlement.  There  are  more  great  men  live  in  that  vicinity  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  United  States  embracing  the  same  space ;  for  instance 
at  Lexington,  only  twelve  miles  distant,  there  is  H.  Clay,  Bob  Wickliffe. 
General  Coombs,  and  a  host  of  others.  Then  at  Frankfort,  but  twenty 
miles  distant,  there  is  Jno.  J.  Crittenden,  Governor  Letcher,  and  numerous 
others  too  tedious  to  mention,  and  as  I  said  before  old  Dick  within  a  few 
miles  of  the  place;  so  I  will  be  perfectly  surrounded  by  great  men. 
When  I  commenced  writing  I  thought  I  could  say  all  I  had  to  in  two 
sheets,  but  find  myself  here  on  the  third  and  not  more  than  half  through. 

I  mentioned  in  a  former  page  that  I  would  give  you  an  account  of  my 
pecuniary  circumstances.  Whatever  are  my  father's  are  of  course  mine. 
The  state  of  his  affairs  is  simply  this  —  a  few  years  ago  he  became  very 
much  involved  in  consequence  of  having  foolishly  endorsed  for  men  who 
deceived  him.  ...  He  has  now  worked  pretty  well  through  his  diffi 
culties.  .  .  .  The  family  have  a  sufficiency.  It  is  pap's  great  desire  to 
see  all  his  children  established  in  some  kind  of  business  before  his  death, 
and  it  is  his  wish  that  I  should  study  a  profession,  either  law  or  medi 
cine.  It  was  altogether  my  own  doings  that  I  came  away  from  home, 
and  I  believe  it  was  for  my  good  that  I  have  done  it.  Whenever  I  choose 
however  to  return,  father  is  ready  and  willing  to  render  me  all  the  aid  in 
his  power.  He  says  that  he  has  now  done  as  much  as  he  is  able  for  the 
older  ones,  and  they  must  henceforth  depend  on  themselves.  4i  They 
have  a  better  start  than  many  a  young  man,  and  if  they  are  only  indus 
trious  and  economical  they  will  succeed."  Well,  by  the  time  I  study  a 
profession,  if  I  conclude  to  do  so,  I  shall  have  pretty  near  my  share  of  the 
property,  and  the  rest  should  be  appropriated  to  educating  the  younger 
children.  You  will  at  once  see,  then,  that  although  not  actually  poverty- 
stricken,  I  am  far  from  being  in  good  circumstances,  for  after  I  study  a 
profession  I  will  not  have  much  more  than  will  buy  me  a  library.  .  .  . 
Oh,  how  I  would  like  to  be  back  at  Mrs.  Acheson's. 

You  must  be  sure  to  give  my  respects  to  H.,  for  as  you  say  I  do  like 
him.  I  cannot  tell  the  reason,  but  I  formed  a  very  strong  attachment  for 
him  when  I  was  at  the  American  with  him  last  summer.  I  considered  him 
one  of  the  best-hearted  fellows  I  ever  knew,  and  shall  always  cherish  a 
high  regard  for  him.  Remember  me  very  particularly  to  Esquire  M.,  for 
a  better3  fellow  never  lived.  He  is  as  honest  and  true  as  steel ;  a  clever, 
whole-souled  fellow.  I  had  not  heard  of  the  death  of  M.  Poor  fellow,  I 
pity  him,  as  well  as  all  those  who  have  shed  their  blood  and  lost  their  lives 
to  so  poor  a  purpose  and  in  such  a  poor  cause.  You  may  think  these 
reflections  ill-timed  and  ill-placed,  but  they  are  nevertheless  true.  We  can 
but  shed  a  tear  over  the  fate  of  those  who  have  so  fallen. 

I  saw  a  ''Reporter"  containing  those  resolutions  relative  to  the  death  of 
Robinson,  and  although  your  name  is  in  the  Corner,  I  will  do  you  the 
justice  to  suppose  you  had  no  hand  in  writing  them.  I  think  they  might 
as  well  have  a  stereotyped  edition  struck  off  with  blanks  left  for  the 
name  of  the  decedent  —  it  would  save  them  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  they 
would  not  have  to  tax  their  memories  so  severely  to  remember  the  last 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

form.  1  well  remember  the  little  incident  relative  to  the  album  of  Miss  M. 
—  the  words  you  did  not  have  exactly ;  they  were  : 

"  Reminiscitor  me  cum  absum  longe  —  Remember  me  when  far  away. 
In  medio  erro  inconsiderati  mundi  —  Amid  a  thoughtless  world  I  stray." 

You  left  out  the  word  "erro,'1  a  typographical  "error,"  1  presume. 
That  summer  of  the  "  Ball  Alley,'1  etc.,  is  full  of  pleasing  little  occur 
rences  over  which  I  love  to  sit  and  think  by  the  hour.  It  was  one  of  my 
most  pleasant  sessions  at  college,  and  I  remember  every  little  thing  from 
the  willow  tree  to  the  great  Whig  meeting  the  5th  September.  That 
was  the  day  I  believe  on  which  we  first  wore  the  striped  velvet  vests  with 
the  red  buttons  —  do  you  remember  them  ?  and  do  you  remember  Patter 
son  on  the  Catholic  question?  how  he  used  to  talk  about  Anthony  Rentz, 
etc.? —  it  is  needless  to  enumerate  —  there  are  a  thousand  incidents  of  that 
summer  which  time  can  never  efface.  .  .  .  This  State  is  just  crammed 
full  of  teachers,  and  there  are  a  good  many  from  Washington  and  Jefferson. 

A.  M.  is  out  here  looking  for  a  situation.  I  have  not  seen  him  though. 
1  saw  his  advertisement  in  one  of  the  Lexington  papers  a  few  days  since  — 
he  is  there  still,  I  believe,  staying  with  Bascom,  the  great  Methodist 
preacher.  I  think  he  will  find  it  somewhat  more  difficult  to  get  a  situation 
than  he  anticipates  ;  a  great  many  are  sorely  disappointed  in  these  expecta 
tions  —  it's  very  easy  talking  about  these  "  big  situations  in  Kentucky,"  but 
when  you  come  to  look  for  them  you  will  find  yourself  mistaken.  When 
I  leave  my  present  situation  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  look  for  another,  but 
1  shall  return  to  old  Pennsylvania.  The  longer  1  am  away  the  more  I  feel 
attached  to  her  —  her  very  name  possesses  a  charm.  As  strong  a  Pennsyl- 
vanian  as  you  already  are,  you  are  not  as  much  attached  to  her  as  you 
would  be  if  you  were  to  leave  her  for  a  few  months  —  depriving  you  of  a 
pleasure  teaches  you  better  how  to  appreciate  it.  I  can  never  nor  shall  I 
ever  be  anything  else  in  feeling  than  a  Pennsylvania!!,  though  probably 
circumstances  may  render  it  manifestly  more  advantageous  for  me  to  set 
tle  elsewhere ;  yet  I  still  cherish  the  fond  hope  that  I  shall  ultimately  land 
there.  .  .  . 

My  room-mate,  Forbes,  who  is  professor  of  mathematics  in  the  institute, 
was  formerly  (I  believe  up  to  last  July)  in  the  same  station  at  the  Virginia 
Military  Institute.  .  .  .  R.  is  better  at  acting  the  "  Czar  of  Russia"  and 
having  you  for  chief  "  courtier,"  and  drinking  Jim  Dennison's  hot  whiskey 
punch.  Do  you  mind  that  awful  cold  night  that  we  went  to  Caldwell ;  Mayor 

Johnson  was  in  his  shirt-sleeves  and  I  lost  my  old  cap  that  was  so  h ugly  ? 

Many  a  time  will  those  old  scenes  recur  to  my  mind.  I  can  sit  and  think  of 
them  by  the  hour— 'tis  then  that  I  long  to  be  in  old  Pennsylvania.  In  your 
predictions  as  to  the  candidates  for  the  presidency,  I  think  you  are  wrong  — 
at  least  as  to  the  Whig  candidate.  Maz.  is  rather  below  par  —  that  "  secret 
circular"  injured  him  considerably.  Taylor  stock  has  been  rising  very 
rapidly  in  the  market  since  the  old  general  returned  to  the  United  States. 
For  a  few  weeks  previous  to  that  it  had  been  going  down,  "  but  it  is  suffi 
ciently  evident  to  the  most  superficial  observer  "  that  a  strong  reaction  has 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  89 

taken  place  and  he  now  stands  forth  preeminently  conspicuous  as  "the 
man  of  the  times.11  I  have  no  doubt  now  but  that  he  will  be  the  Whig  can 
didate  ;  even  if  he  is  not  he  can  run  as  an  Independent,  and  such  is  the 
wild  enthusiasm  of  the  American  people  for  a  military  hero  that  he  will 
run  ahead  of  anything  that  either  party  can  bring  out.  As  to  the  Demo 
cratic  candidate,  I  hardly  know  what  to  think,  though  I  can  scarcely  believe 
that  Buchanan  will  be  the  man.  Your  party  will  have  great  difficulty  1 
apprehend  in  settling  on  a  man.  You  have  so  many  men  that  have  strong 
claims  that  it  will  be  no  easy  matter  to  make  a  nomination,  and  if  Taylor 
is  nominated  by  the  Whig  party  it  will  be  very  little  odds  who  you  nomi 
nate,  for  he  will  run  ahead  of  the  devil  himself.  For  my  part  I  would 
rather  see  James  Buchanan  president  than  General  Taylor,  if  he  had  not 
had  so  large  a  fist  in  the  aftairs  of  the  present  administration.  That  will 
ruin  him  —  he  can't  run  now  (remember,  this  is  my  humble  opinion  just 
to  you).  Calhoun's  late  speech  will  go  very  hard  with  President  Polk  & 
Co.  He  uses  them  up  completely  about  that  "  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war  "  that  the  President  has  always  talked  so  much  about  and  especially  in 
his  late  message.  I  think  he  establishes  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt 
that  taking  a  defensive  line  is  the  true  policy  for  our  government  to  pur 
sue.  You  have  of  course  read  the  speech  and  formed  your  opinion  of  its 
merits  and  demerits.  My  opinion  is  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  argumenta 
tive  speeches  I  ever  read,  which  every  man  ought  carefully  to  peruse 
before  saying  a  word  against  a  "  defensive  line ;  "'  if  you  have  not  read  it, 
do  so  immediately.  But  enough  of  politics.  I  would  not  have  written  so 
much  about  this  subject  only  that  you  and  I  always  took  a  great  interest  in 
such  matters,  and  I  thought  a  small  touch  would  not  be  amiss.  In  conclu 
sion,  I  would  just  say  that  I  would  like  to  see  both  candidates  selected  from 
among  the  citizens.  I  don't  like  these  military  presidents  that  "  go  in11  on 
account  of  their  "  gunpowder  popularity."  I  reckon  I  must  not  pursue; 
this  point  further,  or  I  will  get  you  raised  about  "  Old  Hickory.11  Peace  to 
his  ashes  —  he  was  a  great  man,  but  entirely  too  rash.  *«  Sed  de  mortuis 
nil  nisi  bonum."  I  heard  Doctor  Breckenridge  preach  this  morning — he 
came  down  from  Lexington  to  assist  the  preacher  here  in  the  communion 
service  —  he  preached  a  most  splendid  sermon.  1  could  not  help  thinking 
all  the  time  that  I  was  listening  to  a  Pennsylvanian.  1  thought  of  the 
night  that  he  recommended  you  and  Nilsy  to  wash  your  faces  —  that  same 
night  that  you  stole  one  of  the  pillows  oft'  of  Briceland's  sofa  and  hung  it 
upon  Creigh's  awning-post  —  do  you  remember  that  memorable  night? 
My  room-mate  is  a  Loco-foco,  we  have  it  hot  and  heavy  every  day  or 
two  —  he's  too  many  for  me  occasionally  —  he  would  suit  you  exactly  — 
he's  a  real  Jas.  K.  Polk  man.  I  may  probably  see  Albert  Graham  some  of 
these  days  in  Lexington,  as  that  is  the  great  central  point  for  this  part  of 
the  world. 


To  his   college-mate,   Mr.  Thomas   B.  Searight,  historian  of 
the  National   Road  : 


90  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

W.M.I.,  Jan.  14,  1848. 
MY  DEAR  TOM: 

Your  d d   mean,   trifling,   low-lived,  half-written,  one-paged   affair 

(which  might  by  some  be  called  a  letter,  though  improperly)  reached  me 
a  few  evenings  since.  It  made  me  mad  for  a  few  minutes,  T  assure  you. 
Why  couldn't  you  have  written  me  a  decent  letter  while  you  were  at  it, 
even  if  I  were  one  in  your  debt !  .  .  .  T  see  that  J.  has  been  elected 
to  the  United  States  Senate,  a  poor  selection  in  my  opinion.  Why,  don't 
you  remember  his  long,  dry,  uninteresting  address  delivered  to  the  alumni 

two  years  since  ?  and  which  by  the  way (y°ur  favorite)  pronounced 

the  best  he  had  ever  heard,  and  for  no  other  reason,  I  presume,  than  that 

he  did  not  understand  a  word  of  it.    Edgar  Cowan  beat  him  all  to  h 1 

the  very  next  day  in  his  address  to  the  societies.  I  think  the  Whigs  would 
have  showed  more  sense  in  selecting  McKennan,  Walter  Foruard,  Jos.  R. 
Chandler,  or  indeed  fifty  other  men  in  preference,  but  the  Whigs  are  a 
fated  party  in  Pennsylvania,  and  I  think  old  Geo.  Dawson's  remark  a  very 
good  one,  and  I  heard  Wratson  of  Washington  make  a  very  sensible  re 
mark  also,  that  the  "Whigs  never  could  retain  power  in  that  State,  and 
they  would  always  run  themselves  out  in  three  years."  And  they  have 
let  the  Democrats  elect  the  speaker.  The  natives  do  not  always  work  with 
Whigs,  it  appears.  Is  not  that  speaker  the  same  man  that  your  father 
told  Billy  Roberts  was  too  much  of  a  Packer  man  ?  Thus,  then,  by  mis 
management  we  will  lose  our  power  in  the  old  Keystone,  and  the  next 
governor  will  be  a  Democrat. 

As  I  have  to  go  out  of  town  to-day  to  visit  a  country  friend  1  will  not 
finish  my  letter  until  to-morrow. 

I  have  just  returned  from  the  country  (and  just  by  way  of  parenthesis  I 
will  tell  you  that  I  have  had  a  most  delightful  visit  and  that  Kentucky  is 
the  place  to  have  such) . 

We  resumed  school  last  Monday,  January  8  (an  anniversary  which  you 
venerate  on  account  of  the  immortal  Jackson).  We  had  a  vacation  of 
three  weeks,  which  I  spent  at  Lexington  and  Frankfort.  It  is  very  lively 
at  Frankfort  just  now,  as  the  Legislature  is  in  session. 

They  elect  a  United  States  Senator  on  the  1st  February,  and  there  is  a 
good  deal  of  excitement  about  who  it  shall  be.  It  will,  I  think,  be  either 
Ex-Governor  Letcher  or  Judge  Robertson  of  Lexington.  It  lies  between 
them  at  present ;  however,  one  may  withdraw  before  election  day.  They 
are  brothers-in-law  and  it  will  not  look  very  well  to  run  against  each  other 
—  politics  divide  many  a  family,  though. 

They  have  a  convention  next  summer  to  amend  the  constitution  of  this 
State.  The  all-absorbing  question  is  that  of  slavery  —  whether  it  shall  be 
continued  or  abolished.  The  papers  have  all  taken  sides,  and  some  of 
them  seem  to  be  rabid  Abolitionists  —  others  again  are  ultra-slavery  in 
their  views  —  a  third  class  and  I  think  far  the  largest  and  most  respectable 
are  for  a  system  of  gradual  emancipation,  and  this  I  think  will  be  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  91 

course  pursued.  Kentucky  has  been  ruined  by  slavery —  her  soil  and  cli 
mate  won't  admit  of  it —  she  is  too  far  north. 

The  convention  will  be  composed  of  men  of  both  parties  of  the  first 
order  of  talent,  and  the  a  flair  will  be  fully  and  freely  discussed.  I  wish  I 
had  you  out  here  awhile  with  me.  I  know  you  would  like  the  country  and 
the  people  so  much.  Scott  county  would  just  suit  you,  for  it  is  a  strong 
Democratic  region,  although  it  gave  a  small  majority  for  Taylor  —  this 
was  the  first  time  it  ever  gave  a  Whig  majority.  Polk  beat  Clay  in  it. 

Are  not  the  Ohio  Legislature  playing  well  ?  That  is  a  burning  shame  on 
the  Democratic  party.  It  is  the  most  ultra  State  in  the  Union  on  all  ques 
tions.  Tt  is  always  in  one  extreme  or  another.  T  wish  the}-  would  turn 
right  into  it  and  have  a  civil  war.  I  presume  you  were  much  pleased  with 
Mr.  Folk's  message.  T  think  it  a  very  able  document,  but  tinctured  entirely 
too  strongly  with  party  politics  instead  of  national  affairs.  It  is  a  labored 
defence  of  his  administration  and  his  different  cabinet  officers. 

Walker's  report  of  the  Treasury  is  a  masterly  paper,  and  so  is  Johnson's 
post-office  report.  I  read  them  both  with  great  interest. 

What  do  you  do  to  amuse  yourself  away  out  in  the  country  —  you  have 
no  companions,  and  I  don't  see  how  3*011  get  along.  Do  you  ever  have  a 
game  of  poker  nowadays  ?  We  play  draw  poker  here  altogether  and  I 
don't  like  it  half  as  well  as  the  regular  old  game  we  used  to  play  at  Wash 
ington.  M.  and  R.  L.  could  have  their  ravenous  appetites  satisfied  if  they 
would  come  out  here. 

Poor  W.  —  he  fought  without  knowing  what  the  dispute  between  the  two 
countries  was  about.  It  didn't  matter  much  to  him  whether  the  Rio  Grande 
or  the  Xeuces  was  the  boundary. 

Accept  my  thanks  for  the  "Examiner'1  containing  an  account  of  the 
funeral  ceremonies  of  Lieut.  Irons.  It  must  have  been  an  imposing  affair. 
Dr.  King's  oration  I  consider  neat  and  apt.  He  did  not  say  enough  about 
Phillips — that  is  the  only  objection  I  could  possibly  find  to  it.  Saml.  A. 
Gilmore,  Esq.,  of  Butler,  is  to  be  Judge  E wing's  successor.  I  suppose  he  is 
an  able  jurist  from  what  I  have  seen  in  the  "  Examiner."  1  think  it  is  decid 
edly  better  that  the  judge  should  be  from  some  other  district.  He  is  then 
free  from  any  personal  feelings  pro  or  con,  and  is  entirely  untrammelled, 
and  that  is  what  a  man  can  rarely  ever  be  in  his  own  neighborhood.  I  sup 
pose  if  the  appointment  had  been  made  in  the  district,  some  of  the  Union- 
town  lawyers  would  have  got  it  since  the  deatli  of  Cleavenger,  or  would 
your  brother-in-law  have  stood  a  chance  ?  No  doubt  you  would  have  used 
all  your  influence  to  further  his  interests.  By  the  way,  that  reminds  me  of 
what  you  were  telling  me  about  you  and  the  Count  studying  law  Avith  him. 
Do  you  intend  to  stick  to  it,  or  is  it  just  one  of  the  freaks  of  your  imagi 
nation,  which  you  will  discard  as  soon  as  the  novelty  wears  off?  I  advise 
you  to  hold  fast,  and  study  with  him  until  you  are  admitted.  It  is  all  you 
are  fit  for.  Suppose  you  and  the  Count  remain  in  W.  after  you  graduate, 
and  I  will  come  there  too,  and  we  will  all  three  go  into  it  together,  and  be 
admitted  at  the  same  time.  I  tell  you  the  legal  profession  would  be  benefited 


92  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

no  little  by  the  addition  of  three  such  promising  young  men  as  Messrs. 
Searight,  Clark,  and  Blame.  Now  I  do  not  intend  this  all  as  a  joke.  I 
am  in  good  earnest  about  studying  law,  and  I  know  no  place  that  I  would 
rather  do  it  in  than  Washington.  The  only  difficulty  I  have  is  in  making 
up  my  mind  as  to  the  time  I  shall  commence.  I  could  study  here  if  I 
chose,  as  there  is  a  law  school  connected  with  the  institute,  and  my  duties 
will  allow  me  time  to  stud}-.  Accompanying  this  letter  you  will  receive  a 
copy  of  our  catalogue  and  regulations,  from  which  you  will  get  a  better 
idea  of  the  W.M.I,  than  I  could  give  you  by  writing  for  a  month.  You 
will  see  that  they  say  I  graduated  No.  1  in  a  class  of  thirty-three.  This 
was  inserted  without  my  knowledge ;  if  I  had  known  it  was  going  to  be 
put  in,  I  would  have  objected  to  it,  for  in  fact  it  is  not  strictly  true.  I  no 
more  graduated  No.  1  than  did  Tom  Porter,  or  John  Hervey,  nor  did  they 
any  more  than  I,  so  that  in  that  sense  I  might  be  said  to  have  graduated 
No.  1,  for  nobody  was  above  me.  But  this  is  not  to  the  point:  I  was 
speaking  about  how  it  came  there.  Mr.  McKennan  gave  me  some  letters 
of  introduction  to  gentlemen  in  this  part  of  the  country,  in  which  he  said 
as  a  recommendation  that  I  had  graduated  No.  1.  Johnson  saw  some  of 
these  letters,  and  that  accounts  for  its  being  in  the  catalogue.  I  was  ab 
sent  at  Frankfort  and  Lexington  the  week  it  was  made  out  and  sent  to  Cin 
cinnati  for  publication,  and  never  saw  it  until  the  catalogues  were  printed 
and  circulated.  I  have  been  thus  tedious  in  my  explanation  of  this  matter, 
because  I  did  not  wish  you  to  think  that  I  was  fool  enough  to  have  such  a 
thing  printed  concerning  myself.  My  class-mates  who  may  happen  to  see 
it  will  think  that  I  am  taking  a  great  stiff  out  here  in  Kentucky,  just 
because  I  happened  to  get  a  share  of  the  first  honor.  When  you  hear  any 
remarks  of  this  kind  made  I  wish  you  to  give  the  explanation  which  I 
have  given  to  you.  The  Count  mentions  that  he  received  a  catalogue  from 
me.  I  have  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  ever  having  sent  him  one  ;  if 
I  ever  did  it  was  when  I  was  asleep,  for  I  determined  long  ago  not  to  send 
one  to  Washington  without  preceding  it  with  this  explanation. 

We  have  some  of  the  prettiest  girls  about  here  that  ever  lived  in  the 
world.  They  beat  the  Washington  girls  all  hollow,  one  always  excepted. 
1  am  in  love  with  about  a  half  dozen,  and  the  only  difficulty  I  have  is  to  decide 
between  them,  and  it  is  no  easy  matter,  I  assure  you.  Since  I  wrote  to  you  last 
I  have  entered  upon  my  duties,  and  like  teaching  very  well  indeed.  I  am 
at  present  hearing  a  class  in  algebra,  one  in  geometry,  one  in  Virgil,  one 
in  Caesar,  and  one  in  the  Greek  reader,  so  that  I  have  them  from  qui,  quae, 
quod  up  to  triangles,  circles,  and  squares.  It  keeps  me  right  busy  review 
ing,  for  I  always  look  at  the  lesson  before  going  into  the  section  room,  — 
that  is  the  military  term  for  recitation  room,  —  and  each  class  is  divided 
into  sections,  varying  in  number  according  to  the  size  of  the  class.  This 
afternoon  (Friday)  I  have  nothing  at  all  to  do.  The  sections  are  under 
the  professor  of  composition  and  declamation.  To-morrow  I  am  going  to 
Lexington,  and  will  mail  this  letter  there,  as  you  will  get  it  a  day  sooner 
in  that  way. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  93 

W.M.I.,  GEORGETOWN,  KT.,  Oct.  25,  /48. 
DEAB  TOM: 

And  you  have  graduated  and  left  old  Washington,  no  longer  a  student, 
but  out  fully  in  the  world  as  a  man.  Well,  Tom,  it  is  not  the  thing  it  is 
cracked  up  to  be.  Give  me  a  student's  careless  life  —  nothing  to  think 
about  except  to-morrow  morning's  lesson,  and  if  he  can  only  get  through 
that  feels  perfectly  happy.  Oh,  how  you  will  think  over  these  things 
before  you  are  a  year  older.  At  present  you  do  not,  for  I  know  you  are 
all  excitement  in  regard  to  the  coming  election,  and  cannot  take  time  to 
think  of  anything  else.  But  if  I  were  you  I  would  not  rack  my  system 
about  it.  You  are  bound  to  be  defeated,  and  that,  too,  most  shamefully. 
Are  you  not  perfectly  aghast  at  the  late  result  ?  Pennsylvania  elect  a 
Whig  governor !  The  most  astonishing  thing  I  ever  heard  of.  I  do  not 
think  the  most  sanguine  Whig  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  thing.  It  must  be 
confessed  we  have  not  done  so  well  in  Ohio  as  we  wished,  but  then  you 
must  remember  that  there  existed  a  good  many  elements  of  discord  among 
the  Whigs,  which  can  all  be  smoothed  over  before  the  7th  of  November. 
Besides,  Weller  got  the  Free-soil  vote,  which  will  all  be  cast  for  Van 
Buren,  thereby  securing  Taylor  a  plurality.  But  to  tell  the  truth,  I  am 
very  much  afraid  we  will  lose  Ohio,  but  then  Pennsylvania  will  more  than 
make  up.  I  have  bet  about  sixty  dollars  on  the  election;  about  half  of  it 
on  Taylors  carrying  Pennsylvania.  Do  you  think  I'll  win?  Your 

"  Pard  "  is  elected  by  one  vote,  I  see.    He'll  go  to  h this  winter  certain, 

and  drink  himself  to  death.  I  should  like  well  to  see  you  just  about  this 
time  to  plague  you  about  Pennsylvania.  ...  I  had  a  delightful  trip 
down  the  river  with  the  Misses  B.  I  went  on  to  Cincinnati  with  them  and 
stayed  a  day  there.  I  received  a  letter  from  them  a  few  days  since  con 
taining  very  handsome  presents  in  the  way  of  bookmarks  —  rewards  for 
my  gallantry  !  They  are  in  Memphis.  A.  is  a  splendid  woman.  I  had  a 
blue°day  when  I  left  Wheeling,  going  away  from  home  and  parting  from 
you,  but  towards  evening  I  felt  better.  The  girls  were  so  lively  and  the 
weather  so  pleasant  that  I  could  not  help  regaining  my  spirits. 

I  am  surprised  to  hear  that  Henry  Clay's  speech  does  not  take  in  Penn 
sylvania;  it  was  made  just  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  the  furor  of 

the  North,  but  I  am  afraid  it  is  going  to  play  the  d 1  in  the  South ;  it  is 

tinctured  too  much  with  " Abolitionism  "  to  go  down  well  there.  Henry 
has  made  another  mistake  which  will  be  apt  to  defeat  him  again.  You 
have  no  idea  how  his  friends  here  are  maneuvering  f or  his  renomination. 
This  State  will  be  very  nearly  balanced  between  him  and  Taylor  when 
they  hold  their  convention  at  Frankfort  in  February.  Some  of  the  Demo 
cratic  papers  of  this  State  have  Gen.  Wm.  O.  Butler  up  for  the  presidency. 
If  he  should  happen  to  be  nominated  by  your  party  it  would  be  with  great 
difficulty  that  the  Whigs  could  carry  the  State,  even  with  Clay  as  the 
nominee,  and  I  have  heard  intelligent  and  leading  Whigs  say  that  they 
would  vote  for  him,  and  that  they  believed  he  could  outrun  any  man  of 
either  party.  I  hope  they  won't  nominate  him,  for  if  they  do  the  Whigs 


94  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

will  be  a  used-up  community  again.  You  remember  what  a  hard  chase  he 
gave  Ousley  for  governor  in  1844.  If  you  nominate  Cass,  Buchanan,  Van 
Buren,  or  any  of  those  men,  I  think  the  Whigs  stand  a  very  good  chance. 

I  have  read  President  Folk's  message  very  attentively  and  consider  it 
upon  the  whole  a  very  clever  document.  Upon  the  important  measures 
and  suggestions  contained  in  it  I  will  not  pretend  to  decide,  be  they  poli 
tic  or  impolitic;  let  wiser  and  more  experienced  heads  than  mine  do  that; 
I  forbear  expressing  my  individual  opinion,  as  it  would  only  raise  a  dis 
pute  between  us.  1  will  say  this  much,  however,  in  compliment  to  Mr. 
Polk  —  he  is  and  has  been  manly,  honorable,  and  consistent  in  his  course 
in  regard  to  the  "  war."  But  whether  he  is  right  in  that  course  is  another 
and  a  different  question. 

We  had  "  the  message"  here  the  day  after  it  was  delivered,  telegraphed 
to  Cincinnati. 

The  great  '\Torn  Marshall1'  made  one  of  his  very  finest  speeches  in 
this  place  about  a  week  ago.  He  is  warm  for  Cass  and  Butler.  It  was 
about  the  finest  political  speech  I  ever  listened  to.  He  did  give  the  Whigs 

h I  assure  you.  I  felt  cheap  myself  in  some  parts  of  his  speech,  but  it 

is  all  to  no  purpose ;  can't  beat  old  Zack  —  we  can  elect  him  if  we  can't 
Clay.  The  longer  I  live  in  Kentucky  the  better  I  like  it.  I  wish  you 
were  here  awhile  with  me.  I  know,  with  all  your  attachment  to  the 
old  Keystone  (which  I  so  much  admire  in  you),  that  you  would  say  old 
Kentuck  is  hard  to  beat. 

We  had  a  great  time  in  our  school  on  the  5th  of  this  month !  —  the  anni 
versary  of  the  battle  of  the  Thames.  We  had  a  review  of  the  cadets  by 
old  Dick  Johnson,  assisted  by  Colonel  Thompson,  Fourth  Regiment  Ken 
tucky  Volunteers,  General  Pratt,  and  Gardes  and  Harmon  (two  Buena 
Vista  heroes)  as  aids.  It  was  an  imposing  sight  I  assure  you,  and  at  the 
same  time  rather  ludicrous.  Old  Dick  is  one  of  the  plainest-looking  old 
chaps  you  ever  saw.  He  would  suit  Plumpsock  admirably  ;  he  is  the  most 
radical  Democrat  in  the  Union  ;  he  did  not  look  the  least  military.  All  the 
rest  were  in  full  dress  and  looked  splendidly.  I  wish  you  could  have  been 
here.  Just  come  to  Lexington  and  you'll  see  the  prettiest  piece  of  God's 
handiwork. 

I  send  you  a  little  piece  of  Horace  Greeley's  wit  in  the  political  line. 
You  must  acknowledge  it  is  pretty  good,  although  it  does  hit  you  Loco- 
focos  hard.  Write  soon  after  the  presidential  election  and  you  will  have 
the  pleasure  of  recording  a  glorious  Whig  victory. 

From  J.  N.  McKee,  Lexington: 

I  was  in  such  great  consternation  the  day  you  passed  through  that  I 
entirely  forgot  a  commission  I  wanted  you  to  execute  for  me  in  Pennsyl 
vania.  You  are  doubtless  aware  that  our  wheat  crop  has  failed.  Conse 
quently  flour  will  be  inferior,  scarce,  and  dear.  Colin  Wilson  would  tell 
you  if  you  were  talking  to  him  that  we  never  had  any  fit  to  eat,  but  you 


BIOGRAPITY    OF    JAMES    d.     11LAINE.  95 

know  to  the  contrary,  that  you  have  eaten  good  bread  made  out  of  Kentucky 
wheat.  As  good  flour  as  I  ever  saw  has  been  made  out  of  wheat  grown 
in  Ganara.  .  .  .  Now  for  the  commission  itself.  Invest  the  amount 
enclosed  in  flour.  I  dare  say  your  father  will  be  a  first-rate  judge  of  the 
article,  and  Brownsville  will  be  a  convenient  point  to  ship  from  —  more  so 
than  Washington  —  as  the  river  is  exceedingly  low.  1  presume  freight 
will  be  high.  By  the  time  you  are1  ready  to  leave,  the  water  will  perhaps 
be  up.  ... 

I  hope  you  may  be  able  to  get  a  good  situation  on  the  road  next  spring. 

To  Mr.  T.  B.  Searight : 

APRIL  8,  1849. 

God  only  knows  when  I'll  get  away  from  here.  .  .  .  Directly  after 
the  organization  of  the  new  Cabinet,  I  thought  of  applying  for  a  clerkship 
in  the  Home  Department,  as  Ewing  (who  presides  over  that  branch  of  the 
Cabinet)  is  a  relative  of  mine.  Subsequent  events  have  determined  me  to 
withdraw  my  application  and  now  I  am  not  in  the  ring  at  all.1 

I  do  not  think  this  is  to  be  at  all  regretted,  as  very  probably  a  resi 
dence  of  four  years  at  Washington  would  prove  anything  else  than  ad 
vantageous  to  me.  I  would  not  expect  to  make  any  money,  and  I  might 
contract  habits  ruinous  to  my  future  prospects.  Nevertheless  I  must  con 
fess  that  it  would  be  quite  charming  to  be  in  Washington  and  see  how  the 
wheels  of  government  revolve  and  how  the  wires  are  pulled.  .  .  . 
Although  there  have  been  few  removals  made,  you  Democrats  need  not 
flatter  yourselves  that  this  administration  is  going  to  play  the  "  betwixt  and 
between"  —  pursue  a  temporizing  policy.  You  will  find  that  about  June 
and  July  and  along  there  the  heads  will  begin  to  come  off  pretty  rapidly. 
I  am  looking  for  and  hoping  for  a  General  Decapitation.  I  have  had  some 
advices  from  headquarters,  and  this  opinion  is  formed  from  them. 

This  State  is  at  present  all  agitation  on  the  subject  of  the  convention 
which  assembles  next  winter  to  remodel  the  constitution.  Slavery  is  the 
great  question.  You  have  no  doubt  seen  Mr.  Clay's  letter.  He  is  strong 
for  emancipation  and  colonization,  but  he  has  many  bitter  and  able  oppo 
nents  to  encounter,  and  the  day  has  long  since  gone  by  when  Henry  Clay's 
will  was  law  in  Kentucky.  This  county  (Scott)  will  be  apt  to  send  one  of 
the  most  able  men  in  the  State  as  her  delegate  —  Jas.  I.  Robinson  —  you 
have  never  heard  of  him,  though  by  many  he  is  accounted  the  ablest  lawyer 
in  the  State.  He  is  opposed  to  emancipation  in  every  shape  and  form 
and  I  have  no  doubt  a  large  majority  (say  two-thirds)  of  the  delegates 
returned  will  be  his  supporters.  So  the  Abolitionists  in  the  North  may 
console  themselves  with  the  reflection  that  their  ultra  course  has  created 
this  reaction  in  the  public  pulse  of  Kentucky. 

I  am  glad  to  see  that  the  bill  for  the  new  county  is  again  lost.  I  want 
old  Washington  to  remain  in  her  integrity.  I  expect  they  will  finally 


1  Chief  of  "the  subsequent  events"  was  that  Mr.  Ewing  kindly  dissuaded  him  from  even 
applying  for  a  clerkship. 


96  HTOGRAl'lir    OF    JAMES    C.    BLA1NK. 

succeed  in  getting  the  bill  passed ;  they  come  nearer  and  nearer  every 
time ;  it  was  lost  this  time  by  a  tie  vote  I  believe.  Do  you  know  whether 
we  at  West  Brownsville  would  be  in  the  new  or  old  ? 

No  two  States  in  the  Union  fraternize  better  than  the  old  Keystone  and 
Kentucky,  though  one  be  Whig  and  the  other  Democrat. 

I  intend  to  commence  the  study  of  law  regularly  this  summer.  My  pre 
ceptor  will  be  Judge  Robertson  of  Lexington,  one  of  the  first  lawyers  of 
the  State. 


From  J.  N.  McKee  : 

LEXINGTON,  Dec.  4,  1851. 

You  are  wise  in  leaving  that  institution :  it  required  all  the  energy  of 
such  a  man  as  Colonel  Johnson  to  sustain  it.  That  once  withdrawn,  with 
the  formidable  opposition  it  will  have  to  contend  with,  it  will  be  more 
than  the  present  faculty  can  uphold,  and  I  think  you  are  right  not  to  be 
buried  in  its  ruins.  I  am  perfectly  disgusted  with  trade,  but  you  are 
young  enough  to  lose  and  make  a  fortune.  May  you  be  as  successful  as 
your  most  sanguine  expectations. 


From  his  mother: 

ELIZABETH,  Christmas  Evening,  1852. 
My  HE  LOVED  SON: 

Yours  of  the  i>2d  I  this  day  received  with  the  very  acceptable  Christ 
mas  gift,  for  which  I  give  you  many  thanks.  Have  you  no  vacation  at 
this  time  in  the  institution  P  I  heard  from  M.  that  you  expected  one  and 
intended  going  to  Augusta  and  having  your  wife  return  with  you.  I  fear 
you  are  kept  too  busy.  .  .  I  am  indeed  sorry  to  hear  that  you  do  not 
enJ°J  yourself  at  -  How  or  why  have  you  so  poor  an  opinion  of 

his  young  and  handsome  wife  ?  I  would  have  you  to  be  at  all  times  kind 
and  polite  to  them  both.  .  .  .  Have  you  made  many  acquaintances  in  Phil 
adelphia  ?  How  do  you  spend  your  spare  time  if  you  have  any  ?  And  you 
have  never  yet  told  me  how  you  spend  your  Sundays.  Not,  I  fear,  as  I 
wish,  in  attending  church ;  but  this,  Jimi,  I  fear  is  an  unpleasant  subject 
and  one  that  you  think  I  have  no  right  to  speak  of ;  but  you  will  forgive  me 
as  you  will  know  my  anxious  desire  to  see  you  a  practical  Christian.  .  .  . 

Your  uncle  Willie  has  made  up  his  mind  to  go  West.  ...  I  would 
much  rather  it  were  otherwise.  I  cannot  bear  the  thought  of  parting  from 
my  only  brother  in  our  old  days.  Never,  never  will  either  of  us  in  this 
world  spend  as  happy  days  as  we  once  did.  Poor  uncle  Frank  seems  very 
near  to  me.  I  will  ever  love  him  for  the  unbounded  love  he  had  for  your 
aunt  E.  Her  death  was  about  my  first  great  trouble,  but  what  was  it  com 
pared  to  my  sorrow  and  sadness  in  the  last  two  years  ? 

Little  M.  and  A.  were  dressed  this  day  for  the  first  time  in  their  new 
frocks  that  you  sent  them.  A.  says  her  uncle  Jim  dress  is  the  prettiest 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (1.     KLAINE.  97 

one  she  has  and  wishes  very  much  you  could  see  how  beautiful  she  looks 
in  it.  She  knows  you  would  think  her  almost  as  pretty  as  Stannic.  .  .  . 

Mage  is  the  very  soul  of  honor  and  correctness,  although  she  has  some 
little  faults  to  contend  with.  You  ought  to  be  very  partial  to  her,  for  I 
think  she  loves  you  as  dearly  as  it  is  possible  for  one  person  to  love  an 
other.  She  told  me  the  other  day  that  if  you  were  to  die,  all  happiness  in 
this  world  to  her  would  be  gone  forever.  .  .  . 

Do  you  have  no  idea  of  visiting  us  before  July  ?  Oh,  it  seems  so  long, 
long  to  wait  till  then.  .  .  .  I  hope,  my  dearest  child,  this  has  been  to  you 
a  happy  Christmas.  And  may  you  have  many,  many,  my  own  dearest 
son. 

To  Mr.  T.   B.  Searight: 

ELIZABETH,  July  7,  1853. 

Your  letter  did  not  reach  me  until  many  weeks  after  it  was  written,  and 
then  I  chanced  to  see  my  name  among  list  of  advertised.  .  .  . 

1  am  here  without  wife  or  child,  they  having  gone  on  to  New  England 
to  spend  the  summer.  I  will  be  in  this  region  during  this  month  and  a  part 
of  next,  and  it  is  my  most  anxious  desire  to  meet  you  and  the  Count.  .  .  . 
I  cannot  make  any  appointment  of  a  meeting  because  I  know  nothing  of 
your  engagements  nor  of  the  Count's.  I  lay  myself,  however,  subject  to 
your  commands,  and  will  most  gladly  meet  you  at  any  place  you  may  des 
ignate  ;  but  meet  you  and  the  Count  I  must,  or  else  I  shall  return  to  Phila 
delphia,  bitterly  disappointed  in  one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  anticipated 
in  my  visit. 

Where  is  "  Tariff?  "  I  am  very  anxious  to  see  him.  If  in  Uniontown 
I  shall  certainly  see  him  if  I  have  to  come  all  the  way  on  purpose. 

ELIZABETH,  Friday,  Aug.  5,  1853. 

After  more  than  a  week's  delay  I  redeem  my  promise  of  sending  you  the 
Count's  letter.  You  will  observe  it  has  the  regular  coimtry-squire  fold  to 
it.  No  one  but  a  Cross  Creek  or  Robinson  Township  "  Justice  "  would 
give  a  sheet  of  foolscap  the  shape  this  has. 

I  leave  to-morrow  or  next  day  for  Philadelphia,  and  thence  to  New  Eng 
land,  returning  to  Philadelphia  by  September  1.  I  am  sincerely  sorry  that 
the  trio  can't  have  a  reunion,  but  since  the  Count  speaks  so  mournfully 
about  the  probability  of  its  being  the  last  meeting,  I  feel  inclined  to  put  it 
off  for  some  time  —  don't  you  ? 

Have  you  paid  another  visit  to  Miss ?  If  you  are  really  struck,  all 

I  have  to  say  is  "  pussevcere,"  and  if  you  should  not  make  the  landing, 
there  is  nothing  lost  in  honor  or  purse.  Write  me  in  regard  to  your  success 
if  you  make  the  effort.  My  own  marriage  only  makes  me  sympathize  the 
more  warmly  in  all  affairs  of  this  kind. 

My  address  after  first  September  will  be  Pennsylvania  Institute  for  the 
Blind,  Philadelphia. 


98  BioGitApnr  OF  JAMES  <v.   KLAINE. 


VII. 


MAINE. 

MR.  ELAINE'S  post-office  address,  after  the  first  of  Sep 
tember,  was,  as  he  had  declared  it  would  be,  the  Phila 
delphia  Institute  for  the  Blind,  but  only  for  a  few  weeks.     All 
unwittingly  he  had  found  the  road  —  and  it  was  The  National 
Road. 

He  had  adopted  teaching  not  as  an  ultimate  profession,  only 
as  the  next  step  ;  but  he  had  none  the  less  taught  with  ardor, 
devotion,  success,  and  happiness.  His  experience  was  at  the 
two  extremes  of  confident  strength  and  pathetic  helplessness,  — 
with  the  young  cadets  of  the  military  institute,  vigorous,  fiery, 
impulsive,  eager  to  try  and  not  loath  to  show  their  mettle,  and 
with  the  young  pupils  of  the  blind  asylum,  groping  their  way 
through  the  darkness  of  an  unseen  world,  —  and  to  both  his 
profound  sympathy  brought  full  and  eager  service.  In  per 
forming  his  duties  he  never  consulted  the  contract,  but 
wrought  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  own  nature,  and  over 
filled  his  position  with  unstinted  generosity,  with  joyous  cor 
diality.  Instinctively  he  identified  his  own  interests  with  those 
of  his  associates.  As  young  as  some  of  his  cadets,  he  not  only 
taught  and  trained  their  minds  to  accuracy  and  breadth,  but  he 
could  sympathize  even  when  they  were  wrong,  and  discern  the 
time  when  it  was  wise  not  to  see.  Through  the  corridors  of 
the  blind  asylum  his  step  was  as  elastic,  his  mind  as  alert 
as  in  the  Military  School.  He  still  kept  an  outlook  on  the  law 
and  on  the  land,  but  he  lavished  himself  on  his  daily  duties, 
looked  after  the  interests  of  the  institution,  took  part  in  the 
improvement  of  its  organization,  with  as  much,  fidelity  and 
sympathy  as  if  he  had  chosen  it  for  his  permanent  work,  and 
left  his  individuality  so  vividly  impressed  upon  his  partners 
that  to  them  his  later  life  was  but  the  fulfilment  of  expectation. 


KlOGKAPIfV    OF    JAMES    <7.     BLAINE.  99 

Twenty-two  years  afterwards,  an  associate  teacher  in  the  in 
stitute,  who  had  but  rarely  seen  him  through  the  intervening 
years,  wrote  : 

I  trust  that  out  of  this  seeming  defeat  you  will  win  a  richer  victory  — 
that  the  world  will  be  permitted  to  see  a  man  who  finds  a  defeat  only  an 
incentive  to  battle  more  strongly  and  vigorously  for  the  right  —  a  man 
who  is  able  to  forget  himself,  and  by  his  nobleness  and  devotion  to  his 
country  bring  to  it  untold  blessings. 

Loving  you  for  all  that  you  were  to  me,  and  all  that  I  knew  you  to  be 
in  yourself,  in  the  years  long  ago,  and  proud  of  you  for  all  that  you  have 
been  since,  and  sure  that  the  Lord  knows  what  he  is  about  when  he  does 
not  let  us  throw  up  our  hats  for  you  in  the  coming  election,  under  all 
circumstances,  I  am  your  friend. 

It  was  in  the  railroad  train  on  the  way  from  Augusta  back 
to  Philadelphia  that  he  was  joined  by  Mr.  Dorr,  who  had  been 
one  of  the  owners  and  conductors  of  the  Kennebec  Journal, 
and  was  still  interested  in  its  fortunes. 

At  that  time,  Mr.  Blaine  was  known  to  the  people  of  Augusta 
only  as  they  had  seen  him  in  his  short  vacation  visits,  but  Mr. 
Dorr  had  reached  the  conclusion  that  he  was  the  man  to  take 
charge  of  the  chief  journal  of  the  State ;  and  he  represented 
the  matter  to  Mr.  Blaine  so  attractively  that  he  immediatelv 
took  it  into  consideration  and  consultation. 

Luther  Severance,  Simon  Cameron,  and  Russell  Eaton,  three 
young  men,  were  working  together  in  the  office  of  the  Na 
tional  Intelligencer,  at  Washington,  when  the  Whigs  of  Maine 
conceived  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  establishment  of  a 
Whig  newspaper  in  their  State.  Mr.  Severance  and  Mr.  Eaton 
were  selected  as  men  whose  mental  ability  and  practical  expe 
rience  fitted  them  for  the  undertaking.  They  were  invited  to 
Maine,  and  in  1825  the  first  number  of  the  paper,  the  Ken 
nebec  Journal,  was  issued.  It  continued  under  their  control 
till  1833,  when  Mr.  Eaton  withdrew  and  Mr.  Severance  con 
ducted  it  alone  until  1839,  and  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Dorr 
until  1850. 

The  proposition  of  Mr.  Dorr  appealed  strongly  to  Mr. 
Elaine's  political  tastes.  The  probability  that  the  State 
printing  would  be  awarded  to  the  Journal  by  the  winter 
Legislature  was  presented  as  an  additional  pecuniary  induce- 


100  HIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

ment.  He  did  not  hesitate,  but  arranged  with  the  Phila 
delphia  institution  that  his  resignation  should  be  accepted  as 
soon  as  a  person  should  be  found  to  take  his  place,  and  on 
November  16,  1854,  the  Kennebec  Journal  announced  that 
the  establishment  had  been  "  sold  to  Messrs.  Joseph  Baker 
and  J.  G.  Blaine,  who  would  thereafter  conduct  its  editorial 
and  business  affairs/' 

The    Journal    was    obliged    to    admit    that   Mr.    Blaine    had 
"  come  among  us  a  comparative  stranger,"  but  pleaded  in  rebut 
tal  that  he  was  a  gentleman  of  decided  talent  and  of  wide  travel, 
—  a  stronger   adjective    perhaps    than    would    at   this   day   be 
allowed  to  his  modest  meanderings. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  a  comparative  stranger  in  the  State,  but  he 
was  not  unprepared  for  his  work.  It  had  been  the  amusement 
of  his  vacations  to  go  up  to  the  State  House  and  bury  himself 
in  Niles's  Register  and  in  local  records,  by  which  he  speedily 
absorbed  and  assimilated  the  history  of  the  State,  and  was 
thus  able  to  lend  a  strong,  eager,  and  shaping  hand  to  its 
future  course. 

The  time  was  one  of  such  mental  and  emotional  upheaval  as 
marks  at  intervals  the  upward  path  of  humanity.  The  great 
landmark  of  past  understandings,  always  misunderstandings, 
of  compromises  patriotically  conceived  and  conscientiously 
undertaken  for  union  between  North  and  South,  had  just  been 
swept  away  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  the 
North  was  glowing  towards  the  white-heat  of  the  great  civil 
war.  To  the  immediate  actors  and  spectators,  the  repeal  was 
a  brazen  betrayal  of  faith.  Following  the  passage  and  enforce 
ment  of  the  last  fugitive  slave  law,  it  seemed  a  wanton  and 
wicked  rending  of  a  national  compact  solemnly  made  and 
sacredly  kept  for  thirty-two  years.  In  the  procession  of  time, 
it  was  a  constituent  part  of  what  Mr.  Seward  discerned  as  an 
irrepressible  conflict,  which  no  pledge,  however  solemn  or 
sacred,  could  prevent  or  compose,  a  compromise  which  the 
most  determined  resolution  could  not  perpetuate.  It  was  the 
ever-rising  tide  of  conscience,  reaching  in  these  latter  days 
the  high-water  mark  of  a  distinct  consciousness  of  the  value 
of  the  individual  human  being,  which  in  the  eternal  order 
made,  marred,  and  avenged  the  Missouri  compromise. 


niOGKAPIIY    OF    JAMES    O.     RLAINE.  101 

The  conflict  had  not  become  more  real,  only  more  manifest. 
The  political  ferment  was  radical.  The  old  party  lines  were 
broken  up,  and  new  combinations  were  inevitable. 

In  Maine,  the  nascent  Republican  party  won  its  first  victory 
in  September,  and  the  immediate  question  was  what  to  do  with 
it.  When  the  Legislature  assembled  in  January,  interest  was 
keen  in  the  popular  mind  as  to  how  its  organization  should 
be  completed,  and  what  should  be  its  policy  and  measures. 
The  Whig  organization  had  been  maintained,  and  the  Free  Soil 
and  "  Morrill  Democratic  "  party  had  been  maintained,  but  the 
Whig  party  had  dwindled  from  46,000  in  1840  to  14,000  in 
1854,  while  the  vote  for  Anson  P.  Morrill  ran  up  to  45,000.  At 
least  one-half  of  the  14,000  were  estimated  to  be  in  perfect 
sympathy  with  the  Republican  or  Morrill  party,  and  were  only 
retained  in  the  old  Whig  organization  by  the  force  of  a  regular 
nomination.  This  was  unequivocal  testimony  against  the  slave 
democracy  and  the  Administration. 

The  choice  of  Mr.  Elaine  as  editor  was  speedily  justified. 
His  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  political  history  of  the 
country,  his  ready  comprehension  of  the  issues  pending,  his 
familiarity  with  the  characteristics  and  personal  history  of 
prominent  persons,  surprised  even  his  friends.  His  reviews  of 
measures  and  his  judgments  of  men  were  correspondingly  just 
and  incisive.  He  fought  not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air. 

Joseph  Baker,  Esq.,  father  of  Orville  Baker,  the  brilliant 
ex-Attorney-General  of  Maine,  was  a  leading  lawyer  of  the 
State,  and  the  exactions  of  his  profession  made  it  impracticable 
for  him  to  retain  active  part  in  the  newspaper.  Mr.  Elaine  had 
seen  and  copied  into  his  paper,  with  strong  commendation,  an 
unsigned  article  on  the  political  situation,  written  by  Rev.  John 
L.  Stevens,  and  Mr.  Stevens  had  noted  with  what  signal  clear 
ness  and  cogency,  with  what  superior  insight  and  intellectual 
force,  the  young  Pennsylvania!!  was  handling  the  prevailing 
topics  of  public  discussion.  Without  the  knowledge  of  either, 
a  meeting  was  arranged  by  influential  friends  between  Mr. 
Stevens  and  Mr.  Blaine,  and  in  twenty-four  hours  from  that  first 
meeting  they  had  become  associate  owners  and  editors  of  the 
Kennebec  Journal.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  friendship 
which  extended  without  break  for  thirty-eight  years.  "  As 


102  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    O.    HLAINE. 

freshly  as  of  yesterday,''  says  Mr.  Stevens,  "I  remember  his 
appearance  as  I  first  saw  him  at  twenty-five.  His  handsome 
person,  his  striking  features,  his  large,  lustrous  eyes,  and  his 
whole  expression  of  face  spoke  the  man  of  genius  and  intel 
lectual  power/' 

To  the  two  young  men  —  for  Mr.  Stevens  was  scarcely  ten 
years  the  senior  of  Mr.  Blame  —  there  was  nothing  forbidding  or 
formidable,  on  the  contrary,  there  was  somewhat  attractive  and 
stimulating,  in  the  formation  and  appearance  of  a  new  party. 
They  at  once  and  eagerly  determined  to  follow  their  principles 
into  the  Republican  party  rather  than  to  "lie  down  and  fold 
our  arms  and  do  nothing  in  this  great  final  struggle  between 
slavery  and  freedom.  We  will  help  bear  the  glorious  banner 
of  Republican  liberty  on  to  victory  till  our  government  is  com 
pletely  and  forever  divorced  from  slavery,  and  wielded  to  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity  !  " 

The  new  party  stood  to  them  for  freedom,  temperance, 
river  and  harbor  improvement  within  constitutional  limits, 
homesteads  for  freemen,  a  just  administration  of  the  public 
lands  of  the  State  and  nation,  and  for  education  as  the  surest 
safeguard  of  republican  institutions.  A  department  was  to  be 
devoted  each  week  to  religious  intelligence.  And  they  modestly 
continued :  "  With  what  ability  or  what  success  we  may  labor, 
we  shall  leave  others  to  judge  —  we  can  only  pledge  honest 
impulses  and  faithful  endeavors."  They  declared  the  great 
Republican  party  to  be  fairly  inaugurated  into  power  in  Maine, 
"  with  a  popular  good-will,  a  prestige  of  success,  and  the  elements 
of  permanency  such  as  no  party  has  had  since  the  birth  of  our 
State.  .  .  .  Let  it  be  not  merely  the  inauguration  of  a  new 
party,  but  the  exaltation  of  principle  above  party." 

Clear  eyes  at  the  South  foresaw  dissolution  of  the  Union  or 
extinction  of  slavery  as  the  outcome  of  the  Republican  party. 
The  Charleston  Mercury  foretold  "no  passing  effervescence, 
but  a  great  movement ;  progress  a  law  of  its  being,  victory 
the  law  of  its  agitation."  The  Maine  editors,  on  the  con 
trary,  saw  in  it  not  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  but  its  sal 
vation.  Both  were  right.  It  was  the  extinction  of  slavery 
and  the  dissolution  of  the  old  Union  founded  on  the  shifting 
sands  of  compromise  between  the  dying  past  and  the  eternal 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  10S 

future.  It  was  the  establishment  of  a  new  Union  founded  on 
the  rock  of  ages,  the  right  of  the  human  being.  Certainly  no 
party  ever  had  a  more  immaculate  conception  or  a  holier 
nativity  than  the  Republican  party. 

A  bill,  very  important  to  the  private  success  of  the  two  young 
men,  passed  both  branches  of  the  Legislature,  making  the  Ken- 
nebec  Journal  the  State  paper,  in  which  should  be  published 
all  laws  and  resolves  of  a  public  nature,  and  all  advertisements, 
notices,  and  orders  required  to  be  published.  Their  work  was 
so  well  done  that  even  their  rivals  complimented  them  on  the 
highly  creditable  style  in  which  their  reports  were  issued,  in 
response  to  which  the  Journal  rather  saucily  congratulated 
its  "  Hunker  contemporaries  "  that,  "  however  awry  their  politi 
cal  principles,  they  know  what  good  printing  is ! " 

To  one  recalling  incidents  of  this  time,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  in 
1868: 

I  love  these  reminiscences  that  give  us  a  life  glimpse  of  what  we  really 
were  a  dozen  or  fifteen  years  ago.  I  know  myself  that  I  must  have  been 
green  enough  in  those  days  —  but  I  never  imagined  it  at  the  time.  Was  I 
not  then  editing  the  leading  Republican  paper  of  Maine  ?  Was  I  not  then 
State  printer,  making  $4,000  a  year  and  spending  $600,  a  ratio  between 
outlay  and  income  which  I  have  never  since  been  able  to  establish  and 
maintain  ?  Bless  me,  how  rich  I  should  grow  if  I  should  only  now  come 
into  the  annual  receipt  of  seven  times  my  outlay  —  and  yet  that  was  just 
my  charming  condition  in  those  delightful  days. 

But  no  personal  compliments  or  private  profits  kept  the 
Kennebec  Journal  from  girding  itself  for  battle.  It  went 
not  simply  where  the  right  was  hottest,  but  it  made  the  hottest 
of  the  fight  —  confronting  the  determination  of  the  slave  power 
to  extend  and  perpetuate  slavery  with  an  equal  determination 
to  limit  and  destroy  it  —  confronting  the  arrogant  demand  for 
concession  of  superiority  with  as  lordly  an  assertion  and  a 
wiser  maintenance  of  equal  condition  and  rights.  "  The  Ne 
braska  swindle"  was  an  objective  point,  a  living  contention. 
On  the  final  passage  of  the  Nebraska  bill  Northern  Statesman 
ship  solemnly  pronounced  that  all  compromises  with  slavery 
were  henceforth  at  an  end.  Every  issue  of  the  Journal 
was  a  series  of  blows  boyish  sometimes  in  their  directness, 
but  manfully  aimed  and  delivered,  manfully  muscular,  swift, 


104  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

untiring,  effective.  Every  blow  consolidated  the  party  and 
confounded  the  opposition.  The  confidence  and  strength  of 
the  young  editors  infused  confidence  and  increased  strength, 
and  made  many  adherents  to  the  new  cause. 

Mr.  Stevens  was  then  both  chairman  and  secretary  of  the 
Republican  State  Committee,  and  was  too  deeply  absorbed  in 
efforts  at  Republican  organization  to  devote  much  time  to  edi 
torial  work,  so  that  most  of  the  ably  written  articles  and  caustic 
paragraphs  published  in  the  Kennebec  Journal  in  the  cam 
paign  of  1856,  and  copied  extensively  in  and  out  of  the  State, 
were  written  by  Mr.  Elaine. 

The  madness  of  slavery  about  to  be  destroyed  gave  innumer 
able  points  on  which  the  alert  foe  never  ceased  to  ring  the 
changes.  The  fugitive  slave  law,  which  opened  the  whole  North 
as  a  hunting-ground  to  the  slave-catcher,  and  brought  slavery 
in  its  most  odious  and  least  defensible  form  to  the  very  doors, 
before  the  very  eyes,  of  hereditary  freemen;  the  overthrow  of 
barriers  against  slavery  in  the  new  territories,  openly  threaten 
ing  freedom  with  the  permanent  political  supremacy  of  slavery, 
—  were  all  that  was  necessary  to  rouse  suspicious  and  smoul 
dering  wrath  to  flame,  and  the  strong  young  manhood  of  free 
institutions  had  thenceforth  but  one  passion  —  wherever  slavery 
showed  head  or  hand  or  foot,  to  smite  it. 

Thus  it  came  that  the  Nebraska  bill,  instead  of  confirming 
the  compromise  of  1850  and  strengthening  harmony,  brought 
resentment  and  discord.  Instead  of  two  slave  States,  it  gave  to 
the  Union  two  free  States ;  instead  of  bounding  Free  Soil,  it 
made  Free  Soil  of  the  whole  nation. 

Abroad  the  world  was  not  becalmed.  Mr.  Perley,  of  New 
Brunswick,  was  in  Washington  interviewing  the  President  and 
Secretary  Marcy  and  Mr.  Gushing  and  Mr.  Crampton  on  the 
Reciprocity  Treaty  with  Canada.  France,  England,  and  Sar 
dinia  were  leagued  in  the  great  Crimean  war  to  limit  Russia 
in  the  Black  sea,  and  to  bar  from  the  East  her  gigantic  and 
terrible  steps.  In  the  very  first  issue  of  the  paper  after  Mr. 
Blaine  assumed  the  editorial  chair,  the  annexation  of  Hawaii  was 
presented  as  an  immediate  and  American  question.  Mr.  Sever 
ance,  his  predecessor,  had  been  a  man  of  marked  ability, 
courtesy,  and  character.  While  continuing  as  editor  he  had 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  105 

served  in  both  branches  of  the  Maine  Legislature,  and  had  twice 
been  sent  to  the  lower  house  of  Congress.  He  had  been  ap 
pointed  by  President  Taylor  commissioner  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  and  sailed  from  Boston  August  22, 1851,  reaching  Hono 
lulu  January  12,  1852.  In  this  station  he  bore  himself  so  admi 
rably  that  the  king  desired  him  to  remain  as  Secretary  of  foreign 
affairs.  He  did  not  accept  the  offer,  but  he  ever  cherished  a 
lively  concern  in  the  fortunes  of  this  peculiarly  interesting  little 
kingdom.  It  was  during  his  stay  there  that  the  question  of 
annexation  became  prominently  agitated  for  the  first  time,  and 
he  prepared  a  paper  upon  it  whose  pertinence  and  value  have 
lost  nothing  from  subsequent  events.  At  the  time  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  advent,  Mr.  Severance  was  regarded  somewhat  as  editor 
emeritus,  and  not  only  by  his  successor  on  the  Journal,  but 
by  Maine  citizens  generally,  was  held  in  warm  and  high  respect. 
Mr.  Elaine's  acquaintance  with  him  was  brief,  Mr.  Severance 
dying  that  winter,  but  his  appreciation  of  the  man  induced 
him  to  write  for  the  Journal  a  memorial  sketch  of  the  life  of 
Luther  Severance,  which  was  afterwards  published  in  pamphlet 
form. 

Mr.  Stevens,  born  and  schooled  in  Kennebec,  avowed  on  as 
suming  editorship  that  his  earliest  political  knowledge  was  drawn 
from  the  pages  of  Luther  Severance,  "  whose  light  still  lingers 
on  us  like  the  rays  of  the  sun  on  the  mountains,  ere  it  goes 
down,"  and  spoke  tfc  with  reverence  and  joy  through  a  medium 
made  almost  classic  by  his  labors." 

Hon.  Elisha  Allen,  of  Maine,  was  then  Speaker  of  the  Hawaiian 
House  of  Representatives,  a  position  which  was  said  to  be  as 
onerous  as  it  was  honorable,  from  the  ignorance  of  the  Hawaiians 
regarding  parliamentary  forms.  Of  the  twenty-seven  native 
members  only  six,  including  the  Speaker,  were  whites  or  under 
stood  English,  and  half  the  native  Hawaiians  had  never  even 
seen  a  legislative  assembly  before.  With  Judge  Allen  Mr. 
Elaine  sustained  cordial  connections  in  private  and  public  life  till 
the  New  Year's  day  when,  full  of  years  and  honors,  the  Dean  of 
the  Diplomatic  Corps  fell  dead  in  the  White  House. 

Through  his  relations  with  such  men  Mr.  Elaine  acquired  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  resources,  history,  character,  and 
aspirations  of  the  island  kingdom,  and  shared  with  them  an 


106  BIOGRAPHY    OF  JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

interest,  personal  as  well  as  political  and  patriotic,  in  its  con 
dition  and  destiny. 

Annexation  seemed  coming  on  apace.  Mr.  Severance  was 
writing  from  his  vantage  ground  of  familiarity  with  both 
nations,  and  strangely  enough  the  questions  which  were  con 
vulsing  America  were  affecting  also  the  policy  of  the  gentle 
island.  The  compromise  intended  to  open  way  for  slavery  in 
Utah  and  New  Mexico,  the  repeal  of  compromise  to  open 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  slavery,  and  the  cry  of  squatter  sover 
eignty  frightened  the  Hawaiians.  Slavery  was  prohibited  by 
the  Hawaiian  constitution,  but  if  Hawaii  were  annexed,  they 
feared  they  would  be  made  slaves  under  the  Nebraska  bill,  or 
even  become  the  prey  of  marauding  filibusters  from  San  Fran 
cisco.  In  August,  1853,  the  British  Consul  had  offered  the  king 
formal  remonstrance  against  annexation.  Through  the  columns 
of  the  Journal,  from  the  pens  of  Maine  Hawaiians,  the  ques 
tion  of  annexation  was  ably  presented,  sometimes  as  the  only 
ultimate  resource  against  anarchy.  Negotiations  were  be 
lieved  to  be  far  advanced,  and  "probably,"  wrote  a  corre 
spondent  from  Hawaii,  "ere  this  time  next  year,  we  shall 
again  be  under  the  stars  and  stripes."  Of  2,000  whites  and 
70,000  natives,  nearly  all  Americans  were  in  favor  of  annex 
ation  ;  the  Germans  stood  three  to  one.  The  Scotch  were 
somewhat  indifferent.  The  mercantile  and  commercial  motive 
was  strong ;  the  sugar-planters  wanted  annexation  to  avoid 
a  thirty  per  cent,  duty  and  get  a  thirty  per  cent,  protection. 
English  land-holders  were  not  opposed  to  it.  since  it  would 
raise  the  price  of  their  lands.  The  chiefs,  who  owned  large 
tracts  of  land  which  yielded  little  income  after  compulsory  labor 
was  abolished,  saw  that  they  would  profit  by  it.  Of  the  mis 
sionary  work,  the  Journal  spoke  without  sentiment,  but  its 
facts  were  significant.  Until  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries  in 
1820  the  natives  had  no  written  language,  no  recorded  laws  or 
titles  to  lands,  or  to  anything  else.  "  The  authority  of  the  king 
was  paramount,"  and  it  was  as  constitutional  for  him,  Kameha- 
meha  I.,  when  he  conquered  the  islands  to  assume  ownership  of 
the  conquered  lands  as  it  was  for  William  of  Normandy.  The 
missionaries  therefore  not  only  brought  Christianity,  but  civiliza 
tion,  to  Hawaii.  One  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  was 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  107 

John  li,  who  remembered  seeing  his  father,  a  native  priest, 
officiate  at  a  human  sacrifice.  An  annual  labor-school  for  the 
children  of  missionaries  was  under  the  chief  care  of  Rev.  Daniel 
Dole,  a  "  Kennebecker,"  father  of  President  Dole,  of  the  Provis 
ional  Government  established  in  1893.  The  English  school  for 
half-castes  was  taught  by  G.  B.  C.  Ingraham,  a  native  of  Hallo- 
well.  In  Maui  there  was  a  school  for  native  children  under  Rev. 
Mr.  Alexander,  father  of  Professor  Alexander  now  of  Honolulu. 
If  the  islands  should  be  admitted  as  a  State,  these  Maine  men 
avowed  that  they  could  send  ."  better  representatives  than  the 
average."  In  1843  England  and  France  agreed  not  to  take  pos 
session  of  the  islands  either  as  a  protectorate  or  otherwise,  and  in 
vited  the  United  States  to  enter  into  the  compact.  ^The  United 
States  declined,  but  all  agreed  to  protect  the  islands  against 
filibusters.  In  President  Buchanan's  subsequent  message  it 
was  adversely  noted  that  the  two  subjects  upon  which  most 
interest  was  felt  by  the  public,  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  and  the 
annexation  of  Hawaii,  were  wholly  ignored. 

In  addition  to  editorship  Mr.  Blaine  assumed  the  work 
of  reporter  of  the  Senate,  and  his  reports,  though  written 
from  memory  only,  without  notes,  became  at  once  authori 
tative  from  their  fulness  and  accuracy.  His  custom  was 
never  to  watch  the  speakers,  on  a  theory  that  the  exercise  of 
two  senses  is  less  effective  than  reliance  on  one.  It  was  his 
invariable  habit,  when  a  debate  commenced,  to  draw  up  a 
chair  to  the  open  fireplace  and  watch  the  burning  logs  while 
he  listened.  He  would  afterwards,  without  a  single  note,  fur 
nish  his  paper  with  a  synopsis  of  the  speeches  delivered 
throughout  the  debate.  While  still  listening,  he  would  men 
tally  and  instinctively  frame  speeches  meeting  the  arguments 
brought  forward.  After  hearing  the  roll-call,  he  could  give  at 
will  every  member's  vote.  He  formulated  no  method  of  mem 
ory,  was  aware  of  no  effort.  When  asked,  tk  How  can  you  re 
member  so  ? "  his  only  explanation  was,  "  How  can  you  help 
it  ?  "  What  came  to  him  remained  —  was  on  call.  It  was  a 
touch  of  the  divine  memory  -  -  no  memory  at  all,  but  an 
eternal  now.  Yet  the  eternal  now  was  perhaps  a  part  of  his 
secret,  was  certainly  his  impetuous  and  imperative  rule,  even 
in  that  early  day.  A  word  or  a,  fact  that  he  wanted  must  be 


108  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

sought  at  once,  never  relegated  to  a  more  convenient  moment. 
This  association  helped  to  fix  in  his  mind  the  definition  or  the 
statement  required. 

His  attendance  upon  the  Senate  gave  him  excellent  oppor 
tunity  to  become  acquainted  with  the  leading  political  men 
of  the  State,  of  both  parties.  His  own  intelligent  interest, 
his  enthusiasm,  his  knowledge  of  what  most  concerned  legis 
lators  and  public  men,  his  readiness  to  draw  upon  it  for  the 
pleasure  and  the  profit  of  his  interlocutors,  his  eagerness  to 
draw  upon  their  stores  for  his  own  profit  and  pleasure,  the 
very  unwontedness  of  his  Pennsylvania  birth,  breeding,  and 
associations,  quickly  drew  the  attention  and  regard  of  the 
members,  while  it  was  equally  observed  that  he  never  pushed 
himself  forward.  Always  and  by  nature  energetic  and  force 
ful  in  mariner  when  called  upon  to  speak  or  to  act,  he  had  the 
reserve  which  belongs  to  trained  intellect,  good  breeding,  and 
good  sense,  no  less  conscious  of  responsibility  than  sensitive  to 
the  rights  of  others. 

From  men  then  living  in  Augusta  and  its  neighborhood  Mr. 
Blaine  received  great  advantage,  by  the  fulness  of  their  in 
formation,  and  their  ability  and  readiness  to  put  him  in  pos 
session  of  the  personal  history  of  men,  measures,  and  parties  as 
no  reading  could  do.  Several  had  done  eminent  service  to  the 
community  and  were  in  the  evening  of  honored  life. 

When  Mr.  Pinkham  drove  President  Polk  in  his  coach  to 
the  house  of  Reuel  Williams,  a  lad  who  was  looking  on  with 
swelling  heart  affirms  that  he  could  not  tell  which  seemed  to 
him  the  greater  man  of  the  three  !  Reuel  Williams  was  a  nat 
ural  magnate  such  as  New  England  loved  to  honor.  He  had 
been  United  States  Senator.  He  was  a  famous  lawyer.  He 
had  charge  of  the  Plymouth  Company's  lands,  and  perhaps  his 
last  public  service  was  in  the  Peace  Congress  at  Washington, 
in  February,  1861. 

Nathan  Weston,  grandfather  of  the  present  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  had  been  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Maine.  He  and  Reuel  Williams  had 
married  sisters,  two  of  the  four  daughters  of  Judge  Daniel  Cony, 

»  Mr.  Pinkham  afterwards  became  Mr.  Elaine's  colleague  in  the  Maine  House  of  Represents 
live*.     He  WUH  an  intense  Democrat,  hut  a  no  less  intense  admirer  of  Mr.  Blaine. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    HLAINE.  109 

who  was  one  of  the  early  settlers,  and  had  given  a  house  and 
one  thousand  dollars  for  the  establishment  of  a  school  for  the 
education  of  girls.  Of  the  other  two  daughters  one  became  the 
wife  of  Rev.  Mr.  Ingraham  and  the  other  of  General  Cony. 
Samuel  Cony,  from  1864  to  1867,  Governor  of  Maine,  was  her 
grandson. 

Ethan  Shepley  had  been  in  the  national  Senate  from  1833  to 
1836,  but  had  resigned  his  position  to  become  Judge  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  Maine,  whence  he  was  appointed  Chief  Justice. 
He  retired  from  the  bench  in  1855  and  made  his  home  in  Port 
land.  He  was  the  father  of  George  F.  Shepley,  who  distin 
guished  himself  in  the  war,  and  became  afterwards  a  judge  in  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court. 

Hon.  George  Evans,  of  Gardiner,  had  represented  the  Kenne- 
bec  District  in  Congress  for  six  terms,  and  had  then  entered  the 
Senate,  where  he  had  shared  a  national  renown  with  Webster  and 
Clay  and  Calhoun,  and  was  now  Attorney-General  of  Maine. 

Hon.  Williams  Eminons,  of  Hallowell,  was  in  the  decline 
of  his  long  and  venerable  life,  though  he  did  not  attain  unto 
the  days  of  the  years  of  the  pilgrimage  of  his  father,  the 
famous  Franklin  divine,  Rev.  Nathaniel  Emmons.  His  first 
wife  was  Miss  Wild,  a  sister  of  the  wife  of  Caleb  Gushing; 
his  second  was  the  daughter  of  Benjamin  Vaughan,  the  friend 
and  disciple  who  had  accompanied  Priestley  in  his  escape  to 
this  country.  Mr.  Emmons  had  been  State  Senator  and  judge, 
and  was  held  in  great  and  deserved  reverence  in  the  com 
munity,  not  only  for  his  eminent  descent  and  connections,  but 
for  his  personal  probity  and  dignity.  Mr.  Elaine's  father-in- 
law  had  cherished  for  him  a  special  regard  and  affection  which 
Mr.  Elaine  shared  so  largely  that  he  gave  the  name  Williams 
Emmons  to  his  third  son,  and  the  family  friendship  continued 
throughout  life. 

It  will  easily  be  seen  that  a  keen  appreciation  which  could 
open  the  storehouse  of  such  memories,  would  furnish  incalcu 
lable  treasure. 

"  How  does  Elaine  know  so  much  about  Maine  ?  "  was  often 
asked.  Only  by  ways  open  to  all,  if  trodden  by  few. 

"  He  was  born  in  the  rotunda  at  Washington,"  said  one, 
whimsically  accounting  for  an  acquaintance  with  national  details 


110  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

which    had    come    to    him  by   natural  assimilation    from   these 
natural  sources. 

Of  those  still  at  the  front,  and  of  those  coming  to  the  front, 
Edward  Kent,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  Governor  of  the 
State,  is  still  remembered  not  only  for  his  public  spirit  and  ser 
vice  but  for  the  resonance  of  the  campaign  rhyme  : 

"  He  has  gone  hell-bent, 
For  Governor  Kent." 

Senator  Fessenden  was  in  the  height  of  his  great  reputation 
and  influence,  powerful  by  the  purity  of  his  character  and  his 
eminent  ability.  Senator  Hamlin  was  among  the  first  to  leave 
the  Democratic  and  join  in  forming  the  new  party  on  the  direct 
slavery  issue.  Senator  Merrill,  the  brother  of  Anson  P. 
Morrill,  over  the  bridge  of  temperance,  took  the  same  road. 
Israel  Washburn,  Jr.,  one  of  five  famous  brothers,  was  in 
Congress  from  the  Penobscot  district,  while  the  present  Senator 
was  encouragingly  referred  to  in  the  Kennebec  Journal  as  a 
young  man  of  great  promise,  Assistant  Clerk  in  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

March  23,  1855,  the  Journal  records  that  Mr.  Melville  W. 
Fuller,  who  had  reported  the  legislative  doings  for  the  Age 
while  Mr.  Elaine  had  been  reporting  them  for  the  Journal, 
delivered  the  seventeenth  lecture  before  the  Augusta  Lyceum, 
on  Oliver  Cromwell,  in  which  his  "  researches  as  a  historian  and 
his  ability  as  a  writer  fully  sustain  the  creditable  reputation  he 
has  already  acquired."  Afterwards  he  recited  a  poem  which 
was  also  generously  praised. 

Sidney  Perham,  Speaker  of  the  Maine  House  in  1855,  once 
said,  "  At  that  time  two  young  men  were  reporters  in  the 
House.  I  never  saw  them  together  again  till  I  saw  them  in 
Washington,  when  one  was  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
and  the  other  was  Secretary  of  State." 

On  July  13,  the  Republican  editor  welcomed  B.  A.  G. 
Fuller  and  his  nephew,  Melville  W.  Fuller,  to  the  editorship  of 
the  Democratic  Age,  particularly  esteeming  the  Fullers  as 
"talented  and  accomplished  gentlemen  whose  abilities  might 
possibly  lend  respectability  to  the  bad  cause  they  advocated  ; " 
but  by  August  3  the  sword  was  agleam,  in  spite  of  the  "  talents 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    6f.     HLAJNE.  Ill 

and  accomplishments  "  of  the  foe.  "  Truly,  Sir  Cottrill,  this  is 
an  Age  of  trickery.  It  doth  seem  to  grow  yet  'Fuller  and 
Fuller '  of  cunning  machinations,"  quoted  the  Journal  editor, 
and  hung  up  in  his  office  a  secret  circular  of  the  Age, 
signed  by  "  Fuller  and  Fuller  "  asking  their  friends  to  "  coun 
teract  the  influence  of  such  pernicious  prints  as  the  Kennebec 
Journal,  etc.,  which  secret  associations  are  using  every  means 
to  open  up  channels  through  which  a  deluge  of  copies  may  be 
poured  forth  to  flood  the  land  with  their  dangerous  doctrines ; " 
and  "  it  is  the  obvious  duty  of  our  friends  to  counteract,  by  those 
vehicles  of  truth  whose  object  it  is  to  rebuke  error,  and  hold  up 
to  the  light  the  machinations  of  its  devotees.  We  have  no 
secret  clubs,  we  have  no  hireling  officials,  to  aid  in  their  cir 
culation  ; "  and  then  the  "  hireling  official,"  the  State  printer  and 
future  Speaker,  held  up  his  prospectus,  inserted  openly  in  the 
paper  for  six  consecutive  weeks,  to  shame  the  future  Chief 
Justice  ! 

The  Coalition  carried  the  next  elections  against  the  Repub 
licans,  and  the  u  hireling  official  "-ism  was  transferred  to  the 
Age.  Naturally,  the  alert  Republican  editor  allowed  no  em 
barrassment  of  the  opposition  to  escape  him.  A  coalition  is  apt 
to  be  awkward  and  unpopular.  It  did  not  seem  less  so  under 
the  manipulation  of  the  Kennebec  Journal.  The  nomenclat 
ure  was  uncertain  and  entrapping.  The  victors  could  not  call 
themselves  Democrats,  because  that  would  offend  the  Whig 
membership.  If  they  stammered  on  the  t%  Democrat  and 
Whig,"  it  was  but  specializing  the  odium  attaching  to  "  Coa 
lition."  But  when  the  bewildered  Chairman,  reduced  to  despair, 
shouted  at  the  top  of  his  lungs,  u  The  Anti-Republican  members 
will  meet  in  caucus,"  peals  of  laughter  reverberated  loud  and 
long  through  the  Journal. 

The  editor  pointed  out,  with  a  rather  suspicious  reverence, 
that  he  had  not  reported  the  prayers  of  the  Legislature,  but, 
finding  the  Coalition  chaplain's  prayer  published  by  the 
"  government  organ,"  the  Age,  the  Journal  reproduced  it 
with  no  other  comment  than  underlining  certain  portions  : 
"  To  thee,  Almighty  God,  in  the  presence  of  men  and  angels, 
we  humbly  pray  for  thy  favors  to  be  upon  the  administration  of 
our  State  government  during  the  year  which  has  now  opened. 


31-J  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMKff    O.     BLAJNJS. 

Thy  servant  offers  this  supplication,  not  that  his  voice  has  been 
bought  to  party  interests,  not  that  he  would  part  with  his  love  for 
Chrixt,  and  his  allegiance  to  Him,  for  any  worldly  inducement,  but 
because  he  loves  his  country,  the  whole  and  undivided  country." 

Heartily  devoted  to  the  hopes  and  plans  of  Maine,  the  pages  are 
yet  sprinkled  with  Pennsylvania  and  Kentucky  lore.  Serious 
political  argument  is  enlivened  with  stories  of  Joe  Doake  and 
the  National  Road.  When  John  C.  Breckenridge  was  appointed 
Minister  to  Spain  by  President  Pierce,  the  Journal  Editor 
affirmed  from  neighborhood  knowledge  that  no  abler  or  worthier 
man  was  to  be  selected.  Before  the  Dred  Scott  decision  fell 
like  a  pall  upon  the  venerable  Roger  B.  Taney,  the  Journal 
had  noted  his  unswerving  integrity  and  impartiality,  the  "  rich 
record  of  an  honest  and  faithful  discharge  of  the  weightiest  and 
most  momentous  duties."  When  the  Maine  opposition  pleaded 
that  President  Buchanan  had  not  appointed  a  Southern  man 
governor  of  Kansas,  but  a  Pennsylvania!!,  son  of  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  a  man  who  had  prac 
tised  law  in  Pennsylvania,  the  retort  came  like  a  blow  that  his 
father  never  was  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  but  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Western  District  of 
Pennsylvania ;  that  he  had  not  practised  law  in  Pennsylvania 
for  many  years,  but  went  to  Mississippi  as  soon  as  he  had  fin' 
ished  his  legal  studies,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four  years,  and  was, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  Southern  man. 

Hon.  Thomas  Ewing,  of  Ohio,  was  triumphantly  and  author 
itatively  reported  to  have  joined  the  kt  Buchaniers."  kt  We 
contradicted  the  rumor  when  it  was  first  circulated,  knowing  it 
to  be  false.  Mr.  Ewing  has  recently  declared  for  Fremont,  and 
his  son,  Thomas  Ewing,  Jr.,  has  taken  the  stump  in  Ohio  in 
behalf  of  the  Republican  nominees." 

"  Henry  Winter  Davis,  a  young  and  talented  Fillmore  mem 
ber  of  Congress  for  Maryland  (would  be  for  Fremont,  prob 
ably,  if  he  dared),  made  a  speech  in  the  House  lately  that  took 
some  of  the  South  by  surprise.  He  spoke  of  the  Buchanan 
party  as  a  Southern  sectional  party,  and  intimated  that  so  long 
as  Southern  men  supported  it,  they  could  not  blame  Northern 
men  for  supporting  Fremont.  He  passed  a  high  eulogy  on 
Speaker  Banks,  who,  he  said,  had  graced  the  chair  as  it  had  not 


BIOGRAPHY     <>F    JAM  US    <!.     HI. A  INK. 

been  graced  for  thirty  years.  Mr.  Davis  is  the  most  eloquent 
and  promising  member  of  his  party  in  the  House,  although  this 
is  his  first  year  of  congressional  service." 

Thus  it  fell  that  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  upon  a  two  years' 
residence  in  the  State,  Mr.  Blame  had  sufficiently  won  the 
confidence  of  the  people  to  be  chosen  delegate  to  the  first  Re 
publican  national  convention  for  the  nomination  of  a  candi 
date  for  the  presidency. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  T.  Washburn,  Jr. : 

WASHINGTON,  Feb.  14,  18o6. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  favor  of  the  12th  and  its 
enclosure  to  you.  Fremont  has  strong  points  undoubtedly,  and  very  many 
elements  of  popular  strength.  It  will  not  be  strange  if  he  shall  be  con 
sidered  upon  the  whole  as  our  best  man  for  the  presidential  nomination. 
But  I  doubt  not  that  there  will  be  strong  opposition  to  him  from  quarters 
entitled  to  the  greatest  respect.  A  man  who  says  "  I  am  not  opposed  to 
the  system  of  slavery  if  properly  regulated,11  will  be  apt  to  say  things, 
and  do  things,  which  will  not  tend  to  strengthen  him  in  the  North,  to  say 
the  least.  You  are  probably  right  in  thinking  that  Seward  nor  Chase  can 
be  run,  I  am  sorry  it  is  so.  Wilmot,  Pollok,  P.  King,  Judge  McLean,  and 
Speaker  Banks  have  been  named.  It  is  thought  by  some  that  the  latter 
gentleman  occupies  the  best  position  for  success  of  any  man  in  the  country, 
that  he  can  better  unite  the  American  and  Republican  strength  than  any 
other  man.  This  idea  is  not  without  force  and  plausibility.  But  in  my 
judgment  it  is  altogether  too  early  to  make  commitments.  We  cannot  say 
who  ought  to  be  nominated  —  hardly  guess  —  at  least  I  cannot.  A  few 
months  may  work  great  changes  as  to  the  positions  and  chances  of  men. 
I  would  let  things  drift  for  the  present.  There  will  be  attempts  to  reunite 
the  American  party  Xorth  and  South,  and,  these  failing,  to  organize  a  dis 
tinctive  American  party  North,  and  to  which  it  will  be  held  that  Republi 
canism  must  be  subordinated.  Movements  and  combinations  to  this  end 
are  undoubtedly  on  foot,  and  I  shall  not  be  surprised  if  our  recent  elections 
in  the  House  enure  considerably  to  their  benefit.  Every  elected  officer  is  a 
Know  Nothing,  and  it  is  now  whispered  that  all  save  Banks  are  of  the  12th 
section,  about  all  the  subordinates  are  of  the  order,  and  majority,  I  believe, 
of  the  southern  wing. 

Among  the  Republicans,  pure  and  simple,  especially  from  the  West, 
there  is  considerable  squirming ;  they  say  that  they  are  mere  adjuncts  to 
the  party  that  has  won;  that  they  can  procure  no  appoints.,  and  indeed 
that  Republicanism  is  an  offence ;  who  declare  that  the  upshot  of  thu 
nine  weeks1  struggle  is  the  strengthening  of  the  direct  and  indirect  opposi<- 
tion  to  the  Republican  party,  and  that  Americanism,  as  the  paramount 


114  BJOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <1.     ELAINE. 

thing,  is  more   healthy  and  hopeful   than   it  has  been,  etc.     These  things 
though  said,  are  more  thought  of  than  talked  about. 

You  will  perceive  that  what  I  have  written  should  be  private,  or  "  rather 
so."  Excuse  a  hurried  letter  at  this  time,  and  please  write  me  often. 

FEBRUARY  26,  '56. 

Your  letters  are  received.  .  .  .  T  presume  that  no  one  expects  that 
Seward  will  be  our  nominee.  The  trepidation  of  our  friends  has  made 
him  weak,  when  six  months  ago  he  was  strong  and  ought  to  be  now.  The 
quest  for  as  small  a  modicum  of  Republicanism  as  will  answer,  and  as 
large  an  infusion  of  Know  Nothingism  as  will  be  safe,  has  put  all  first  rate 
men  out  of  the  ring,  and  left  the  nomination  possible  to  only  second  or 
third  rates.  Fremont  may  be  the  best  man  that  we  can  take.  I  do  not 
feel  sure  that  he  is  not,  but  I  must  feel  that  we  can  tie  to  him  on  the 
slavery  question.  I  have  no  specific  and  positive  desire  to  be  cheated 
again. 

There  is  a  living  feeling  in  the  country,  without  which  we  are  nowhere, 
which  means  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery;  any  attempt  to  ignore 
which,  or  waive,  or  trifle  with,  will  not  succeed,  and  ought  not  to  succeed. 
Men  are  in  earnest,  and  the  earnest  men  rather  than  the  traders  and  trim 
mers,  the  mere  politicians,  are  to  be  felt  in  this  campaign.  I  hope  Fremont 
may  be  all  right;  if  so,  he  can  make  a  fine  run.  T  agree  with  you  in 
reference  to  Mr.  Banks. 

Do  you  think  that  straight  Whigs  in  Maine,  who  puffed  Seward  all  last 
summer,  would  oppose  him  while  they  would  support  a  Democratic 
"Republican"?  The  nomination  of  Fillmore  yesterday  will  spoil  many 
nice  schemes  in  embryo.  I  am  rather  glad  it  has  been  made  now,  as  I  am 
sure  it  was  bound  to  be  made  at  some  time.  It  will  bring  many  anti 
Know  Nothings,  who  have  been  waiting  and  temporizing,  into  line.  It  will 
crush  out  many  aspirations  and  combinations.  We  can  now  see  clearly  the 
path  of  duty  and  of  hope.  Men  who  are  with  us  in  reality  will  say  so,  and 
those  who  at  heart  are  against  us  but  would  have  maintained  a  quasi  con 
nection  for  their  own  purposes,  though  certain  to  leave  us  in  the  end,  will 
leave  us  now.  Will  the  straight  Whigs  of  Maine,  who  have  opposed  the  dark 
lanterns  so  furiously,  fall  into  the  Fillmore  ranks?  Is  Americanism,  when 
associated  with  opposition  to  slavery  in  Kansas,  objectionable,  and  attrac 
tive  only  when  its  leading  idea  and  purpose  is  to  establish  it  there  ? 
.  .  .  Weston  says  Maine  is  good  for  20,000  majority  for  the  Republican 
ticket,  and  I  do  not  see  how  that  ticket,  if  a  fair  one,  can  be  beat.  There 
is,  we  hear,  considerable  talk  about  Hamlin  for  governor.  We  think  well 
of  it  here,  if  agreeable  to  Mr.  H. 

At  this  convention  Mr.  Elaine  inclined  to  the  nomination  of 
Judge  McLean,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  rather  than  Fremont, 
"  My  preference  for  Judge  McLean,"  he  explained  to  his 


BIOGRAPHY     OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINK.  115 

constituents  on  his  return,  "  was  in  large  degree  based  upon 
admiration  of  his  high  character,  but  partly  upon  an  inherited 
friendship  for  him,  partly  from  a  kinship  of  feeling  with  his 
conservatism,  and  partly,  I  suppose,  because  the  Whig  instincts 
which  I  share  with  the  great  majority  of  this  district  turned  me 
towards  one  who  has  so  long  been  among  the  trusted  statesmen 
and  soundest  advisers  of  that  party."  Though  impulsive  in  man 
ner  and  bold  in  action,  Mr.  Elaine  was  the  farthest  from  rashness 
was,  on  the  contrary,  thoroughly  cautious  and  even  conserv 
ative.  The  rapidity  of  his  conclusions  often  gave  the  appear 
ance  of  recklessness  to  what  was  really  a  sound,  though  swift, 
logic.  Ever  the  lasting  force  if  not  the  strongest  shock  of  his 
charge  lay  in  the  strength  of  the  position  from  which  it  was  made. 
The  young  and  ardent  Republicans  at  the  convention  gener 
ally  preferred  Fremont,  and  he  was  selected  as  standard-bearer. 
None  the  less  Mr.  Elaine  entered  the  contest  with  all  his  heart. 
For  the  great  majority  with  which  the  Republicans  carried 
Maine,  no  member  of  the  rising  party  won  more  laurels  than 
their  adopted  citizen,  and  no  exigency  could  have  been  better 
adapted  to  show  his  genius  for  leadership.  The  moral  eleva 
tion  of  the  struggle  was  such  as  to  enlist  every  power  and  the 
whole  allegiance  of  a  noble  nature. 

His  first  public  speeches  are  numerous.  Soon  after  coming 
to  Augusta  he  went  with  a  large  party  to  Farmington,  where 
William  Pitt  Fessenden  was  to  speak.  It  was  one  of  the  earli 
est  Franklin-county  mass  meetings  of  Republicans.  Fessenden 
was  not  there,  and  the  committee  came  to  the  Augusta  delega 
tion  and  asked  if  they  had  any  speaker.  Some  one  said  there 
was  a  young  man  named  Elaine  there  who  had  just  come  to 
town  and  spoke  well  at  caucuses.  He  was  called  on  and  modestly 
stated  that  Fessenden  was  away,  and  that  he  had  accepted  the 
invitation  so  that  they  might  hear  Republican  doctrines  instead 
of  no  speech.  He  then  likened  his  situation  to  that  of  the 
farmer  in  New  Hampshire  who  had  a  fast  horse  which  he 
thought  worth  $500.  A  jockey  tried  him,  and  offered  875. 
The  owner  thought  it  over  for  a  few  minutes,  then  said,  "  It's 

a  d 1  of  a  drop,  but  I'll  take  it."     The  aptness  of  the  story 

and  the  manner  of  the  speaker  captivated  the  audience,  and  his 
speech  was  pronounced  the  best  of  the  year.     From  that  day 


lit)  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMKl*    (/.     HLAINJS. 

on,  it  is  the  proud  boast  of  Franklin  county  that  110  person  ever 
shared  with  him  its  political  love. 

Another  first  public  speech  his  editorial  partner  vouches  for 
and  describes.  Mr.  Elaine  had  then  been  in  the  State  one  year 
and  a  half,  had  already  become  well  known  as  a  brilliant  and  able 
writer,  and  had  secured  a  large  circle  of  warm  friends.  Yet 
it  was  not  known  that  he  possessed  rare  powers  for  debate  and 
public  speaking.  It  is  doubtful  if  he  knew  that  himself.  In 
deed,  there  are  signs  that  he  then  distrusted  his  powers  in  this 
regard.  There  was  to  be  a  large  political  assemblage  of  farmers 
of  more  than  average  intelligence,  in  Litchfield,  a  Kennebec 
town  a  few  miles  from  the  Maine  capital.  The  two  Kenne 
bec  Journal  editors  rode  together  to  and  from  this  meeting, 
in  the  beautiful  afternoon  of  a  spring  day,  it  being  understood 
that  both  were  to  speak  on  pending  issues.  It  was  arranged 
that  Mr.  Elaine  should  begin  and  his  associate  close  the 
meeting.  A  little  nervous,  yet  holding  complete  self-command, 
he  stepped  on  the  platform  ;  he  had  not  spoken  live  min 
utes  before  there  were  plain  indications  that  his  audience 
was  quickly  coming  to  the  opinion  that  the  young  editor  could 
talk  as  ably  as  he  could  write.  The  various  and  vital  issues, 
all  converging  in  one  focus,  were  reviewed  plainly,  incisively, 
and  with  compact  and  lucid  array  of  facts.  His  success  in  an 
address  of  perhaps  forty  minutes  was  complete.  The  listeners 
were  delighted,  and  his  editorial  associate,  who  was  to  speak 
after  him,  was  quite  as  much  surprised  as  the  rural  assembly, 
and  too  modestly  avows  that  he  felt  his  own  speech  was  spoiled. 

In  point  of  time  Mr.  Elaine's  first  political  speech  was  in 
llallowell  in  the  open  air.  He  stood  on  the  top  of  a  high  night 
of  steps  belonging  to  a  boarding-house,  and  he  probably  never 
passed  the  house  afterwards  without  thinking  of  it;  seldom, 
with  members  of  his  family,  without  speaking  of  it. 

His  public  hatred  of  slavery  was  accentuated  by  its  personal 
attack  upon  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Stan  wood,  of  Boston.  That 
gentleman  was,  as  the  Boston  papers  of  the  time  noted,  "  what 
is  popularly  known  as  a  Webster  Whig,  of  the  conservative 
stamp,  well  and  favorably  known  in  mercantile  circles;  and 
this  foul  attack  upon  a  person  of  his  high  character  and  social 
position  has,  of  course,  excited  much  attention  here." 


HKHIHA/'IIY     Oh'    .MJfA'rf    (J.    BLA1NE.  117 

Upon  returning  to  his  hotel  near  midnight,  Mr.  Stanwood 
had  been  introduced  by  a  friend  to  Mr.  Bushrod  W.  Vicks,  of 
North  Carolina ;  but  seeing  that  the  gentleman  was  somewhat 
excited  on  the  subject  of  politics  he  soon  withdrew,  with  some 
six  or  eight  other  gentlemen,  leaving  only  one  man,  an  acquaint 
ance,  with  Mr.  Vicks.  Reaching  the  staircase  and  hearing  very 
loud  and  harsh  talk  from  Mr.  Vicks,  he  went  back,  with  the 
laudable  intention  of  calming  and  separating  the  parties,  and 
again  left,  supposing  that  he  had  succeeded. 

"  I  might  have  got  some  two  or  three  paces  from  him,"  his  tes 
timony  is,  "  he  directly  in  my  rear,  when  he  commenced  beating 
me,  with  a  large  and  heavy  cane,  over  the  back  of  my  head,  my 
shoulders,  and  the  back  of  my  arms.  I  immediately  faced  him, 
and  grappled  him  by  the  throat,  and  threw  him  on  a  settee, 
sprawling.  But  the  severe  blows  I  had  received  across  my 
arms,  head,  and  back  had  well-nigh  exhausted  me  in  the  com 
mencement,  and  he  again  got  the  advantage  of  me  and  kept  it 
till  he  was  taken  off  by  help." 

The  physician  summoned  testified  significantly  that  "  he  bears 
the  marks  of  very  severe  blows  upon  the  back  of  his  head,  the 
back  of  the  right  shoulder  and  right  forearm,  and  the  back  of 
the  left  arm  and  forearm.  The  blows  must  have  been  struck 
with  a  heavy  weapon,  by  some  person  behind  him." 

With  all  the  editor's  brotherly  sympathy  and  outraged  sense 
of  justice,  there  is  discernible  a  grim  .scientific  satisfaction  over 
the  proof  of  a  political  theorem ! 

"This  outrage  seems  the  more  aggravated  when  it  is  remem 
bered  that  there  was  not  even  the  excuse  (if  excuse  it  be)  of 
political  difference  and  animosity.  Mr.  Stanwood,  wo  regret  to 
say,  belongs  to  the  most  hunker  class  of  Boston  Courier  Whigs, 
a  set  of  gentlemen  who  have  about  as  much  sympathy  with 
k  Republicanism'  as  they  have  for  the  •  Jellyby '  missions  in 
Borrioboola-Gha,  and  whose  affinities  with  the  Buchanan  Demo 
crats  are  so  close  that  the  nicest  optics  can  discern  no  line  of 
demarcation.  In  attacking  Mr.  Stanwood,  therefore,  the  ruffian 
Vicks  was  assaulting  one  of  that  very  class  of  Northern  men 
who  most  persistently  maintain  that  the  South  is  the  wronged 
party,  and  that  Southern  men,  if  treated  well  themselves,  are 
not  disposed  to  molest  others.  Tf  all  the  Courier  Whigs  in 


118  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <»'.     KLAINE. 

Massachusetts,  and  in  Maine  too  (for  we  have  a  few  of  them 
among  us),  could  have  the  recent  experiences  of  Mr.  Stanwood, 
we  might  begin  to  hope  that  they  would  see  matters  in  a  differ 
ent  light,  and  be  disposed  to  admit  that  the  Black  Republicans 
are  doing  battle  against  a  tyranny  as  inexorable  as  ever  cursed 
the  earth  —  a  tyranny  that  not  only  lays  claim  to  supreme 
dominion  in  all  the  territories  of  the  nation,  but  invades  sover 
eign  States,  and  waylays  and  half  murders  Senators  and  private 
citizens  at  pleasure. 

"  Until  this  spirit  of  insolence  and  arrogance  is  effectually  re 
buked,  we  of  the  North  can  expect  but  a  repetition  of  similar 
outrages.  So  long  as  we  have  a  party  among  us  that  excuses 
and  palliates,  and,  in  some  instances,  even  justifies,  these  brutali 
ties,  we  may  be  sure  that  Southern  ruffians  will  repeat  them. 
When  Massachusetts  editors  give  dinner  parties  to  Knights  of 
the  Bludgeon,  what  else  can  be  expected  than  that  Massachu 
setts  Senators  shall  be  assaulted  for  daring  to  speak  the  lan 
guage  of  freedom,  and  Massachusetts  merchants  stealthily 
struck  down  for  presuming  to  claim  friendship  with  a  supporter 
of  Fremont? 

"  At  the  South,  we  too  well  know  how  even  these  villanies  are 
upheld,  justified,  and  applauded.  Preston  S.  Brooks  has  re 
ceived  thirteen  canes  and  two  services  of  plate,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  bouquets,  the  compliments,  and  the  kisses,  for  his  chival 
rous  assault  on  Mr.  Sumner.  We  expect  nothing  else  than  that 
Mr.  Bushrod  W.  Vicks  will  be  sent  to  Congress  by  a  grateful 
constituency  for  his  manly  and  courageous  attack  on  Mr.  Stan- 
wood.  If  he  fails  in  securing  that  honor,  he  will  doubtless  be 
rewarded,  in  the  possible  event  of  Buchanan's  election,  with  a 
handsome  executive  appointment." 

The  possible  event  happened.  Fremont  was  not  elected, 
but  through  the  very  announcement  of  defeat  rang  the  paean  of 
exultation.  "  No  defeat !  "  resounded  from  the  hills  of  Maine. 
"  Such  a  result  from  an  organization  four  months  old  is  the 
assurance  of  victory  to  come." 

But  politics  did  not  absorb  all  Mr.  Elaine's  thought.  His 
nature  was  so  full,  so  exuberant,  that  he  was  interested  in  every 
thing  he  touched.  All  the  interests  of  Augusta  became  his 
care  and  concern,  both  before  the  Legislature  and  in  private 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  119 

citizenship.  The  institutions  of  the  city,  the  agricultural  possi 
bilities  of  the  outlying  communities,  the  industrial  developments, 
the  charities  and  churches,  all  felt  the  glow  of  his  sympathy,  the 
impetus  of  his  ready  action. 

When  Mr.  Elaine  came  to  Augusta,  the  Rev.  Edwin  B.  Webb 
was  pastor  of  the  First  Church.     He  was  a  very  handsome  and 
promising  young  man,  but  a  few  years  older  than  Mr.  Blaine,  and 
he  further  allied  himself  to  Augusta  by  marrying  the  daughter 
of  his  predecessor,  the  venerable  Dr.  Tappan,  whose  wife  was  a 
sister  of  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  of  Boston.      Mr.  Webb  and 
his  young  parishioner  at  once  became  close  friends.      Many  and 
many  a  night  they  walked  up  and  down  State  street  arm  in 
arm,  or  sat  upon  the  stone  steps  of  the  Capitol,  though  their 
homes  were  so  near  each  other  that,  as  Dr.  Webb  once  said,  he 
could  throw  a  biscuit  from  his  window  to  Mr.  Elaine's,  —  and 
spoke  no  doubt  from  successful  experiment.     The  relation  be 
tween  them  was  one  of  peculiar  warmth  and  tenderness.     Dr. 
Webb  had  great  confidence  in  Mr.  Elaine's  business  ability, 
followed  him  through  all  his  political  career  with  keen,  admir 
ing,  often  pained  and  painful  sympathy,  and  cherished  the  pas 
toral  relation  in  his  heart  long  after  it  had  ceased  on  the  records 
by  his  own  removal  from  the  State.     Under  his  influence,  Mr. 
Elaine  was  speedily  brought  into  the  church,  nothing  loath,  it 
must  be  added ;  for  his  easy  way  to  the  love  of  God,  whom  he 
saw  not,  was  through  love  of  man,  whom  he  had  seen.      The 
Hon.  Mr.  Bradbury,  then  an  Ex-Senator,  and  living  now  in  the 
evening  glow  of   his   two   and  ninety  years,  remembers  that 
Mr.  Blaine  was  a  member  of  his  Sunday-school  class  for  a  few 
months  till  many  cares  thickened  around  him  ;  but  Mr.  Bradbury, 
who  lived  nearly  opposite  Mr.  Elaine,  insisted   on  exercising 
spiritual  supervision  to  the  extent  of  sending  over  a  silver  bowl 
which  had  been  in  his  family  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  for  the 
baptism  of  each  of  the  Blaine  children. 

A  large  class  of  men  he  taught  in  a  Mission  Sunday-school 
with  so  much  acceptance  that  a  churchman  declared  fervently, 
"  If  he  had  entered  the  pulpit  instead  of  the  political  arena, 
there  would  not  have  been  his  equal  in  the  profession  in  the 
country."  And  a  member  of  that  Sunday-school  class  exclaimed 
many  years  afterwards,  "  Not  a  day  passes  but  I  bless  the  name 
of  Blaine  I " 


120  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

At  the  annual  parish  meetings,  which  Mr.  Blaine  considered 
as  important  to  a  Congregational  church  as  the  annual  election 
to  politics,  he  was  a  regular  attendant  and  an  active  participant. 
For  liberal  measures,  especially  for  liberal  appropriations  for 
the  minister,  the  music,  and  all  the  service  of  the  church,  he 
could  be  relied  on. 

But  in  one  respect  Mr.  Webb  was  disappointed.  In  the 
"  prayer-meeting  "  Mr.  Blame's  voice  was  not  heard.  The  lamp 
of  his  faith  glowed  with  a  steady,  cheerful,  and  far-reaching 
light,  but  that  particular  burner  he  never  used.  Anything  like 
"  exhortation,"  still  more  anything  like  personal  revelation  or 
exhibition  of  religious  feeling,  was  impossible  to  him. 

None  the  less  he  walked  in  all  the  ordinances  of  the  Lord 
blameless,  and  with  ever-growing  influence.  They  tell  }^et,  in 
Augusta,  of  the  good  woman  who,  when  the  meeting-house  was 
struck  by  lightning,  rushed  around  amid  the  crowd,  sorrowful, 
wringing  her  hands,  and  moaning,  "  Where  is  Mr.  Blaine,  oh, 
where  is  Mr.  Blaine  ?  "  evidently  believing,  by  neighborhood 
interpretation,  that  if  Mr.  Blaine  had  been  there  the  lightning 
would  have  been  balked.  "  Where  is  Mr.  Blaine  ? "  cried  a 
second  woman,  coming  up.  "  At  home,  drawing  up  a  subscrip 
tion  paper  for  a  new  meeting-house." 

When  a  large  East  Boston  church  bade  Mr.  Webb  to  their 
pulpit,  Mr.  Blaine  was  appointed  on  a  committee  to  draft  reso 
lutions  expressive  of  the  sentiments  of  the  society.  The  com 
mittee's  resolutions  were  prompt  and  pointed,  to  the  effect 
"that  this  is  not  an  invitation  which  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church  requires  their  respected  and  beloved  pastor  to  accept "  ! 
They  recapitulated  the  success  of  his  work  for  the  seven  years, 
suggested  that  it  was  "  the  only  society  at  the  capital  where  were 
necessarily  brought  together  large  numbers  of  intelligent  stran 
gers  from  every  section  of  the  State,  thus  presenting  a  field  of 
great  general  usefulness  and  influence  beyond  our  own  locality, 
and  responsibility  and  accompanying  duty  surpassed  only  by  a 
few  positions  in  this  part  of  the  Union,  where  his  labors  have 
been  so  signally  blessed;"  and  that  it  was  especially  necessary 
that  this  society  should  be  united,  strong,  energetic,  and  en 
gaged ;  and  Mr.  Webb  remained  in  Augusta  —  till  a  better 
attested  call,  won  him  to  Boston  itself. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  121 

Mr.  Webb's    young  parishioner,   the  Journal  editor,  also  re 
ceived   a   call  which    he  decided  that  the  great   Head  of  the 
Church  required  him  to  accept.     His  Augusta  editorship  had 
been  successful.     The  paper  was  established  in  a  new  building 
with  modern  improvements,  but  the  editor  carried  with  him  his 
pet  desk,  made  upon  his  first  induction  into  the  office,  from  his 
own    directions,  under  his  own   eye.     By  the  limited  light  of 
that  day,  it  was  his  ideal  of  the  true  editor's  desk.     It  has  ever 
since  attended  the    fortunes  of   the  Journal,  and  with  all  its 
shortcomings  is  at  this  moment  the  article  of  furniture  most 
prized  in   the  Journal   office.     Mr.  Elaine  was  in  truth  a  very 
skilful  and  artistic,  though  undeveloped,  mechanic.     There  is 
reason  for  supposing  that  even  the  jack-knife  was  a  lost  art  to 
him,  but  he   delighted  in  mechanical  inventions   and  arrange 
ments  ;  loved  to  plan  houses,  rooms,  furniture  ;  loved  to  symbol 
ize  sentiments   and  ideas  in   decorations,  and  watch   their  slow 
materialization  ;  loved  to  group  pictures  —  always  with  a  man 
and  a  step-ladder  to  try  the  suggested  effects  !     He  was  inval 
uable  in  helping  out  interiors  when  he  could  be  captured  from 
the  exterior.     Not  only  his  own  houses,  but  his  friends'  houses, 
he   viewed  upon  occasion   with  the  eye  of  the  artificer.     If  a 
change  were  desired  by  a  woman  on  whom  he  might  be  calling, 
it  was  the  work  of  a   moment  for  him   to  pace    the  floor,  to 
knock  down  a  partition  here,  to  knock  open  a  door  there,  to 
throw  out  a  portico,  to  place  a  tank,  run  a  pipe,  draw  a  diagram, 
and  all  with  such  definiteness  of  vigor  and  heartiness  of  reason 
ing  and  demonstration,  that  the  work  seemed  already  accom 
plished  before  a  nail  was  driven,  and  it  only  remained  to  the 
proprietor  to  pay  the  bill. 

August  9, 1857,  he  wrote  to  his  mother :  "  In  case  Walker  gets 
through  his  sickness  comfortably  and  H.  and  the  baby  remain 
in  good  condition,  it  is  not  improbable  that  I  shall  go  to  Port 
land  in  a  few  weeks  to  edit  a  daily  paper.  I  have  an  excellent 
offer,  and  have  about  concluded  to  accept  in  case  my  family  af 
fairs  will  permit.  I  should  not  remove  my  family  from  Augusta 
at  present,  and  would  be  at  home  every  Saturday  and  Sunday. 
Portland  is  but  three  hours  distant." 

In  October,  the  same  year,  the  Journal  made  announce 
ment  that  Mr.  Blaine  had  become  connected  with  the  "Portland 


122  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

Advertiser  "  a  few  weeks  before,  and  a  week  later  that  he  had 
disposed  of  his  entire  interest  in  the  Journal,  and  "  his  con 
nection  with  the  paper  ceases."  He  tendered  many  thanks  for 
the  confidence  and  regard  shown  him  during  three  years'  service, 
commended  his  successor,  and  spoke  warmly  of  his  partner,  J. 
L.  Stevens,  "  with  whom  I  have  been  most  agreeably  associated, 
and  to  whose  zeal,  fidelity,  and  ability  in  the  advocacy  of  Re 
publican  principles  I  bear  most  cheerful  testimony."  He  did 
not  announce  what  was  nevertheless  true  that  the  success  of  the 
paper  was  attested  by  the  greatly  increased  value  of  the  prop 
erty  under  his  management,  as  shown  by  the  prices  at  which  he 
had  bought  and  sold  it. 

Familiar  with  the  coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania,  he  early  invested 
his  surplus  capital  in  coal  properties  in  Western  Pennsylvania, 
and  it  was  not  very  long  before  he  was  contracting  for  the  de 
livery  of  coal ;  by  the  spring  of  1863,  "  the  party  of  the  second 
part  agreeing  to  pay  unto  the  said  James  G.  Elaine  the  price  of 
sixty  cents  for  each  and  every  one  hundred  bushels  of  coal 
taken  out,  not  less,  however,  than  three  hundred  thousand 
bushels  in  each  year." 

Hon.  John  M.  Wood,  M.C.,  had  come  into  chief  ownership  of 
the  Portland  Advertiser,  and  Mr.  Wood  fastened  upon  the 
young  Augusta  editor  for  editor-in-chief  of  his  new  venture, 
offering  him  $2,000  a  year,  a  larger  salary  than  had  ever  been 
paid  a  Maine  editor. 

"  Agreement "  between  John  M.  Wood,  of  Portland,  of  the 
first  part,  and  James  G.  Elaine,  of  Augusta,  of  the  second  part,  in 
Mr.  Elaine's  handwriting,  "  witnesseth  "  what  importance  he 
attached  to  a  clear  understanding  of  detail : 

.  .  .  .  That  his  salary  was  to  be  two  thousand  dollars  ($,2000)  per 
annum,  payable  monthly,  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  dollars  sixty-seven  one- 
hundredths  per  month  ($166.67). 

2.  That  if  at  any  time  prior  to  October  1,  1861,  the  said  Wood  desires 
to  dispense  with  the  services  of  said  Elaine  as  editor  of  the  "  Advertiser,11 
he  (the  said  Wood)  shall  pay  to  him  (the  said  Elaine)  the  sum  of  six 
hundred  dollars  ($600)  in  addition  to  the  salary  that  may  be  due  to  him  at 
the  time  his  labor  on  the  paper  shall  cease;  and  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  said  Elaine  wishes  to  be  released  from  this  agreement  prior  to  October 
1,  1861,  he  shall  pay  the  said  Wood  six  hundred  dollars  bonus  for  releasing 
him. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  123 

3.  It  is  further  agreed  that  said  Blaine,  during  his  connection  with  the 
paper  as  editor,  shall  reside  either  in  Portland  or  Augusta;  if  in  Augusta, 
then  to  remain  in  Portland  live  days  of  each  week  except  when  the  Legis 
lature  is  in  session,  during  which  time  said  Blaine  is  to  remain  in  Augusta 
as  correspondent  and  reporter  for  the  "  Advertiser,"  as  much  of  the  time 
as  mav  be  deemed  expedient  for  the  best  interests  of  the  paper,  at  the  same 
time  furnishing  the  leading  editorials  for  the  paper.  .  .  . 

7.  It  is  further  agreed  that  the  supervision  of  the  editorial  columns  of 
the  paper  shall  be  exercised  by  said  Blaine,  and  no  editorial  article  shall 
be  allowed  to  appear  in  said  paper  without  the  inspection  and  assent  of 
said  Blaine,    except  articles  whose   insertion   is  directed  by  said  Wood. 
And  all  editorial  articles  which  may  be  inserted  by  said  Wood's  direction 
the  said  Blaine  shall  have  the  right  to  dissent  from  in  the  columns  of  the 
"Advertiser,"  in  case  he  desires  to  present  different  views,  or  explain  his 
own  position. 

8.  For  the  considerations  herein  named  and  upon  the  conditions  cited, 
the  said  Blaine  binds  himself  to  use  all  honorable  efforts  for  the  prosperity 
and  advancement  of  the  "Advertiser,"1  and  to  this  end  will  devote  all  the 
time  requisite  to  the  proper  and  faithful  discharge  of  his  editorial  duties, 
and  will  not  aid  by  contribution  or  otherwise  in  the  editing  of  any  other 
paper  or  periodical,  and  will  not  engage  in  any  other  business  that  will 
conflict  with  the  proper  discharge  of  his  editorial  duties. 


In  1859  agreement  was  continued  between  Waldron,  Little  & 
Co.  and  James  G.  Blaine,  in  presence  of  E.  B.  Webb,  with  the 
addition  that  "  in  case  said  Blaine  shall  serve  as  a  member  of 
the  Legislature,  he  shall  devote  his  compensation  as  such  to  the 
payment  of  a  substitute  in  his  place,  besides  himself  furnishing 
not  less  than  three  leading  editorials  or  letters  for  the  paper 
each  week." 

February  11,  1860,  under  a  new  contract,  "  if  said  Blaine  be 
a  member  of  the  Legislature  he  shall  receive  but  twelve  dollars 
per  week  for  his  editorial  services,  and  be  required  to  furnish 
no  more  than  three  leaders  and  one  letter  each  week  during  the 
legislative  session.  This  agreement  shall  continue  in  full  force 
and  effect  for  one  year  after  the  services  of  said  Blaine  shall 
commence,  and  may  then  be  discontinued  by  either  party 
thereto." 

The  Portland  Advertiser  was  a  daily.  The  Keniiebec 
Journal  had  been  a  weekly,  and  during  the  sessions  of  the 
Legislature  a  tri-weekly.  The  work  was  naturally  more  exact- 
ing,  and  in  a  letter  to  his  mother  Mr.  Blaine  speaks  of 


124  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

my  very  numerous  cares  and  my  constant,  unremitting  daily 
labor.  .  .  . 

I  spend  about  one-half  the  week  in  Portland,  and  the  remainder  at  homo. 
A  large  part  of  my  editorial  labor  is  performed  here,  and  as  Portland  is 
distant  but  three  hours1  travel  by  rail,  I  can  get  M  long  just  as  well  as  though 
I  were  constantly  there'.  T  have  thought  a  good  deal  about  moving  there, 
but  hardly  think  T  shall  do  so.  Rents  are  enormously  high  and  expenses 
of  living  higher  in  every  way  than  here.  The  city  is  a  very  beautiful  one, 
of  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  situated  directly  on  the  ocean,  and  possesses 
many  attractive  points  as  a  place  of  residence.  I  think,  however,  that 
upon  the  whole  I  prefer  the  quiet  and  retirement  of  Augusta. 

Our  babies  grow  finely.  Walker  is  a  great  boy  of  now  nearly  three 
years,  and  has  grown  prodigiously  since  his  sickness  of  the  past  summer. 
I  shall  before  long  try  to  send  you  his  daguerreotype.  Emmons  (now 
eight  months  old)  is  of  course  very  handsome  in  my  eyes.  He  is  large, 
playful,  and  so  far  exceedingly  healthy. 

DEC.  19,  1857. 

.  .  .  Walker  and  Emmons  are  two  as  beautiful  children  as,  in  the 
fondness  of  my  heart,  I  could  possibly  desire.  I  hope  before  very  long  T 
may  be  able  to  bring  them  to  see  you,  or,  better  still,  have  you  come  and 
see  them  —  or  would  you  venture  into  this  Puritan  land  ? 

Tell  Mr.  M.  to  lie  low  in  political  matters  and  watch  the  Democratic 
party  rush  on  to  self-destruction.  .  .  ,  The  Republican  President  will 
beyond  all  doubt  be  inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  Marcli,  1861.  I  should  like 
to  see  him  and  talk  politics,  but  I  cannot  write  them,  as  I  have  too  much  of 
that  to  do  for  a  daily  paper. 

The  event  foreshadowed  in  the  contract  with  Mr.  Wood  came 
to  pass,  and  in  September,  1858,  Mr.  Blaine  was  elected  Repre 
sentative  from  Augusta  in  the  State  Legislature.  His  slight 
business  connection  with  Portland  had  not  been  long  enough  or 
strong  enough  to  weaken  his  home  attachment  to  Augusta,  or 
to  invalidate  the  vigor  with  which,  whenever  an  attempt  was 
made  to  take  away  the  Capitol  from  Augusta  and  give  it  to 
Portland,  he  opposed  it  tooth  and  nail.  Nor,  after  his  con 
nection  with  the  Advertiser  ceased,  was  he  ever  again  tempted 
away  from  Augusta  to  Portland. 

To  Mr.  Blaine  from  Senator  Fessenden  : 

AUGUST  15,  1860. 

.  .  .  The  publishers  and  owners  of  the  Advertiser  have  made  up  their 
minds,  at  last,  that  they  must  adopt  a  new  system.  It  is  too  late  for 
them  to  do  much  before  the  September  election,  but  we  shall  see  what  can 


AT   TWENTY-EIGHT. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  125 

be  done  after  that  is  over.  .  .  .  But,  nothing  can  be  done  unless  an  able 
editor  can  be  had;  and  there  is  but  one  voice  as  to  who  should  be  the 
man.  L  am  convinced  that  the  concern  is  profitable,  and  can  be  made 
more  so,  if  a  proper  character  can  be  given  to  it.  Now,  can  you,  and  will 
you,  become  identified  with  Portland  ?  I  have  heretofore  given  you  my 
views  as  to  the  proper  place  for  t/oit.  My  opinion  remains  unchanged. 
This  is  the  point  of  strength  for  you  in  every  aspect,  political  and  pecuni 
ary.  Let  me  know  what  you  think  about  it  soon,  as  our  action  will  be 
influenced  by  your  decision. 


But  editorship  was  incompatible  with  his  new  duties.  As  an 
editor  he  had  not  only  shaped  the  policy  and  written  the  edito 
rials  for  his  paper  but  he  had  supervised  its  details.  His  writing 
was  largely  done  in  his  own  house.  At  the  Journal  office  he 
looked  over  the  newspapers,  exchanged  cheery  words  with  the 
compositors  at  the  case,  and  with  the  political  friends  who  found 
him  there,  and  not  only  gave  general  directions  regarding  the 
course  of  the  paper,  but  stood  by  the  foreman  and  dictated  the 
position  of  every  article,  from  the  leader  down  to  the  most 
trivial  three-line  items.  For  particulars  he  had  an  inexhaustible 
capacity,  and  though  he  never  expended  himself  on  them  they 
were  the  basis  of  all  his  generalization  and  his  ready  and  most 
formidable  weapon  whenever  those  generalizations  were  chal 
lenged. 

In  the  Legislature  he  quickly  took  high  ground.  His  views 
were  radical,  definite,  uttered  with  frankness  and  fearlessness. 
He  was  impetuous,  aggressive,  and  persistent.  His  words  were 
weapons.  Maine  had  become  used  to  his  writing,  but  his  suc 
cess  as  an  editor  had  not  prepared  her  for  his  greater  success  in 
the  House.  After  two  years'  service  on  the  floor  he  was  made 
speaker.  In  the  new  position  he  showed  a  knowledge  of  parlia 
mentary  rules  and  a  quickness  and  reasonableness  in  applying 
them  that  come  only  from  a  comprehension  of  the  principles 
underlying  rules,  and  imply- mental  grasp  rather  than  mechan 
ical  memory. 

In  1859,  succeeding  Mr.  Stevens,  he  was  appointed  Chairman 
of  the  Republican  Executive  Committee,  of  Maine,  an  honor  less 
noticeable,  perhaps  an  office  less  conspicuous  than  those  of  the 
speakership,  but  carrying  the  responsibility  of  shaping  the  policy 
and  organizing  the  forces  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  State. 


126  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

To  this  office  he  continued  to  be  reappointed  until  he  was  made 
Secretary  of  State  by  Garfield  in  1881.  Indeed,  from  the  day 
of  his  election  to  the  Legislature  his  district  never  let  go  her 
hold  upon  him,  except  to  relinquish  him  to  the  State,  and  the 
State  relinquished  him  only  to  the  nation.  As  Chairman  of 
the  State  Committee,  his  organization  was  so  thorough  that  the 
party  marched  to  nearly  uninterrupted  victory,  and  the  other 
party  called  him  dictator.  A  dictator  he  was,  but  a  dictator 
who  believed  that  the  reason  and  conscience  of  the  people  was  the 
true  basis  of  government,  and  the  only  basis  of  popular  govern 
ment,  and  who,  therefore,  so  arranged  his  forces  as  to  meet  the 
reason,  and  enlist  the  conscience,  and  command  the  assent,  and 
know  the  purpose  of  every  man  in  the  community.  His  broad 
view,  his  swift  glance  were  accompanied  by  such  a  patience  of 
detail  as  counted  nothing  done  for  victory  while  anything  re 
mained  to  be  done.  This  it  was  which  invested  his  counsels  with 
an  unsurpassed  vigor  and  vitality.  When  in  other  States  ex 
pected  victories  turned  themselves  into  defeats  at  the  polls,  his 
surprised  question  was,  "  Why  did  they  not  know  f  "  Thorough 
organization  was  the  great  secret  of  his  political  dictatorship. 

Of  this  period  of  his  life,  Ex-Governor   Robie  some   years 
afterwards  writes : 


It  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  been  associated  in  the  Legislature  of 
Maine  with  Mr.  Blaine  during  three  of  the  most  important  years  in  the 
history  of  our  State,  commencing  in  the  year  1859.  .  .  .He  came 
into  public  life  at  a  time  when  the  management  of  the  finances  of  our 
State  required  a  searching  investigation,  and  he  was  made  chairman  of  a 
responsible  committee,  of  which  I  was  a  member.  ...  I  recall  the 
masterly  manner  in  which  he  handled  the  delicate  trust  committed  to  him, 
his  searching  and  uncompromising  efforts  to  save  the  credit  of  the  State. 
The  able  report  prepared  by  him  which  laid  open  and  explained  an  unfor 
tunate  misdirection  of  public  confidence,  was  at  once  adopted ;  the  credit 
of  the  State  was  saved  by  his  labor  and  by  the  action  of  the  committee.  I 
call  to  mind  his  efforts  to  develop  the  great  railroad  interests  of  the  State, 
then  in  their  infancy,  but  since  developed  in  consequence  of  methods  which 
he  advocated.  I  recall  his  recommendation  for  State  Prison  reform,  which 
created  a  new  departure  in  our  State  and  resulted  in  an  improved  method 
of  prison-work  and  discipline.  I  cannot  for  want  of  space  recapitulate 
the  numerous  and  well-executed  plans  for  the  prosperity  of  our  State 
and  Nation  which  he  advocated  witli  the  fervor  of  his  youthful  eloquence ; 
but  he  thus  early  laid  in  our  State  the  foundation  of  that  respect  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  127 

regard  to  which  his  untiring  services  for  education,  temperance,  law, 
and  order,  and  the  development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  State, 
entitle  him. 

These  are  some  of  the  many  causes  which  have  contributed  to  create 
and  increase  the  warm  feeling  of  attachment  and  State  pride  which  has 
grown  into  a  profound  veneration  among  the  Republican  masses. 

Yet,  in  truth,  his  popularity  was  something  other  than  this. 
The  personal  affection  lavished  upon  him  by  the  people  of 
Maine  was  apart  from  political  affiliation. 

The  attractiveness  which  never  failed  to  win  at  his  first  ap 
pearance  deepened  as  familiarity  grew.  His  sympathy  was 
seen  to  be  not  only  quick,  but  wide,  deep,  lasting,  and  fruitful. 
It  embraced  the  man  himself,  not  simply  the  citizen.  It  was 
seen  that  his  heart,  his  conviction,  his  conscience,  were  in  his 
work,  and  that  he  was  more  eager  to  secure  the  end  than  the 
credit  of  it.  Naturally  he  enlisted  the  best  in  every  man,  and 
gathered  by  divine  right  all  love  and  loyalty  to  himself.  The 
personal  enthusiasm  which  centred  in  him  stretched  far  beyond 
the  point  of  personal  contact.  Governor  Kent  testified, "  Almost 
from  the  day  of  his  assuming  editorial  charge  of  the  Kennebec 
Journal,  Mr.  Elaine  sprang  into  a  position  of  great  influence 
in  the  politics  and  policy  of  Maine.  At  twenty-five  he  was  a 
leading  power  in  the  councils  of  the  party.  Before  he  was 
twenty-nine  he  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  Executive  Commit 
tee  of  the  Republican  organization  in  Maine,  a  position  from 
which  he  has  shaped  and  directed  political  campaigns  in  the 
State,  leading  his  party  to  brilliant  victory.  There  was  a  sort 
of  Western  dash  about  him  that  took  with  us  down-easters  ;  an 
expression  of  frankness,  candor,  and  confidence  that  gave  him, 
from  the  start,  a  very  strong  and  permanent  hold  on  our  people, 
and,  as  the  foundation  of  all,  pure  character  and  a  masterly 
ability  equal  to  all  demands  made  upon  him  ;  "but  just  as  deeply 
and  more  definitely  right  was  the  old  neighbor  in  Augusta  who 
wrote  him,  on  his  fortieth  birthday,  in  Washington  : 

JANUARY  31,  1870. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  ELAINE  :  Permit  me  to  congratulate  you  on  safely  reach 
ing  your  fortieth  natal  day.  From  my  heart,  I  thank  God  for  your  life, 
and  for  your  public  and  private  virtues.  How  prosperous  have  been  your 


128  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

years  !  From  the  day  you  took  up  your  abode  in  Augusta,  your  advance 
ment  has  been  sure  and  steady,  and  the  confidence  and  anticipations  of 
your  friends  have  never  been  disappointed.  My  opportunities  for  personal 
observation,  and  for  knowing  what  others  think,  have  been  as  good,  I 
believe,  as  those  of  any  other  person  ;  and  I  have  never  heard  you  accused 
of  any  deceptions,  trickeries,  double-dealings,  or  any  of  those  little  mean 
nesses  that  taint  and  mar  the  life  of  so  many  public  men.  That  there  have 
been  envyings,  there  can  be  no  doubt — alas,  who  is  free  from  them?  That 
you  have  been,  and  are,  ambitious,  is  true,  I  suppose ;  but  your  plans  and 
measures  have  been  wise  and  sagacious,  not  dishonorable,  low,  and  mean. 
Your  friendship  for  me  —  how  constant  and  faitlif ul  has  it  been !  There  has 
not  been  a  year  of  our  acquaintance  that  has  not  witnessed  your  good  daily 
towards  me  and  mine,  and  all  that  is  now  pleasant  and  comfortable  in  my 
surroundings  1  owe  to  you.  Your  deportment  towards  me  in  this  city  is 
as  cordial  and  considerate  as  ever,  though  I  have  appeared  to  you  many 
times  moody,  croaking,  and  cynical. 

May  God  have  you  and  yours  in  his  continued  holy  keeping,  and  grant 
you  all  the  desires  of  your  heart;  for  sure  I  am  that  your  advancement  is 
also  the  advancement  of  the  public  welfare. 


When  the  Republican  convention  met  in  Chicago  in  1800, 
Mr.  Stevens  and  Mr.  Blaine  attended  it,  the  one  as  Republican 
delegate,  the  other  as  a  volunteer  from  vivid  personal  interest. 
Mr.  Stevens  was  for  Mr.  Seward's  nomination,  and,  as  usual,  all 
his  soul  was  in  his  conviction.  Mr.  Blaine  had  been  appointed 
Prison  Commissioner  for  the  State  in  1859,  and  with  great  care 
had  investigated  prisons  in  many  States  and  his  report  is  still 
quoted  as  authority.  On  one  such  visit  he  had  found  him 
self  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debate,  and  had 
availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  hear  Mr.  Lincoln  twice. 
He  had  followed  the  senatorial  contest  with  interest,  and  ever 
after  was  an  enthusiastic  adherent  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  was 
now  his  earnest  advocate.  Indeed  he  believed  his  paper,  the 
Kennebec  Journal,  to  be  the  first  one  which  ever  mentioned 
Lincoln's  name  for  the  presidency. 

He  could  not  win  Mr.  Stevens  away  from  Seward,  but  of  the 
sixteen  Maine  delegates  not  pledged,  but  supposed  to  be  for 
Seward,  six  voted  for  Lincoln.  This  division  of  an  Eastern 
delegation  for  the  Western  man  had  an  appreciable  effect.  Mr. 
Stevens  drew  from  Mr.  Blaine  full  admission  and  admiration 
of  Mr.  Evarts's  eloquence,  to  which  he  then  listened  for  the  first 


mOGRAPIIY    OF   JAMES    (1.     KLAINE.  129 

time,  but  it  did  not  alter  his  opinion  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the 
better  candidate. 

CHENERY  HOUSE,  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL., 

Sunday,  May  20,  1860. 

I  came  here  yesterday  from  Chicago,  in  company  with  the  committee 
appointed  by  the  National  Convention  to  notify  Mr.  Lincoln  of  his  nomina 
tion.  We  readied  here  before  sunset,  and  were  received  by  a  tremendous 
crowd  at  the  depot,  conducted  to  the  hotel,  treated  to  a  handsome  supper, 
and  then  taken  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  residence,  where  Mr.  Ashmun,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  chairman  of  the  committee,  formally  notified  him  of  his  nomina 
tion,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  accepted  it  in  a  most  admirable,  pertinent,  and  brief 
speech.  We  were  all  then  formally  presented  to  him  and  also  to  his  wife, 
who  is  a  very  lady-like  and  quite  good-looking  person.  Lincoln  himself 
is  a  far  better-looking  man  than  you  would  expect  from  the  miserable  car 
icature  I  sent  you.  It  is  like;  him  to  be  sure,  but  a  most  grotesque  and 
exaggerated  painting  of  his  phiz  and  features.  .  .  .  While  a  very 
awkward-looking  man,  you  realize  at  once  that  it  is  the  awkwardness  of 
genius  rather  than  any  proof  of  the  lack  of  it. 

I  think  the  nomination  the  very  best  that  could  have  been  made  in  every 
way,  and  I  have  no  more  doubt  of  the  election  of  the  »ticket  than  I  have 
that  Maine  will  be  carried  by  the  Republicans.  Governor  Merrill  and  my 
self  worked  hard  for  Lincoln  from  the  time  we  reached  Chicago,  and  you 
may  depend  we  feel  no  little  gratification  at  the  result.  All  the  way  out  in 
the  cars  I  tried  to  persuade  Lot  that  Lincoln  was  the  man,  but  he  would  not 
believe  it  until  after  he  reached  Chicago.  His  convictions  were  then 
speedily  strengthened  and  confirmed.  The  renomination  of  Hamlin  [for  the 
Senate]  proves  what  there  is  in  being  a  lucky  man.  He  always  turns  up 
on  the  winning  side,  and  the  very  fact  that  he  is  on  the  ticket  is  a  good 
augury  of  success.  People  generally  accept  it  as  assurance,  and  that 
impression  will  be  as  good  as  the  reality. 

It  is  now  a  little  after  nine  o'clock,  and  the  various  gentlemen,  strangers 
like  myself,  are  inquiring  where  the  best  preaching  may  be  found. 

Among  those  in  our  company  is  Governor  Morgan. 

On  the  way  home  Mr.  Stevens  stopped  at  Mr.  Seward's  for 
consolation,  but  the  intercourse  only  deepened  the  disappoint 
ment  which  he  shared  with  many  Eastern  men.  For  two  days 
after  reaching  Augusta  he  did  not  go  near  Mr.  Elaine,  and  when 
he  did  it  was  only  to  revert  for  a  moment  to  theology  : 

"  Here,  you  have  got  your  man.  Now,  take  your  d d  old 

paper  and  run  it ! 

And  the  stout-hearted  loyalist  was  as  good  as  his  word,  turned 
his  back  upon  his  paper  for  three  months  —  much,  it  must  be 
admitted,  to  Mr.  Elaine's  satisfaction,  since  it  left  him  free  to 


130  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    O.    ELAINE. 

resume  and  use  the  Journal  as  a  battering-ram  through  the 
Lincoln  campaign. 

The  war  of  ideas  earnestly  waged,  came  to  its  unexpected 
and  terrible  issue  in  blood.  The  North  shuddered  incredulous, 
but  the  forces  of  freedom  and  peace  rallied  in  a  new  and  untried 
defence.  For  one  moment  it  was  mere  playing  at  war,  but  the 
grief  of  Baltimore,  the  surprised  horror  of  Bull  Run,  passed 
into  the  unrelenting  grip  of  a  four  years'  war,  fought  by  mil 
lions  of  men. 

Concerning  Mr.  Elaine,  there  was  never  any  question  of  his 
battle-field.  The  soldiers  themselves  drafted  him  into  the  sup 
port  and  sustenance  of  the  army,  and  his  great-grandsire's  grave 
did  utter  forth  a  voice. 

He  was  in  constant  communication  with  generals  and  privates. 
He  was  the  servant  of  the  soldier,  whether  it  were  to  champion 
a  general  against  unjust  attack  in  the  newspapers,  or  to  sub 
mit  cheerfully  to  the  demolition  of  his  own  purse  or  the 
devastation  of  his  own  larder,  for  the  soldiers'  sudden  emer 
gency.  In  gathering  the  regiments,  in  their  care  and  comfort  at 
home,  in  forwarding  and  furnishing  them,  in  keeping  commu 
nication  open  between  them  and  their  families,  in  help  for  the 
wounded  and  ministry  for  the  dead,  he  was  unwearied,  not  only 
in  service,  but  in  sympathy.  He  shared,  if  he  did  not  sound, 
Maine's  proud  boast  of  being  the  banner  State  in  raising  her 
quota  for  the  Holy  War.  In  defeat  and  darkness  he  maintained 
with  cheerful  confidence  the  ability  of  the  country  to  suppress 
the  rebellion,  the  ability  of  the  Union  to  maintain  itself.  He 
was  at  the  right  hand  of  the  State  authorities,  ever  at  call,  and 
in  frequent  and  close  communication,  for  the  State,  with  the 
general  government  at  Washington. 

One  letter  shows  as  well  as  many  the  necessary  but  unbla- 
zoned  civilian  side  of  army  work.  It  is  from  Mr.  Washburn, 
who  was  then  governor  of  Maine,  to  Mr.  Elaine,  who  was  in 
Washington : 

AUGUSTA,  Oct.  30,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  1  returned  from  Boston  last  evening,  where  I  had  been 
for  three  or  four  days  arranging  for  some  absolute  needs.  I  there  secured 
the  appointment  of  Major  Gilbreth,  and  another  to  be  designated  by  him, 
to  inspect  the  thing,  etc. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  131 

Your  letter  of  the  24th  forbids  the  State  doing  anything  more  than  fur 
nish  men,  tents,  and  clothing  for  the  artillery  companies,  but  yours  of  the 
•J8th  intimates  that  the  State  may  furnish  guns,  carriages,  etc.,  for  all  but 
Tillson's  company. 

As  it  will  take  so  much  time  to  get  up  all  these  things,  and  will  cause 
so  many  inconveniences,  will  it  not,  on  the  whole,  be  best  for  govern 
ment  to  furnish  everything  save  these  —  men,  horses,  clothing,  and  tents  ? 
Will  not  General  Barry  furnish  all  the  rest  ?  Let  him  do  as  he  chooses 
about  horses,  though  I  would  like  to  buy  them  in  Maine,  but  make  no 
special  point  if  government  has  the  horses  on  hand ;  but  if  it  has  not, 
why  not  let  them  be  purchased  here?  Upon  consultation  with  General 
Barry,  advise  me  what  to  do.  I  think  we  shall  hardly  raise  more  than 
three  companies  artillery  in  addition  to  Shepley's  and  Dow's  (Tillson's). 
There  will  be  no  difficulty  in  raising  these. 

As  to  camp  stoves,  Colonel  Harding  has  got  up  a  pattern  that  will  answer 
splendidly  —  he  makes  the  pipe  serve  the  double  purpose  of  stove-pipe 
and  tent-pole.  The  pipe  is  stiff,  strong,  steady,  and  lets  the  smoke  escape 
from  the  apex  of  the  tent.  It  is  lighter  than  the  common  wooden  pole. 
The  entire  expense  of  tent  and  pipe  will  not  exceed  $4.00,  and  by  it  you 
dispense  with  the  pole,  saving  thereby  some  fifty  cents  in  cost  of  the  tent, 
and  it  warms  the  tent  well,  and  is  a  saving  of  wood  and  thus  of  expense. 
One  of  them  has  been  in  use  here  for  several  days  and  works  admirably  — 
nothing  else  can  be  so  good —  there  is  no  smoke  in  the  tent.  If  we  don't 
get  a  pattern  in  season,  will  it  be  safe  to  contract  for  some  of  these  ?  Stoves 
are  now  much  needed,  as  cold  weather  is  coming  on.  Telegraph  me  — 
remember  the  net  expense  will  not  exceed,  hardly  come  up  to,  $3.50,  in 
cluding  stove  and  pipe. 

Advise  me  of  the  proper  steps^to  draw  money  for  payment  of  the  horses 
and  clothing. 

You  know  Colonel  Marshall  and  the  Seventh  have  been  constructing  a  fort 
at  Baltimore,  in  which  they  took  great  interest.  It  would  be  exceedingly 
gratifying  to  the  people  of  this  State,  and  particularly  to  Mrs.  Marshall, 
Tf  the  fort  can  be  named  after  the  brave  and  noble  man  who  built  it.  Will 
you  speak  to  the  Secretary  about  it  ?  It  would  be  a  most  fit  and  graceful 
act. 

I  have  appointed  Lieutenant-Colonel  Varney  colonel  of  the  Seventh, 
am  rejoiced  at  your   success  in  getting  the  laws.     Laus  Deo,  and  some 
laus  J.  G.  B. 

I  think  we  ought  to  have  at  least  one  army  artillery  sergeant  for  each 
battery.  I  will  write  Mr.  Belger. 

Messrs.  Sammat  and  Tayler  came  yesterday.  Bowen  has  not  arrived. 
The  rubber  blanket  is  such'  protection  to  the  health  of  the  soldier  that  I 
think  the  government  will  see  that  there  is  economy  in  adopting  it. 

Recruiting  is  going  on  satisfactorily.  Colonel  Caldwell  will  leave  next 
week  —  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  are  well  along  —  the  Sharpshooters  is 
full,  and  a  good  beginning  is  made  with  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth.  Cav 
alry  regiment  is  full,  though  about  one  hundred  men  have  not  yet  come 


132  moGEAPirY  OF  JAMES  G.  BLAINE 

into  camp.  I  can  move  in  two  weeks  if  it  only  has  arms.  Can  you  get 
them  ?  I  don't  want  it  to  leave  without.  They  want  to  march  to  Washing 
ton,  or  at  any  rate  through  New  England  —  it  will  be  tine  drill  for  men  and 
horses.  Can  you  get  consent?  You  can't  exaggerate  this  regiment. 

I  do  want  to  give  Colonel  C'aldwelPs  regiment  their  arms  before  they 
start.  Please  see  what  can  be  done  for  them  —  where  will  it  go  ? 

Maine  has  not  yet  received  arms  from  United  States  averaging  with 
those  of  other  States.  Government  has  furnished  not  one  Maine  regiment 
with  rifles. 

Will  you  see  how  Colonel  Berry  is  satislied  with  the  arms  of  his  regi 
ment  ?  Ask  him  what  I  shall  do —  some  eight  or  ten  hundred  Entield  rifles 
will  arrive  soon  in  New  York  for  us,  in  season  probably  for  one  of  our 
regiments  as  it  passes  through  that  city.  Ask  him  whether  these  guns 
shall  be  sent  to  him  by  express,  while  another,  McKey,  must  go  to  Wash 
ington  armless,  and  then?  get  guns  much  poorer  than  he  now  has  ?  I 
wish  to  gratify  him,  though  I  think  it  would  be  rather  shiftless  considering 
the  guns  he  now  has,  that  they  are  better  than  are  often  delivered  now ; 
but  if  he  is  very  particular,  I  suppose  I  can  give  him  six  to  seven  hundred, 
which,  with  the  rifles  he  now  has,  will  give  this  kind  arms  to  all  his  men. 
But  if  he  is  content  with  things  as  they  are,  these  guns  will  furnish  flank 
companies  of  some  four  or  live  regiments  with  rifles. 

I  would  like  to  have  you  visit  all  our  Maine  camps  and  report  condition, 
etc. 

Mr.  Elaine's  political  creed  till  the  war  closed  was  the  Union 
through  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  left  the  chair  and  took  the  floor 
in  the  House  to  iterate  his  faith  and  emphasize  his  position. 
Mr.  Gould,  of  Thomaston,  a  veteran  Democrat  and  a  prominent 
lawyer,  opposed  resolutions  supporting  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  hardly 
yet  have  the  reverberations  died  away  of  the  ringing  and 
stinging  words  with  which  Mr.  Blame  carried  all  before  him  — • 
words  so  energized  that  they  seemed  like  a  physical  attack. 
His  friend,  Hon.  William  P.  Frye,  of  Lewiston,  now  and  for 
many  years  United  States  Senator,  occupied  the  chair  at  the 
time,  and  has  hardly  persuaded  himself  that  in  vigor,  force, 
effectiveness,  Mr.  Blaine  ever  surpassed  that  early  grapple  with 
slavery  and  rebellion.  The  loyal  masses  of  the  nation  have 
made  truisms  of  the  truths  which  were  then  only  divined,  but 
whose  utterance  was  determining,  decisive. 

"  I  am  for  the  administration  through  and  through,  being  an 
early  and  unflinching  believer  in  the  ability,  the  honesty,  and 
patriotism  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  .  .  .  Lest  the  gentleman 
should  infer  that  I  shrink  from  the  logical  consequences  of  some 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    O.     KLAINE.  133 

propositions  which  I  have  laid  down  as  ultimate  steps,  I  tell 
him  boldly  that  if  the  life  of  the  nation  seemed  to  demand  the 
violation  of  the  Constitution,  I  would  violate  it ;  and  in  taking 
this  ground  I  am  but  repeating  the  expression  of  President  Lin 
coln  in  his  message,  when  he  declared  that  '  it  were  better  to 
violate  one  provision  than  that  all  should  perish.'  The  gen 
tleman  sticks  to  forms  :  I  go  for  substance.  He  sacrifices  the 
end  to  the  means  :  I  stand  ready  to  use  the  means  essential  to 
the  end.  I  am  sure  that  I  speak  no  less  the  sentiments  of  patri 
otic  Republicans  than  of  those  truly  loyal  Democrats  who  intend 
to  stand  by  the  administration  to  the  end  of  this  fight  with 
rebellion  and  treason." 

But  no  storm  of  the  outside  world  ever  made  the  fire  on  his 
hearth-stone  burn  low.  With  all  the  stress  of  war  and  politics 
and  business  and  travel,  he  never  forgot  to  say  the  loving  word 
to  the  present,  to  write  a  loving  word  to  the  absent.  It  might 
be  only  a  word,  but  it  certified  sympathy,  memory,  affection. 

His  letters  to  his  mother  and  sister  are  continuous  —  almost 
always  accompanied  by  some  little  "  gift "  or  "  remembrance  " 
or  proposal  of  pleasure  which  he  begs  them  to  accept.  In  his 
occasional  journeys  he  remembers  not  only  the  Great  Hearts 
but  the  Little  Hearts  to  be  gladdened  by  news  from  him  ;  and 
printed  letters  to  the  children  are  scattered  all  along  the  way. 

MAY  15,  1859. 
To  his  sister : 

You  and  ina  could  not  do  me  a  greater  favor  than  to  send  me  all 
your  family  letters  from  Lancaster,  Washington,  Pa.,  and  wherever  else' 
you  may  think  worth  Avhile.  I  am  so  far  out  of  the  circle  of  my  own  "  kith 
and  kin  "  that  I  hear  no  more  of  them  directly  than  though  I  was  in  Siberia. 
...  I  hope  to  be  able  to  make  a  visit  to  Philadelphia  within  the  year, 
but  at  what  time  I  cannot  now  say. 

Emmons  is  now  nearly  two  years  old  ;  a  perfect  rogue.  Walker 

sedate  and  sober.     .     .     . 

P.S.  —  The  passport  was  received.  .    .    .    He  may  tell  General 
I  will  sell  it  back  to  him  for  half  price,  as  I  have  concluded,  most  probably, 
to  postpone  my  trip  until  I  can  have  my  passport  signed  by  a  Republican 
Secretary  of  State,  which  will  be  from  and  after  March  4,  1861. 

WASHINGTON  CITY,  D.C.,  March  25,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  WALKER  :  1  received  your  nice  little  note  this  morning.     I 
shall  long  keep  it  as  the  first  letter  written  to  me  by  my  darling  1 


134  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    d.     ELAINE. 

The  weather  here  is  very  warm.  There  is  no  snow  here.  The  dust  is 
very  thick  and  blows  in  my  eyes  whenever  T  go  on  the  street. 

I  saw  Abe  Lincoln  at  the  White  House,  and  I  heard  that  his  children  are 
sick  with  the  measles. 

Kiss  dear  little  Alice  for  Papa. 

{To  be  read  by  Walker.) 

WASHINGTON  CITY,  March  29,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  EMMONS:  Papa  was  very  glad  to  receive  a  letter  from  his 
dear  little  son.  .  .  . 

When  I  come  home  we  will  get  the  express  wagon  out  of  the  barn,  and 
have  it  nicely  fitted  up  for  you  and  Walker  to  ride  in  next  summer. 

Kiss  Alice  for  me. 

WEST  POINT,  June  11,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  WALKER  :  This  place  is  very  beautiful  indeed.  It  is  on  a 
high  hill,  with  mountains  all  around,  and  the  great  Hudson  river  at  the 
base.  There  are  very  many  ships  and  steamboats  sail  past  here,  and  some 
very  large  ones:  one  steamboat,  called  the  *'  Isaac  Newton,"  is  four  hun 
dred  and  four  feet  long,  as  far  nearly  as  from  Mr.  Potter's  to  the  Mansion 
House.  They  sail  very  fast,  some  of  them  going  twenty  miles  in  an  hour. 

In  the  river  just  opposite  where  I  sit  is  an  island  called  "Constitution 
Island."  It  is  not  very  large,  and  one  lady  owns  the  whole  of  it.  She  is  a 
very  smart  lady  and  writes  books.  She  wrote  one  called  Queechy,  which  I 
know  you  will  read  when  you  are  old  enough.  ...  1  wish  you  would 
write  to  me  soon. 

(To  be  read  by  Walker.) 

WEST  POINT,  NEW  YORK,  June  13,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  EMMONS  :  There  are  a  great  many  boys  and  young  men  here 
learning  to  be  soldiers ;  when  they  drill  they  have  a  splendid  band  of 
music  and  thirty  musicians.  A  man  walks  at  the  head  of  the  band  with  a 
large  gilt  staff  in  his  hand,  with  which  he  directs  them  how  to  play.  He 
wears  a  very  big  hat  with  four  very  large  feathers  in  it.  They  call  him 
the  drum  major. 

I  hope  you  go  to  school  every  day  and  behave  yourself  well. 

I  don't  think  you  ought  to  whistle  at  the  table,  but  you  can  do  so  in  the 
front  yard. 

NEW  YORK. 

MY  DEAR  WALKER  :  Before  the  war  began  Ex-President  Pierce  wrote  a 
letter  to  Jeff  Davis,  telling  him  that  Northern  people  would  help  him  fight 
against  Republicans.  When  our  troops  under  General  Grant  captured 
Jackson,  Mississippi,  they  found  the  letter  in  Jeff  Davis's  house.  I  send 
you  an  exact  copy  of  it.  Keep  it  carefully.  Love  to  Emmons  and  the 
Palace.  Your  affectionate  father. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 


135 


MY  DEAR  MA  :  I  have  thought  it  just  as  well  to  slip  this  translation  of 
Emmons's  letter  into  the  envelope,  as  I  doubt  if  you  could  read  his  scrawl. 
It  is  entirely  his  own  in  every  respect. 

AUGUSTA,  Oct.  28,  1865. 

DEAR  GRANDMOTHER  :  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  did  not  write  before.     I 
want  to  tell  you  about  the  baby.     Alice  calls  her  "  Pleasant  M— 
is  the  pleasantest  child  you  ever  saw. 

A  few  weeks  ago  a  large  part  of  the  business  portion  of  the  city  was  de 
stroyed  by  fire.     Property  amounting  to  half  a  million  of  dollars  was  lost. 
Nine  engines  were  playing,  among  which  was  a  new  steam  fire-engine, 
cannot  think  of  anything  more,  so  good-by  for  a  week. 

From  your  affectionate  grandson, 

WILLIAMS  E.  BLAINE. 
p.S.  —  Uncle  R.  has  been  here  and  returned. 


136  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 


VIII. 

IN    CONGRESS. 

~\  y|~R.  ELAINE'S  marked  success  in  the  State  Legislature 
-^-*-  made  his  election  to  the  National  Congress  pure  foreordi- 
nation.  His  ability  was  so  conspicuous  that  movements  for  his 
promotion  began  long  before  his  own  judgment  could  further 
them.  He  was  a  strong  party  man,  seeing  that  measures  could 
only  be  effected  through  organized  action.  He  refused  therefore 
to  consider  any  personal  proposition  that  threatened  party  har 
mony.  He  had  moreover  the  happy  faculty  of  enjoying  the 
estate  wherein  he  was  placed.  He  liked  well  to  discover  and 
achieve  its  possibilities,  and  he  especially  liked  not  at  all  to 
violate  the  just  claims,  or  even  disappoint  the  expectations,  of 
others.  The  following  slight  correspondence,  but  one  of  many 
similar  records,  is  thoroughly  characteristic. 

AUGUSTA,  June  26,  1860. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  The  opportunity  to  set  matters  right  in  Monmouth 
occurred  early  and  naturally.  The  day  after  I  saw  you  I  received  the  en 
closed,  and  answered  it,  as  you  will  see,  on  third  page  of  this  sheet.  I  also 
saw  Mr.  T.  L.  Stanton,  of  North  Monmouth,  last  night,  and  set  him  right. 
Do  you  know  anything  specific  about  Leeds  ?  I  advise  you  to  look  after 
that  locality  with  some  care.  You  may  if  you  please  return  this  note,  as  I 
may  wish  to  keep  Andrews's  letter. 

In  haste,  your  friend  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
Gov.  A.  P.  MORRILL. 

(Enclosure . )  Confidential. 

MONMOUTH,  June  23,  1860. 
J.  (T.  BLAINE,  Esq. : 

DEAR  SIR  :  Is  your  name  to  be  used  at  the  Congressional  Convention  of 
this  district,  for  representative  to  Congress  ?  If  so,  I  pledge  you  my  hearty 
support  and  the  delegation  from  this  town,  and,  in  the  event  of  your  nomi 
nation,  every  Republican  vote  of  this  town  next  September. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  137 

In  this  T  speak  what  I  know.    Should  yon  feel  disposed,  I  would  be  happy 
to  hear  from  you  at  an  early  day. 

Very  truly  yours, 

GEO.  II.  ANDREWS. 

AUGUSTA,  June  25,  1860. 
GEO.  H.  ANDREWS,  Esq. : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  Your  kind  and  friendly  favor  of  the  23d  is  before  me. 
The  tender  of  your  support  for  the  honorable  post  of  representative  in 
Congress  is  exceedingly  gratifying  and  flattering  to  me,  and  proves  that  I 
have  not  reckoned  amiss  in  counting  you  among  my  most  earnest  friends. 
It  is  proper,  however,  to  advise  you  that  I  am  not  a  candidate  for  that 
position.  It  may  possibly  be  known  to  you  that  Ex-Governor  Morrill  de 
sires  the  nomination,  and  I  should  consider  it  both  ungenerous  and  unjust 
for  me  to  allow  my  name  to  be  used  against  him.  He  has  done  much  and 
sacrificed  much  for  the  Republican  party  in  the  day  of  its  trial  and  its  need, 
and  the  opportunity  seems  now  to  be  presented  for  suitably  and  cordially 
recognizing  his  worth  and  his  services.  You  can  readily  see  how  unbe 
coming  it  would  be  in  a  man  of  my  years  to  contest  the  nomination  with 
him,  even  if  I  personally  desired  to  do  so.  Its  effect  could  only  be  to 
divide  the  hitherto  harmonious  ranks  of  the  Republicans  of  Kennebec. 

I  shall  therefore  most  cheerfully  support  Governor  Morrill  for  the  nom 
ination,  and  shall  urge  all  my  friends  to  do  the  same. 

Yours  most  truly, 

J.  G.  ELAINE. 

When  the  propitious  time  caine,  his  nomination  to  Congress 
was  spontaneous,  unanimous,  enthusiastic,  and  in  this  spirit 
every  succeeding  step  was  prompted.  The  only  question  was 
as  to  what  office  he  should  fill,  never  as  to  whether  he  should 
fill  office.  His  majority  at  the  election  approved  the  wisdom 
and  justified  the  enthusiasm  of  the  nomination  ;  and  thenceforth 
to  the  day  of  his  death  his  State  held  him  in  love  and  pride  that 
knew  no  waning  or  wavering;  that  counted  all  his  honors 
won ;  and  all  that  he  failed  to  wear,  a  personal  sorrow  and  a 
national  loss. 

In  accepting  the  nomination,  July  8, 1862,  he  not  only  referred 
with  respect  and  gratitude  to  his  immediate  predecessor,  Hon. 
Anson  P.  Morrill,  and  to  the  earlier  men  who  had  given  the  Ken 
nebec  District  a  front  rank  in  Congress  by  their  ability,  culture, 
and  skill  in  debate,  but  dwelt  with  peculiar  affection  on  "  the 
able  editor,  the  sincere  friend,  the  judicious  adviser,  the  upright 
man,  Luther  Severance,  who,  after  promoting  the  elections  of  Mr. 


138  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Sprague  and  Mr.  Evans  with  unsurpassed  activity  and  zeal,  was 
rewarded  with  succession  to  the  seat  to  which  they  had  given 
eminent  distinction.  If  you  will  pardon  the  personal  reference, 
I  regarded  it  as  the  chief  honor  of  my  life,  before  you  crowned 
me  with  your  favor  to-day,  that  I  followed  Luther  Severance, 
longo  intervallo,  in  the  editorship  of  the  Kennebec  Journal, 
which  he  had  founded  and  nurtured,  and  to  which  he  had  given 
character  and  prominence  throughout  the  State.  There  have 
perhaps  been  more  brilliant  men  in  Maine  than  Luther  Sever 
ance,  but  not  one  who  ever  enjoyed  the  public  confidence  in  a 
higher  degree,  or  repaid  that  confidence  more  amply  by  an 
honorable  and  stainless  life.'' 

In  this  accepting  speech  he  announced  as  his  platform  —  Abra 
ham  Lincoln.  He  made  no  pledge  of  principles  to  be  adopted 
or  measures  to  be  carried  out.  His  one  pledge  was,  '  If  I  am 
called  to  a  seat  in  Congress,  I  shall  go  there  with  a  determina 
tion  to  stand  heartily  and  unreservedly  by  the  administration 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  the  success  of  that  administration, 
under  the  good  providence  of  God,  rests,  I  solemnl}*  believe, 
the  fate  of  the  American  Union.  If  we  cannot  subdue  the 
rebellion  through  the  agency  of  the  administration,  there  is  no 
other  power  given  under  heaven  among  men  to  which  we  can 
appeal.  Hence  I  repeat  that  I  shall  conceive  it  to  be  my  duty, 
as  your  representative,  to  be  the  unswerving  adherent  of  the 
policy  and  measures  which  the  President  in  his  wisdom  may 
adopt.  The  case  is  one,  in  the  present  exigency,  where  men 
loyal  to  the  Union  cannot  divide.  The  President  is  commander- 
in-chief  of  our  land  and  naval  forces,  and  while  lie  may  be 
counselled  he  must  not  be  opposed." 

On  the  great  question  which  had  already  become  not  slavery, 
but  emancipation,  he  spoke  with  veiled,  but  not  vague  voice  : 
"The  great  object  witli  us  all  is  to  subdue  the  rebellion 
speedily,  effectually,  finally.  In  our  march  to  that  end  we  must 
crush  all  intervening  obstacles.  If  slavery,  or  any  other  "  in 
stitution,"  stands  in  the  way,  it  must  be  removed.  Perish  all 
things  else,  the  national  life  must  be  saved.  My  individual  con 
victions  of  what  may  be  needful  are  perhaps  in  advance  of  those 
entertained  by  some,  and  less  radical  than  those  conscien 
tiously  held  by  others.  Whether  they  are  the  one  or  the  other, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (V.     HLAINE.  139 

however,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  an  attempt  made  to  carry  them 
out  until  it  can  be  done  by  an  administration  sustained  by  the  re 
sistless  energy  of  the  loyal  masses.  I  think,  myself,  those  masses 
are  rapidly  adopting  the  idea  that  to  smite  the  rebellion  its 
malignant  cause  must  be  smitten." 

In  early  September  the  metropolitan  newspapers  began  to 
announce  from  their  Maine  correspondents,  among  the  congres 
sional  nominations  of  the  country,  that  of  Mr.  James  G.  Elaine, 
who  had  been  "  for  the  last  two  years  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  Augusta,  who  is  an  able  debater,  and  who 
will  at  once  take  high  rank  among  the  debaters  in  the  national 
House  of  Representatives." 

When  the  vote  was  announced  which  upheld  the  President 
and   the    Union,    the    patriotic     State    proudly   boasted    that, 
though  her  young  voters  had  carried  the  battle  from   the  polls 
to  the  field, — ninety  Republican  to  ten  Democratic  soldiers,— 
she  had  citizens  enough  left  to  man  the  ballot-boxes. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Elaine's  entrance  into  Congress,  President 
Lincoln  was  the  centre  of  a  storm  of  hostile  criticism.  The 
shafts  aimed  at  him  were  not  only  pointed,  but  envenomed. 
The  suggestions  of  his  message  were  pronounced  vague  and 
impracticable,  wildly  unjust,  worse  than  tyranny,  a  betrayal  of 
the  principles  of  our  fathers.  It  was  the  "  despot's  edict,  a 
ukase  from  the  chambers  of  an  autocrat."  The  President  was 
hotly  charged  with  political  duplicity,  with  mean  and  treach 
erous  trickery,  and  was  consigned  by  many  a  now  forgotten 
foe  to  eternal  infamy. 

Enemies  abroad  repeated  the  obloquy  of  the  foe  at  home, 
and  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  message  they  saw,  to  the  republic  whose 
safety  is  the  first  care  of  monarchs,  every  menace,  from  the 
sanction  of  State  suicide  to  a  "  bid  "  for  renomination. 

Even  in  the  house  of  his  friends  the  great  President  was 
wounded.  Distinguished  and  patriotic  men  were  coldly  criti 
cal,  if  not  actively  hostile,  towards  the  leader  whom  they  did 
not  comprehend,  but  whom  they  could  pain  and  hinder  —  hin- 
derance  perhaps  the  greatest  pain  of  all. 

Naturally  the  Maine  victory  won  in  his  name  was  doubly  wel 
come  to  Mr.  Lincoln;  the  men  whom  it  sent  to  Washington 
found  his  confidence  already  bespoken,  and  thus  perhaps  Mr. 


140  KIOGRAFIIY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Blaine  had  freer  access  to  him  than  would  otherwise  have  been 
awarded ;  and  all  his  intercourse  inspired  him  with  deeper  faith 
in  the  President's  wisdom,  and  confirmed  his  acceptance  of  the 
President's  leadership  as  the  only  safety. 

Another  President,  Mr.  Lincoln's  predecessor,  Mr.  Buchanan, 
was  watching  the  new  member,  and  in  a  letter  of  comment  and 
inquiry  from  Wheatland,  showing  his  continued  deep  interest 
in  public  matters,  he  wrote : 

/  Mr.  Blaine  leads  in  the  House  of  Representatives ;  he  will  rise  to  be 
/  one  of  the  leaders  in  reconstruction.  I  know  that  he  comes  from  a  noble 
I  stock  of  people  in  the  counties  of  Washington  and  Cumberland,  Penn. 

The  problems  before  Congress  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Blame's 
entrance  were  such  as  enlisted  his  warmest  and  highest  interest 
—  the  support  of  the  patriotic  army  on  the  field,  and  the  official 
and  complete  abolition  of  slavery,  made  possible  through  the 
army  and  proclaimed  by  Abraham  Lincoln.  When  this  stern 
army  of  more  than  a  million  men  melted  away  under  the  sun 
shine  of  peace,  and  became  again  an  elemental  where  it  had 
been  an  objective  force  of  productiveness  and  prosperity  ;  when 
slavery  had  been  eliminated  from  the  young  nation  whose  life 
it  had  endangered,  — -  the  question  became  at  once  a  question  of 
healing,  of  restoring  national  unity,  of  rebuilding  waste  places 
on  new  and  lasting  foundations.  A  great  State  rent  by  four 
years  of  fierce  war  was  to  be  reconstructed  on  the  old  lines 
of  republicanism,  and  on  the  new  lines  of  universal  indi 
vidual  liberty.  President  Lincoln  proclaimed  the  emancipa 
tion  of  slaves.  Congress  destroyed  forever  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

Into  this  work  Mr.  Blaine  entered  with  his  whole  soul.  The 
grandeur  of  this  new  nation  was  ever  before  his  eyes.  What 
the  country  could  be,  founded  on  the  good-will  of  every  citi 
zen,  where  every  citizen  was  free  to  work  out  his  best  and  to 
enjoy  his  rest,  —  that  it  should  be.  No  quest  of  the  holy  grail 
was  ever  more  devotedly  followed  than  his  "  extraordinary 
generous  seeking  "  for  the  ideal  republic.  Her  fortunes,  her 
glory  abroad,  her  happiness  at  home,  definitely  to  be  measured 
by  the  degree  in  which  each  man  should  through  industry  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    C.     BLAINE.  141 

thrift  have  freedom  to  cultivate  his  mind,  create  his  home,  and 
enjoy  his  family,  —  that  became  the  private  vocation  and  the 
public  profession  of  the  young  Congressman.  To  his  thought, 
national  success  began  only  where  the  struggle  for  life  ceased 
and  human  beings  entered  into  the  sphere  of  aspiration. 

But  for  this  ideal  republic  he  wasted  his  strength  in  no  vain 
dreams  or  vapid  rhetoric,  but  used  it  in  the  widest  Helds  and  in 
the  smallest  details.  His  quick,  pervasive,  generalizing,  and  in 
terpreting  mind  enveloped,  penetrated,  classified  things  small 
as  well  as  great,  and  they  ceased  to  be  merely  small,  but,  taking 
their  place  in  the  eternal  sequences,  became  parts  of  the  world- 
drama. 

Thus  along  the  general  principles  which  shaped  themselves 
in  the  great  seething  mass  of  facts,  he  trod  a  clear  path  to 
logical  positions  which  often  seemed  to  the  desultory  mind  seg 
regated  and  sometimes  inconsistent.  From  his  fund  of  knowl 
edge  he  readily  marshalled  precedents,  and  to  his  quick  insight 
facts  grouped  themselves  with  their  belongings  and  were  there 
fore  orderly  and  pertinent.  Me  noted  that  the  central  direct 
ing  power  of  the  world  does  not  scorn  to  use  economic  as  well 
as  moral  forces  to  accomplish  moral  ends,  and  he  put  himself 
heartily  in  accord  with  that  law.  He  rejected  the  idea  that  a 
community  should  or  could  be  punished.  (While  the  rebellion 
was  rampant,  he  had  but  one  purpose  —  to  suppress  it;  the 
rebellion  once  suppressed,  his  purpose  became  to  heal  by  cordial 
cooperation,  by  wise  and  fostering  care,  by  a  benign  justice,  by 
an  inexhaustible  patience,  by  returning  prosperity,  and  thus  win 
to  voluntary  and  enthusiastic  union  the  element  which  had  been 
forced  back  from  secession^  Me  counted  an  enemy  destroyed 
only  when  turned  into  a  friend. 

He  never  forgot  that  the  American  government  is  a  popular 
government,  that  legislation  to  be  effective  must  carry  the 
popular  good-will.  Yet  he  would  secure  good-will  only  by 
appeal  to  reason,  to  which  he  never  appealed  in  vain.  He  was 
not  afraid  of  being  in  a  minority,  if  that  was  the  way  to  better 
things.  He  advanced  measures  on  applied  principles  without 
hope  of  a  majority,  or  even  a  vote,  but  believing  the  path  he 
was  blazing  was  in  the  right  direction,  and  would  eventually 
become  the  beaten  path  ;  and  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the 


142  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

man  who  shoots  at  the  sun  will  come  nearer  to  it  than  the  man 
who  does  not  draw  a  bow. 

A  sound  currency  he  deemed  as  vital  to  the  body  politic  as 
the  circulation  of  blood  to  the  human  system,  and  early  and 
late,  against  the  world  or  with  the  world,  he  held  up  the  neces 
sity  of  the  two  metals  with  one  standard,  "  to  the  end  that  busi 
ness  should  be  conducted  on  a  safe  and  secure  basis,  that  labor 
should  meet  with  its  full  reward,  that  every  man  should  know 
what  he  is  dealing  in  and  how  much  he  is  worth,  and  the  entire 
country  rejoice  in  an  abundant  circulation  of  both  gold  and 
paper,  in  which  paper  will' be  as  good  as  gold  and  gold  no  better 
than  paper."  Yet  he  recognized  on  this  point,  as  on  others,  that 
legislation  was  but  the  working  of  causes  far  more  powerful 
than  itself,  and  could  be  lasting  only  as  it  was  in  harmony  with 
eternal  laws.  He  recognized  that  the  country  is  continental, 
and  should  therefore  be  self-sustaining;  that  we  are  in  the  family 
of  nations,  but  that  the  nation  is  a  family  ;  that  privileges  bring 
duties,  and  requirements  involve  responsibilities.  The  princi 
ple  of  protection  was  to  him  inwrought  with  the  very  idea  of  a 
nation,  but  it  was  a  principle  sinuous  and  flexible  to  the  move 
ment  of  events,  to  be  applied  with  watchful  wisdom,  to  be 
modified  in  detail  by  the  demands  of  the  occasion,  with  scrupu 
lous  regard  to  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  individual,  and 
to  be  complemented  by  the  principle  of  reciprocity  between 
nations,  equally  to  be  modified  by  the  current  of  events  and 
correspondingly  regardful  of  national  rights. 

The  Grand  Army  had  been  the  saviour  of  the  nation,  and  he 
felt  that  the  war  debt  to  eacb  soldier  was  a  debt  of  honor.  Yet 
his  share  in  the  debates  of  Congress  was  eminently  practical 
and  business-like.  He  spoke  in  Congress  exactly  as  he  spoke 
out  of  it,  with  the  earnestness  of  conviction,  with  the  persua 
sion  of  facts  and  figures,  directly,  simply,  without  oratorical 
attempt,  though  statistics  in  his  hands  not  infrequently  touched 
the  imagination,  and  even  arabic  numbers  became  poetry.  He 
had  no  self-consciousness.  His  purpose  became  himself.  He 
had  no  sense  of  dignity  to  be  defended  or  assumed.  His  dignity 
was  the  dignity  of  a  pure,  upright,  and  lofty  manhood,  instinc 
tive,  inalienable.  Because  he  was  a  young  man,  assimilative  and 
sympathetic,  his  words  were  often  free,  even  careless,  and  no 


BTOGKAPHY    OF    JAMKS    if.     HLAINK.  143 

doubt  occasionally  startled  the  House,  accustomed  to  some 
what  more  formal  style.  But  his  words  were  never  used  to 
shock  the  House,  only  to  express  opinion  most  directly  and  forc 
ibly.  The  little  hells,  and  dam-nut,  and  deuces,  which  sparsely 
sprinkled  his  boyish  letters,  had  long  since  disappeared,  as 
meadow  midges  from  one  reaching  the  sunny  uplands ;  but  the 
street  words  that  fell  upon  his  all-hearing1  ears  fell  sometimes 
from  his  all-remembering  tongue,  and  occasionally  the  torrent 
of  his  speech  tossed  out  combinations  that,  if  not  created 
on  the  toss,  must  have  had  their  origin  in  the  mountain 
fastnesses  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was  persistent,  but  not  opin 
ionated.  He  readily  relinquished  his  own  suggestions  where 
others'  seemed  more  desirable,  or  even  when  they  seemed  not 
materially  less  desirable,  if  thus  he  could  avoid  controversy 
and  accomplish  his  purpose.  "  If  I  cannot  have  a  better 
amendment  than  the  one  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania, 
I  shall  vote  for  that."  Addressed  lightly  he  answered  lightly, 
returning  the  ball  with  unfailing  gayety  of  heart.  Often  his 
disapproval  of  a  measure  was  expressed  with  too  infantile  a 
simplicity  for  this  aged  and  circumlocuitous  world,  and  he  was 
genuinely  surprised,  grieved,  and  repentant  to  find  that  he  had 
given  offence.  If  he  grasped  the  other  man's  idea  before  it 
was  half  out,  it  was  very  hard  for  him  to  sit  still  and  hear  it 
out.  If  a  boat  was  likely  to  lose  the  race  through  bad  rowing, 
it  was  very  hard  for  him  not  to  put  in  his  oar  and  pull  ahead, 
even  when  it  was  not  his  boat.  A  member  is  asked  if  such  and 
such  will  not  be  the  effect  of  his  amendment : 

"I  really  am  unable  to  say,1'  says  the  gentleman,  rather 
helplessly. 

ki  Not  by  a  very  great  deal,"  would  Mr.  Blaine  interpose 
with  an  unasked  but  lucid  explanation. 

If  an  onset  was  made  upon  him, 'he  repelled  it  sometimes 
perhaps  with  a  greater  impetus  than  was  necessary,  but  that 
was  the  end  of  it.  He  carried  anger  as  the  flint  bears  fire  — 
bore  no  malice  —  did  not  so  much  forgive  as  forget. 

He  was  in  no  haste  to  rush  to  the  front  in  Congress,  but 
neither  was  he  backward.  It  was  matter  of  course  that  his 
first  work  should  be  in  committee  where  he  was  soon  found 
to  be  an  authority.  He  had  not  the  self-consciousness  that 


144  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

prearranges  pose  and  place,  but  wherever  his  thought,  purpose, 
impulse  led,  thither  he  followed.  His  command  of  parliament 
ary  law  often  enabled  him  by  a  motion  to  shorten,  or  even  to 
close  debate.  Indeed,  his  very  first  speech  was  a  citation  from 
the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  of  perhaps  a  dozen 
lines,  but  so  pertinent  to  the  debate  that  it  practically  settled  the 
question  at  issue,  and  secured  for  him  the  compliment  of  per 
sonal  thanks  from  the  venerable  and  formidable  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  who  had  the  bill  in  charge,  and  whose  powerful,  if 
somewhat  grim,  not  to  say  ferocious,  leadership  in  the  House 
made  his  commendation  as  valued  as  it  was  rare.  During  life 
the  saturnine  old  Pennsylvania!!  and  his  sunny-hearted  young 
compatriot  remained  mutual  admirers  and  personal  friends. 

Many  measures  which  Mr.  Elaine  introduced  or  advocated 
related,  of  course,  to  business  matters,  but  the  business  questions 
of  that  day  were  suffused  with  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  and 
holy  self-sacrifice  out  of  which  they  sprang,  and  close  alongside 
the  driest  or  the  most  trivial  details  the  wells  of  human  sympathy 
were  ever  ready  to  burst  forth.  One  day  he  was  asking  for  the 
assumption  of  war  debts  by  the  general  government,  taking  for 
granted  the  success  of  the  Union,  though  in  the  midst  of  the 
war,  and  maintaining  that  such  success  was  "  of  no  more  impor 
tance  to  the  loyal  than  to  the  revolted  States  and  to  the  forty 
new  States  that  are  yet  to  be  added  to  the  Union!"  His  argu 
ment  was  that  by  this  assumption  the  burden  would  not  be 
increased,  but  equalized.  "  The  contest  is  not  local,  but  general ; 
not  for  ourselves,  but  for  mankind  ;  not  merely  for  to-day,  but 
for  all  time.  The  burden  falls  with  increased  severity  on  the 
fanners  and  other  holders  of  real  estate,  from  the  fact  that  so 
vast  a  proportion  of  the  personal  property  in  many  of  the  com 
munities  has  sought  investment  in  government  securities  which 
are  specially  exempt  from  State  and  municipal  taxation,  f 
should  certainly  be  among  the  last  to  countenance  a  breach  of 
the  national  faith  in  the  slightest  degree.  We  must  standby  the 
terms  nominated  in  the  bond,  no  matter  how  onerous  and  op 
pressive  they  may  be.  No  hardship  can  arise  to  any  of  us  from 
observing  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  government,  at  all  com 
parable  with  the  hardship  that  would  ensue  to  all  of  us  by 
violating  that  faith,  even  by  the  remotest  hint.  But  while  we 


KlOGRAt'llY    Ob'    JAMKS    G.     HLAINE.  145 

all  agree,  I  trust,  on  this  point,  I  submit  that  as  the  policy  of 
the  government  has  made  the  war  debt  of  the  States  bear  une 
qually  on  different  classes  of  the  community,  and  most  oppres 
sively  on  the  most  meritorious  class,  it  is  the  imperative  duty  of 
the  government  to  equalize  the  burden  by  assuming  an  equitable 
share  of  the  debt." 

Another  day  he  was  speaking  a  kind  word  for  the  West  Point 
cadets,  whose  Academy  he  had  closely  investigated  when  he  was 
on  the  Board  of  Inspectors  in  1861,  —  that  too  grave  a  construc 
tion  might  not  be  put  on  "found  deficient,"  and  thus  lose  to  the 
nation  some  of  her  best  officers  because  their  curtains  were  not 
"drawn  back  at  6.45  A.M.,"  or  their  floors  were  "out  of  order 
near  the  washstand,"  or  even  —  which  shows  much  generosity  in 
a  man  who  never  smoked  —  because  there  was  "  the  odor  of 
tobacco-smoke  in  their  rooms ;  "  but  praying  that  power  to 
pardon  might  be  restored  to  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of 
War ;  and  he  cited  the  case  of  a  boy  for  whom  he  had  come 
to  Washington  and  successfully  interceded  with  the  Secretary 
Of  \Var — a  boy  who  had  afterwards  gloriously  justified  his  in 
tercession,  on  Sheridan's  staff  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah. 
General  Schenck  came  to  his  support  handsomely,  declaring  - 
rather  unhandsomely  —  that  if  he  wanted  to  secure  a  principal 
of  a  female  academy  he  would  take  the  men  whose  floors  around 
the  washstand  were  clean,  but  when  he  wished  to  secure  efficient 
officers  he  would  turn  the  graduating  class  the  other  end  fore 
most  !  As  a  result  of  conference,  the  desired  power  of  restoring 
cadets  was  relegated  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

He  took  it  for  granted  that  wherever  a  usage  has  grown  up 
in  the  army,  whether  with  reference  to  titles  or  to  more  sub 
stantial  points  a  civilian  would  find,  when  he  went  to  the  bottom 
of  the  matter,  that  there  is  some  good  reason  for  this  usage  and 
that  it  is  not  safe  to  abolish  it  without  full  inquiry. 

In  a  debate  regarding  the  presence  of  cabinet  officers  on  the 
iioor  of  the  House,  he  took  little  part,  and  was  indeed  subse 
quently  opposed  to  it,  but  he  maintained  there  and  then  that 
if  they  should  refuse  to  appear  when  required,  they  could  be 
impeached,  just  as  any  other  officer  could  be  impeached.  Later 
events  have  made  his  advocacy  of  a  concurrent  puxver  for  the 


140  nioGUAl'HY    OF    .JAMKS    (!.     11  LA  INK. 

Executive  in  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  government  seem  almost 
too  successful,  though  he  was  even  then  fully  appreciative  of 
the  distinct  spheres  and  divine  rights  of  the  coordinate  depart 
ments  of  the  government. 

When  he  disapproved  of  a  measure  he  instantly  opposed  it, 
without  so  much  as  thinking  whether  his  opposition  would  be 
well  or  ill  received.  In  December  of  1804,  Mr.  Stevens 
had  brought  in  a  bill  to  prevent  gold  and  silver  coin  and 
bullion  from  being  sold  or  exchanged  for  a  greater  value  than 
their  real  currency  value.  Even  to  receive  notes  of  corpora 
tions  or  individuals  in  payment  for  gold,  silver,  or  bullion,  at 
less  than  par  value  was  to  be  a  punishable  offence.  It  is  not 
easy  to  exaggerate  the  surprise  with  which  the  old  autocrat 
beheld  "  the  gentleman  from  Maine  "  rise  and  inform  the  House 
quite  simply  and  with  great  earnestness  that  only  the  respect 
he  felt  for  the  distinguished  gentleman  prevented  him  from 
saying  that  the  provisions  of  the  bill  were  absurd  and  mon 
strous  —  that  a  gold  dollar  cannot  be  made  worth  less  or  more 
by  legislation  —  that  the  bill  had  been  productive  of  great 
mischief  in  the  brief  twenty-four  hours  it  had  been  allowed  to 
float  before  the  public  mind  as  a  measure  seriously  entertained 
by  this  House  —  that  if  a  dollar  note  issued  by  the  govern 
ment  should  be  declared  equal  to  a  gold  dollar  the  whole 
Pacific  coast  was  liable  to  indictment  for  criminal  offence, 
because  they  wrould  persist  in  believing  that  in  the  present 
condition  of  the  currency  a  gold  dollar  was  worth  more  than  a 
paper  dollar  !  It  was  not  till  after  the  House  had  laid  his  bill 
on  the  table  that  Mr.  Stevens  recovered  breath  and  sarcasm 
to  note  the  "  intuitive  way  "  "in  which  his  excellent  friend  "  got 
at  a  great  national  question :  "  How  the  gentleman  from  Maine 
by  his  intuitive  knowledge  of  these  things  comes  to  understand 
at  once  what  the  ablest  statesman  of  England  took  months  to 
mature,  I  can't  very  well  understand.  It  is  a  happy  inspira 
tion  ;  "  and  returning  to  the  field  again  spoke  of  his  bill,  which 
threw  "my  excellent  friend  into  convulsions  or  the  House  into 
epileptic  fits."  "  My  excellent  friend  from  Maine,  in  an  alarmed 
and  excited  manner,  said  that  the  bill  was  fraught  with  innu 
merable  mischief,  that  it  would  destroy  the  interests  of  the 


rilY    OF    JAMKS    G.     HLAINE.  147 

country, — I  do  not  speak  exactly  as  he  spoke.  The  House,  par 
taking  of  the  magnetic  manner  of  my  friend  from  Maine,  —  he 
seemed  to  be  distracted  on  the  subject,  —  and  wishing  to  escape 
the  evils  of  this  gunpowder  plot,  immediately  laid  it  on  the 
table."  That  something  unusual  had  happened,  that  some 
unwonted  force  had  been  displayed,  is  evident, for  he  repeated: 
fct  The  House,  being  magnetized  by  the  excited  manner  of  the 
gentleman  from  Maine,  became  alarmed  and  immediately  laid  the 
bill  on  the  table  without  its  being  presented,  and  without  a  single 
member  having  had  an  opportunity  to  read  a  word  of  it.  I 
remember  what  was  said  by  the  able  editors,  sciolists,  who  prate 
deeply  in  reference  to  things  of  which  they  know  nothing.  I 
know  that  they  repeated  what  my  excellent  friend  had  taught 
them." 

This,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  the  first  time  the  word  magnetic 
was_applied  to  Mr.  Blame  — ^tharjvvord  which  simply  spans  the 
unknown  and  perhaps  the  unknowable,  and  which  came"affer^ 
wards  to~  be,  it^  may~almost  be  said,  appropriated  to  Mr.  J^lameT1" 
~~~^fo\v~TIght-heartedly  he  receivedTThe  criticisms  of  the  old 
Pennsylvania!!  whom  he  loved,  and  whose  God  of  freedom  and 
patriotism  he  worshipped  with  equal  ardor,  is  seen  in  his  banter 
ing  declaration  shortly  after,  when  seeking  the  floor.  "  I  ob 
serve  my  friend  from  Pennsylvania  is  very  anxious  to  hear  me." 
"The  gentleman  is  mistaken,"  growled  his  friend  from  Pennsyl 
vania.  "  I  am  not  in  the  least  anxious  to  hear  a  speech  on  any 
subject." 

In  a  debate  on  naval  affairs,  Mr.  Elaine  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  of  the  four  and  one-half  hours  allowed  for 
debate  the  committee  occupied  more  than  four ;  four  gentle 
men  on  the  same  side  of  the  question  had  spoken  in  succession, 
and  he  had  only  three  and  a  half  minutes  ;  that  the  gentle 
men  of  the  Naval  Committee  found  it  easier  to  oppose  a  Board 
of  Admiralty  with  objections  borrowed  from  English  example 
than  to  answer  the  charges  of  shortcoming  and  blundering  in 
the  Navy  Department,  and  thus  dexterously  spent  their  time  in 

1  His  own  words  of  Mr.  Burlingamc  arc  not  inapt.  "  What  precisely  is  meant  by  magnetism 
it  might  be  difficult  to  define,  but  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  Mr.  Burlingame  possessed  a  great 
reserve  of  that  subtile,' forceful,  overwhelming  power  which  the  word  magnetism  ia  used,  to 
signify." 


148  tilOGKAPUY    OF   JAMES    (].     HLAINK. 

exposing  the  inefficiency  of  the  proposed  remedy  rather  than 
in  meeting  the  great  essential  points  made  against  the  navy. 
To  reject  the  amendment  was  to  declare  that  the  officers  of 
the  department  may  again  spend  110,000,000  in  the  construction 
of  twenty  iron-clad  vessels  that  will  not  stay  on  top  of  the  water. 

The  assertion  was  flatly  disputed,  but  he  reaffirmed  that 
twenty  of  these  iron  vessels  built  under  the  supervision  of  the 
Navy  Department  will  not  float  —  at  least  those  that  have  been 
tried  won't,  and  the  model  is  the  same  for  the  whole  number. 

Mr.  Pike  reiterated  that  it  was  a  mistake. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  They  are  not  sea-going. 

Mr.  PIKE.  —  They  were  never  intended  to  be  sea-going. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  They  will  not  float. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  An  engineer  told  me  the  other  day  that  not 
one  of  them  would  float  until  $120,000  more  had  been  expended 
upon  each  of  them. 

Mr.  PIKE.  —  The  first  of  them,  launched  in  Eoston  harbor, 
floated  three  inches  out  of  water  on  a  level,  though  she  was  in 
tended  to  float  twelve.  Others  floated  high  enough  and  when 
altered  make  useful  vessels. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  --Then  the  first  lost  nine  inches. 

Mr.  PIKE.  —  She  did. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  That  is,  she  lost  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  that 
portion  of  her  which  was  designed  to  be  above  water,  and  this  I  pre 
sume  is  the  best  of  the  whole  twenty.  Well,  sir,  that  is  conceding 
the  whole  case.  Only  three  inches  above  water.  Why,  the 
chances  are  that  she  could  not  be  towed  a  mile  in  smooth  water 
without  sinking  to  the  bottom.  As  to  speed,  out  of  ninety 
Eritish  steamers  caught  within  a  given  period  in  attempting  to 
run  the  blockade,  only  twelve  were  caught  by  vessels  built  by 
the  present  Admiralty  of  the  Navy  Department,  while  seventy- 
eight  were  caught  either  by  purchased  vessels  or  vessels  in 
herited  by  the  old  navy.  Members  of  the  Naval  Committee 
<  I  noted  from  one  of  those  remarkable  reports  of  Admiral  Porter, 
written  from  Fort  Fisher,  in  which  the  admiral  indulged  in 
some  very  high  blowing  about  the  merits  of  a  certain  monitor, 
and  states  in  conclusion  that  she  could  cross  the  ocean,  storm 
all  the  fortresses  of  England  and  France,  and,  after  laying  their 
cities  under  contribution  and  playing  havoc  generally  on  u  very 


BIOCfhAPHY    or    JAMKS    d.     BLAME.  149 

large  scale,  could  recross  the  ocean  in  perfect  safety  provided 
she  could  get  coal.  A  very  important  proviso,  truly,  —  if  she 
could  only  get  coal  in  some  mysterious  way  entirely  unknown 
to  the  authorities  that  ordered  her  construction. 

Mr.  PIKE.  -  -  The  criticism  on  Admiral  Porter  is  unfair.  He 
meant  she  could  carry  coal  enough  to  cross  the  ocean,  but  not 
enough  to  return. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Oh !  I  presume  that  after  laying  London 
under  contribution,  some  of  the  obliging  coal-heavers  at  Green 
wich  would  supply  her  as  a  matter  of  international  courtesy. 

Presenting  a  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  tax  on  gross  receipts 
and  the  substitution  of  a  tax  on  net  receipts  of  boats,  Mr. 
Elaine  u  occupied  his  brief  time  "  with  facts  personally  known 
to  himself:  "A  ship-owner  in  my  district  —  a  highly  respon 
sible  and  intelligent  gentleman  —  chartered  to  government  a 
vessel  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  with  cargo  of  coal  from 
Philadelphia  to  New  Orleans,  for  gross  $ 6,000.  For  painting, 
calking,  repairs  of  sails,  men  and  provisions,  and  port  charges, 
the  captain  drew  on  owners  for  $3,075.35 ;  for  distribution  in 
New  Orleans,  $1,410.70.  Procuring  no  business  in  New  Or 
leans,  she  was  compelled  to  proceed  to  Eoston  in  ballast,  where, 
to  pay  off  her  crew  and  meet  other  expenses,  there  was  a  further 
distribution  of  $1,176.  At  Eoston  the  vessel  chartered  to  go  to 
Philadelphia  in  ballast  for  cargo,  and  at  Philadelphia,  before  a 
dollar  of  the  new  charter  was  available,  or  even  earned,  the 
captain  again  drew  for  $576  —  a  total  distribution  of  $6,238.05, 
At  this  point  the  government  paid  the  $6,000  in  certificates  of 
indebtedness  then  selling  at  ninety-four,  the  owners  thus  receiv 
ing  but  $5,640  in  cash  for  the  period  during  which  the  actual 
distribution  in  cash  was  $6,238.05,  showing  a  net  cash  loss  for 
the  time  of  about  $600,  or,  to  be  precisely  accurate,  $598.05,  be 
sides  the  interest  on  advance  —  nearly  two  hundred  more.  And 
now  see  —  after  this  melancholy  experience  the  tax  collector 
came  forward  and  demanded  of  the  owner  of  the  vessel  2^  per 
cent,  on  the  $6,000  which  the  government  paid  as  above,  and 
on  top  of  all  losses  already  incurred  actually  compelled  him  to 
pay  $150  under  that  section  of  the  internal-revenue  law  which 
we  are  now  seeking  to  amend." 


150  HTOGRAPIIY    OP    JAMKfi    d.     JtLAINJS. 

An  amendment  that  no  vessel  which  had  been  licensed  to  sail 
under  a  foreign  flag  or  the  protection  of  a  foreign  government 
during  the  rebellion  should  be  registered  as  an  American  vessel, 
or  have  the  rights  and  privileges  of  an  American  vessel  except 
under  an  act  of  Congress  authorizing  it,  Mr.  Blaine  advocated 
with  statistics  :  u  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  we  had 
-,500,000  tons  of  shipping  engaged  in  foreign  trade.  As  war 
grew  hot  and  dangers  multiplied  on  the  ocean,  800,000  tons  of 
this  shipping  took  refuge  under  a  foreign  flag.  The  flag  of  our 
nation  was  hauled  down,  and  protection  was  sought  under  the 
flag  of  our  neutral  enemy,  Great  Britain.  T  do  not  question  the 
right  of  the  owners  —  many  who  did  so  are  honorable  and  pa 
triotic  men.  All  I  contend  is,  that  having  made  their  election 
they  shall  abide  by  it.  They  escaped  all  the  hazards,  they 
gained  all  the  profits,  of  their  alien  connection,  and  for  one  I  am 
not  now  willing  to  put  them  on  the  same  ground  with  those 
ship-owners  who  took  all  the  risks  of  standing  by  the  American 
flag  in  good  report  and  in  evil  report,  in  our  dark  days  as  well 
as  in  our  bright  days.  The  ship-owners  who  took  British 
registers  escaped  the  heavy  war-risks,  and  now  to  place  them  on 
the  same  footing  with  those  who  hazarded  everything  rather 
than  sail  under  a  foreign  flag  would  be  flagrantly  unjust.  I 
think,  sir,  it  would  be  cruelly  unjust  for  the  American  Con 
gress  to  permit  this  policy,  and  thus  turn  their  backs  on 
those  ship-owners  who,  under  all  the  seductions  of  profit  and 
against  all  the  perils  of  war,  refused  for  a  single  hour  to  take 
refuge  under  any  other  flag  than  that  which  was  floating  over 
the  armies  of  the  Union,  and  which  protects  us  in  this  Capitol 
to-day. 

"  Moreover,  while  many  were  high-minded  and  patriotic  men, 
some  were  unpatriotic  and  even  criminal,  and  while  securely 
concealed  behind  their  British  registers,  they  were  sharing  in 
the  enormous  profits  derived  from  running  our  blockade  and 
engaging,  to  the  detriment  of  the  Union  cause,  in  all  the  illicit 
commerce  which  the  British  flag  covered  during  the  four  years 
of  bloody  war  from  which  we  have  just  emerged." 

He  ever  leaned  to  the  moderate  and  gentler  side  when  the 
success  of  the  cause  rlid  not  imperiously  demand  the  sternest 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  151 

recourse.  He  upheld  the  necessary  conscription,  but  he  would 
not  make  it  unnecessarily  hard,  sharp,  inexorable. 

He  opposed  earnestl}r  an  amendment  which  summarily  cut  off 
the  power  of  the  President  to  appoint  any  lad,  however  promis 
ing,  however  loyal,  to  West  Point,  if  he  were  so  unfortunate  as 
to  have  been  born  and  lived  in  the  South :  "  I  am  opposed  to 
the  amendment,  root  and  branch.  I  regard  it  as  prescriptive, 
illiberal,  narrow-minded.  Its  logic  can  be  justified  only  on  the 
ground  taken  by  my  distinguished  friend  from  Pennsylvania, 
who  holds  that  the  entire  population  of  eleven  Southern  States 
are  alien  enemies.  Not  believing,  myself,  in  this  extreme 
dogma,  I  shall  vote  against  the  amendment,  even  if  I  stand 
alone  in  my  opposition." 

Of  course  Mr.  Schenck,  who  moved  the  amendment,  and  Mr. 
Stevens,  who  advocated  it,  could  but  notice  the  "  extraordinary 
remarks  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine,  who  characterized  the 
amendment  in  the  worst  kind  of  terms ; "  and  certainly  they 
were  not  complimentary,  though  both  members  were  among  his 
most  valued  friends. 

Mr.  Conkling  could  not  round  a  sharp  corner  so  easily  as 
these  men.  "  I  will  accept  that  in  lieu  of  my  amendment, 
though  I  think  it  is  merely  surplusage,"  said  Mr.  Blame  lightly. 
Mr.  Conkling  took  three  days  to  think  it  over,  and  hoped  "  the 
House  will  not  vote  in  here  anything  as  harmless  surplusage. 
I  am  quite  sure  that  it  is  not  harmless  surplusage." 

"  I  should  like  to  make  further  observations  upon  the  ques 
tionable  expediency  of  any  permanently  established  invalid 
corps.  ...  I  believe  the  practical  effect  will  be  virtually 
to  prefer  en  masse  a  large  portion  of  the  officers  of  the  present 
corps  to  other  wounded  and  disabled  officers  and  soldiers." 

Mr.  SCHENCK.  —  There  is  no  such  thing  in  the  bill,  and  the 
gentleman  either  cannot  read  or  will  not  understand. 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  I  hope  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  will  not 
get  too  energetic.  ...  I  do  not  wish  to  wrench  myself 
by  attempting  to  execute  that  celebrated  pelvic  gesture  by 
which  the  gentleman  makes  himself  forcible,  but  I  hope  the 
House  will  consider  that  I  have  executed  it  as  far  as  it  is 
necessary.  .  .  . 

Mr.    Elaine  presently  desired  to  suggest  to  the  gentleman 


152  nroGRAPirv  OF  JAMES  r?.    BLAINE. 

from  New  York  that  it  would  be  more  satisfactory  if  he  would 
point  out  the  section  of  the  bill  which  conveys  the  alleged 
meaning,  instead  of  indulging  in  loose  and  vague  assertions. 
Mr.  Conkling  retorts  that  possibly  by  listening  the  gentleman 
from  Maine  will  have  his  attention  directed  to  some  provisions 
of  the  bill  which  he  may  not  understand  any  better  than  the 
rest  of  us  ;  which  does  not  prevent  Mr.  Blaine  from  rising 
presently  to  correct  "a  gross  misapprehension  —  T  will  not 
call  it  a  misrepresentation  — of  the  gentleman  from  New  York. 
When  he  speaks  of  his  own  knowledge  of  a  subject,  he  is  a 
gentleman  of  accuracy  to  whom  I  shall  always  listen  with  great 
pleasure.  He  is  not  so  accurate  when  he  speaks  upon  the 
suggestions  of  others  who  are  interested  adversely  to  this  bill." 
Unhappily,  Mr.  Conkling  had  also  a  private  grievance.  At  a 
dinner  party  given  by  Hon.  Henry  0.  Deming,  of  Hartford, 
the  conversation  glanced  from  the  Utica  of  Mr.  Conkling's  home 
to  a  newspaper  which  had  been  published  for  a  little  while  by 
Mr.  Deming  and  his  friend  Park  Benjamin,  and  which  bore 
for  its  motto  the  lines  : 

"  No  pent-up  Utica  contracts  our  powers, 
But  the  whole  boundless  continent  is  ours." 

A  question  arose  as  to  their  authorship,  and  the  whole  com 
pany  gayly  contributed  answers.  An  impression  prevailed  that 
it  was  Barlow.  Mr.  Conkling  offered  to  bet  a  basket  of  cham 
pagne  that  it  was  from  Addison's  "  Oato."  Mr.  Blaine  warned 
him  not  to  make  the  bet  because  he  knew  the  authorship,  and 
that  the  lines  were  riot  from  Addison's  "  Cato."  Mr.  Conkling 
was  so  sure  that  he  persisted  in  the  bet.  The  lines  are  by 
Jonathan  M.  Sewall,  in  an  "  Epilogue  to  Cato,"  written  for 
the  Bow-street  Theatre  in  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Mr.  Conkling  sent  the  basket  of  champagne,  but  took  his  dis 
comfiture  so  much  to  heart  as  to  insinuate  that  Mr.  Blaine  had 
l>een  reading  up  for  it ;  and  when  Mr.  Blaine  made  a  feast 
and  invited  all  the  company  to  drink  the  champagne,  Mr. 
Conkling  did  not  attend. 

The  proposed  substitute  for  the  reciprocity  treaty  with  Can 
ada  seemed  to  Mr.  Blaine  so  radically  wrong  in  its  details  that 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  153 

lie  despaired  of  seeing  it  amended  into  any  acceptable  form. 
"  It  seems  to  me  to  sacrifice  and  subordinate  American  interests 
to  provincial  interests." 

In  a  matter  of  separating  hemlock  and  spruce  timber,  and 
making  the  duty  specific  instead  of  ad  valorem  :  "The  bill  not 
only  ingrafts  ad  valorem,  but  tells  these  cunning  provincials 
just  where  to  strike,  and  therefore  I  denounce  this  proposition 
of  Congress  as  a  fraud  upon  the  revenue  as  well  as  a  fraud 
upon  the  lumber  interests;"  but  he  remembered  to  have  the 
grace  to  say,  "  I  do  not  think  the}*  so  intended  it ; "  and  having 
thus  antagonized  the  committee  in  general,  he  proceeded  to 
pay  his  respects  to  the  gentlemen  in  detail  —  to  the  gentleman 
from  Michigan  who  had  been  advocating  the  admission  of 
lumber  in  order  to  enable  the  people  of  the  South  to  rebuild 
the  houses  destroyed  by  war.  Did  he  expect  many  houses 
would  be  built  in  the  eleven  Southern  States,  of  lumber  from 
Canada,  when  they  had  lumber  of  their  own  as  good  as  could 
l>e  obtained  anywhere?  And  a  word  to  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio,  to  tell  him  his  very  figures  were  unreliable,  and  it  was  a 
vicious  cheating  inducement  to  fraud. 

Yet  he  was  but  stating  the  simplest  fact  when  he  declared : 
"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  was  very  much  surprised  and  somewhat 
mortified  a  few  days  ago,  on  finding,  when  I  had  made  a  motion 
to  get  rid  of  this  bill  at  an  early  stage  of  the  debate  upon  it, 
that  a  great  many  gentlemen  who  sympathize  with  my  purpose 
considered  it  a  discourteous  and  rude  motion.  I  certainly 
intended  nothing  of  the  kind  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means.  The  chairman  of  that  committee  assuredly  knows  that 
it  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  me  to  make  a  motion  in  this 
House,  intended  to  convey  disrespect  or  discourtesy  to  him.  I 
thought  that  the  House  was  against  the  bill,  and  I  do  not  believe 
you  can  find  forty  gentlemen  who  can  say  that  they  intend  to 
vote  for  the  bill  as  it  has  gone  through  the  amendatory  process. 
Now,  as  our  time  is  valuable,  is  it  not  best  to  express  the  sense 
of  the  House  on  a  direct  motion?  And  having  said  that 
I  did  not  intend  any  disrespect  before,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
repeat  that  I  do  not  now  intend  disrespect  when  I  renew  the 


154  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

motion  for  the  purpose    of    bringing   this    question  to  a  head 
at  once." 

"  Yesterday  the  honorable  chairman  of  the  Military  Com 
mittee  intimated  that  I  had  procured  the  amendment  be 
cause  it  would  promote  some  of  my  friends.  The  friends  of 
mine  that  would  thus  be  promoted  are  the  friends  of  every 
member  of  Congress  who  has  had  business  at  the  War  Depart 
ment,  and  in  no  other  sense.  I  have  no  kinsman,  or  constitu 
ent,  or  old  acquaintance  to  be  helped  or  hindered  by  the 
amendment.  T  count  many  of  the  officers  of  the  Adjutant- 
General's  department  my  friends,  and  I  am  proud  to  do  so,  but 
I  was  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
public  service  in  procuring  advanced  rank  for  that  depart 
ment  ; "  and  then  he  added  somewhat  haughtily,  "  I  desire  to 
say  nothing  more  on  the  subject." 

"  The  gentleman  from  New  Jersey  is  as  graciously  heard  as 
almost  any  man  on  this  floor ;  we  always  listen  to  him  with 
delight,  but  it  is  rather  going  too  strong  for  him  to  take  up  one 
entire  morning  hour."  This  when  his  Sunday  rest  had  sent 
him  fresh  and  strong  to  Monday's  work. 

The  gentleman  from  New  Jersey  wanted  only  a  few  minutes, 
but  did  not  perceive  the  flight  of  time  till  the  morning  hour 
was  gone,  and  with  it  all  opportunity  for  the  weekly  work ;  and 
with  that  went  all  the  gracious  patience  and  delighted  listening 
of  the  gentleman  from  Maine  ;  and  the  gentleman  from  New 
Jersey  "has  gone  on  and  talked  during  the  whole  morning 
hour,  and  prevented  us  from  attending  to  any  morning  business 
at  all.  Now  after  he  has  abused  and  outraged  the  patience  of 
the  House  to  this  extent,  I  want  to  guard  against  any  similar 
outrage  next  Monday.  .  .  . 

"  Propositions  like  the  one  now  pending  interjected  in  tins 
way  will,  of  course,  only  give  rise  to  this  sloshy-washy  debate." 

To  be  sure,  General  Schenck  was  almost  as  bad.  When 
the  gentleman  from  New  Jersey  moved  to  amend,  Mr.  Schenck 
declared  the  amendment  not  in  order.  The  gentleman  from 
New  Jersey  appealed  to  Mr.  Schenck  to  wait  until  he  found  out 
his  object.  "  Oh  !  I  know  your  object,"  replied  the  bluff  old 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  155 

general.     "  It    is  to  make  that  same  old  speech  that   we  have 
heard  on  every  occasion." 

Yet  it  was  only  to  Mr.  Blaine  that  the  much-belabored  gen 
tleman  turned  for  relief  from  the  "  malicious  assaults  which  the 
honorable  gentleman  has  made  it  his  business  to  make  upon  me 
every  time  I  have  got  up  to  say  anything  in  this  House.  I  con 
fine  myself  strictly  to  the  subject  under  debate.  [A  remark 
which  the  House  garnished  with  irreverent  "  laughter."]  1 
make  no  general  speeches,  but  I  think  I  ought  to  be  treated 
with  common  respect,  at  least,  by  the  gentleman  from  Maine. 
God  made  us  so  that  our  natures  are  different  and  we  arrive 
at  different  conclusions,  and  I  think  it  is  most  contemptible 
and  indiscreet  work  on  the  part  of  the  gentleman,  when  I 
undertake  to  discuss  any  subject,  to  attempt  to  browbeat  and 
insult  me.  I  have  no  ill-feeling  towards  the  gentleman  at  all. 
I  hold  him  in  high  respect.  I  believe  him  to  be  a  gentleman, 
and  shall  always  treat  him  with  courtesy.  All  I  ask  of  him 
is,  that  he  shall  treat  me  in  the  same  way.  When  he  speaks 
on  any  question  he  never  finds  me  slurring  him  for  what  he 
says.  I  speak  the  honest  dictates  of  an  honest  heart." 

The  offender  apologized  promptly :  "  The  gentleman  says 
whenever  he  has  spoken,  I  have  taken  occasion  to  say  something 
ridiculous  or  unbecoming.  Yet  he  cites  only  two  occasions  on 
which  T  have  offered  any  remarks  about  him.  If  he  will  re 
member  how  frequently  he  has  addressed  the  House,  and  can 
<>nlv  remember  those  two  occasions,  he  must  see  that  there  must 
have  been  a  good  many  times  when  I  have  not  referred  to  him 
at  all.  Two  or  three  weeks  ago  on  a  Monday  morning,  by 
means  of  a  mere  accident  in  parliamentary  rule  which  happens 
perhaps  once  in  twenty-five  years,  the  gentleman  had  an  op 
portunity  to  exhaust  the  whole  morning  hour  in  a  debate  in 
which  neither  himself  nor  any  other  person  was  interested,  and 
I  appealed  to  the  gentleman  personally  to  yield  the  floor,  inas 
much  as  there  were  many  gentlemen  on  this  side  of  the  House 
who  had  resolutions  to  offer  —  not  of  a  political  character,  but 
of  a  business  nature,  which  could  only  be  introduced  under  the 
call  of  States  on  alternate  Mondays.  The  gentleman  agreed 
that  he  would  not  take  more  than  twenty  minutes,  but  then  he 
continued  for  the  entire  hour,  and  in  the  heat  of  the  moment 


156  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

I  made  some  remarks  that  were  hasty  and  unbecoming.  If  I 
have  thereby  wounded  the  gentleman  in  any  way,  I  am  very 
sorry  for  it,  and  I  will  say  in  addition  that  I  have  none  but  the 
kindest  feelings  for  him  personally.  He  has  always  treated  me 
with  respect,  and  I  desire  to  treat  him  in  the  same  way." 

The  gentleman  from  New  Jersey  was  pleased  to  accept  the 
apology  as  u  sufficient/' 

This  was  not  the  old  formal,  "  dignified  "  oratorical  style  of 
debate.  It  was  animated  conversation.  But  it  was  very  ef 
fective  in  the  hands,  on  the  lips,  of  a  man  whose  object  was 
to  make  his  points  and  secure  his  ends,  whose  sympathies 
were  both  national  and  individual,  who  assimilated  knowledge 
as  the  blood  assimilates  air,  whose  memory  was  a  necessity  of 
his  being,  and  therefore  assured  the  accuracy  of  his  knowledge 
and  its  production  on  call,  whose  mental  processes  were  so 
rapid  as  to  elude  observation,  outstrip  communication,  and 
seem  intuitional. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  157 


IX. 

THE    CONKLING-FRY    INCIDENT. 

^HHE  House  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  1866,  resumed  the 
consideration  of  the  bill  entitled  "  An  Act  to  reorganize 
and  establish  the  Army  of  the  United  States."  The  twentieth 
section  was  then  read  -  -  That  the  Provost  Marshal's  bureau 
hereafter  consist  of  a  provost  marshal-general,  with  the  rank, 
pay,  and  emoluments  of  a  brigadier-general ;  and  one  assistant 
provost  marshal-general,  with  the  rank,  pay,  and  emoluments  of 
a  colonel  of  cavalry ;  and  all  matters  relating  to  the  recruitment 
of  the  army  and  the  arrest  of  deserters  shall  be  placed  under 
the  direction  and  control  of  this  bureau,  under  such  regulations 
as  the  Secretary  of  War  may  prescribe. 

Mr.  Conkling  at  once  moved  to  strike  out  this  section,  and 
gave  as  his  first  reason,  "  that  it  creates  an  unnecessary  office 
for  an  undeserving  public  servant." 

Discussing  public  reasons  against  it,  he  continued  his  personal 
reasons.  "  I  have  never  heard  any  very  serious  attempt  to 
justify  by  argument  the  permanent  continuance  of  an  officer 
whose  administration  during  the  war  has  had  in  it  so  little  to 
commend  and  so  much  to  condemn.  But  I  have  heard  an 
effort  made  to  prove  the  propriety  of  this  section  by  charging 
it  to  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  army,  and  by  saying  that 
he  had  found  a  necessity  for  continuing  in  time  of  peace  the 
bureau  of  the  Provost  Marshal-General.  In  order  that  the 
House  may  see  how  true  this  allegation  is,  I  send  to  the  Clerk's 
desk  and  ask  to  have  read  copies  of  letters  which  have  been 
furnished  to  me,  the  first  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Lieu  tenant- 
General  by  a  Senator  of  the  United  States." 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 


158  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE  CHAMBER, 

WASHINGTON,  March  17,  1866. 

GENERAL:  The  House  bill  for  the  organization  of  the  army  contains 
a  provision  creating  a  permanent  provost  marshal's  bureau,  with  a  brig 
adier-general  at  its  head ;  also  placing  the  recruiting  service  in  its  charge. 
It  has  been  unofficially  reported  to  me  that  this  was  done  in  consequence 
of  a  recommendation  of  yours  to  that  effect. 

I  should  be  pleased  to  know  if  such  is  the  case,  as  I  had  labored  under 
the  impression,  from  conversation  with  officers  of  the  army,  that  such  a 
step  was  not  a  judicious  one,  and  tended  only  to  increase  the  number  of 
bureaus  and  officers  of  the  army,  with  an  increase  of  expenditure  without 
any  corresponding  efficiency  or  benefit. 

If  my  impressions  are  erroneous  I  would  like  to  have  them  corrected. 
I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  W.  NESMITH. 

The  answer  of  the  Lieutenant- General  was  then  read,  which 
stated  that — - 

Some  months  since,  a  paper  was  referred  to  me  showing  the  great 
number  of  desertions  from  the  army,  and  asking  for  suggestions  to  put 
a  stop  to  them.  To  that  paper  I  suggested  a  number  of  changes  in  orders 
governing  the  recruiting  service,  and  I  recommended  that  the  whole 
matter  be  put  in  charge  of  the  Provost  Marshal-General,  who  could  devote 
more  attention  to  it  than  the  Adjutant-General,  with  all  his  other  duties, 
could.  I  am  opposed,  however,  to  multiplying  bureaus,  and  I  think  there 
is  no  necessity  for  a  provost  marshal-general.  In  fact,  if  we  had  to 
organize  the  army  anew,  I  would  not  have  as  many  bureaus  as  we  now 
have.  In  my  opinion,  the  country  would  be  just  as  well,  and  much  more 
economically,  served  if  the  coast  surveying  duties  were  added  to  the 
engineer  bureau,  and  the  quartermaster,  subsistence,  and  pay  depart 
ments  were  merged  into  one.  I  would  not  recommend  a  change  now, 
however,  but  would  not  make  any  increase  of  bureaus. 
Very  truly  yours, 

U.  S.  GRANT, 

Lieutenant-  General. 

After  further  giving  the  public  reasons,  Mr.  Conkling  re 
turned  to  the  personal  reasons : 

"  There  is  one  thing  —  I  know  of  but  one  —  for  this  bureau 
to  do  before  leaving  the  public  presence,  and  that  is  to  close  its 
accounts,  so  as  to  allow  the  War  Department  and  the  country 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  159 

to  know  precisely  what  lias  become  of  the  twenty-five  million 
and  odd  dollars  which,  under  the  act  of  March  13,  1862,  went 
to  its  credit. 

44  My  constituents  remember,  and  other  constituencies  re- 
mftmber,  wrongs  done  them  too  great  for  forgetfulness,  and 
almost  for  belief,  by  the  creatures  of  this  bureau,  and  by  its  head. 

"  There  came,  at  the  same  time,  other  creatures  of  the  head 
of  the  bureau  at  Washington.  The  western  division  swarmed 
with  these  chosen  favorites. 

44  They  turned  the  business  of  recruiting  and  drafting  into  a 
paradise  of  coxcombs  and  thieves. 

44  There  never  has  been,  in  human  history,  a  greater  mockery 
and  a  greater  burlesque  than  the  conduct  of  this  bureau." 

It  may  here  be  mentioned  that  the  officer  who  was  so  obnox 
ious  to  Mr.  Conkling  had  been  assigned  to  Western  New 
York  by  General  Fry,  at  the  request  of  William  H.  Seward, 
of  New  York,  Secretary  of  State ;  that  Mr.  Spaulding,  of  Ohio, 
who  also  opposed  the  -continuance  of  this  military  bureau  as 
necessary  only  in  war  and  unnecessary  in  peace,  thought  it  his 
duty  to  protest  in  the  House  that  a  great  deal  of  the  odium 
which  had  been  attached  4*  to  the  administration  of  the  duties 
of  that  office  pertained  rather  to  the  nature  of  the  office  than 
to  the  individual  who  discharged  the  duties  of  the  office.  I 
question  whether  any  man,  whether  he  came  from  the  East  or 
the  West,  from  the  North  or  the  South,  could  have  gone  into 
the  administration  of  the  Provost  Marshal-General's  depart 
ment  and  discharged  its  duties  with  any  more  satisfaction  to 
the  general  public  than  General  James  B.  Fry,"  —  and  added, 
with  amiable  desire  to  allay  strife,  "  I  think,  perhaps,  the  gen 
tleman  from  New  York  has  sufficient  cause  for  what  he  has 
said ;  but  such  a  case  as  he  has  mentioned  has  not  been  brought 
home  to  me,  in  all  my  official  intercourse  with  the  Provost 
Marshal-General  during  the  last  three  years,  and  it  has  been 
constant  and  frequent.  I  have  been  treated  by  him  with  a 
degree  of  kindness  and  courtesy  which  requires  from  me  an 
expression  of  thanks  rather  than  of  censure.  I  am  happy, 
therefore,  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  say  that  I  am  under  obli 
gations  to  this  man  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  acquit  myself 
of  the  duty  of  doing  so  "  : 


1GO  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    O.     KLAINE. 

That  General  Schenck,  of  Ohio,  protested  against  the  intro 
duction  of  General  Fry's  character,  as  having  no  relation  to  the 
question,  declaring  that  "  It  is  defended  by  the  history  of  the 
war.  It  is  defended  by  his  services  through  good  report  and 
evil  report.  According  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  that  officer 
lias  so  discharged  his  duty  that  those  in  his  own  immediate 
department,  who  know  best  how  that  duty  has  been  discharged, 
have  no  such  epithets  to  bestow  upon  him  as  that  he  is  an  un 
deserving  officer  ;  the  Military  Committee,  in  all  their  labor  of 
consideration,  discussion,  inquiry,  and  other  work  tending  to 
the  framing  of  a  proper  bill  for  the  establishment  of  an  army 
system,  have  endeavored  to  act  without  reference  to  persons, 
having  in  view  only  the  best  schemes  for  the  attainment  of 
objects  which  might  result  in  the  public  good  " : 

That  Mr.  Farquhar,  who  had  served  under  General  Fry,  rose 
in  the  House  to  declare :  "  I  never  did  hear  any  charge  made 
against  the  efficiency,  against  the  promptness,  against  the 
success  of  the  officer  in  charge  of  that  department,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  —  and  I  say  it  with  pleasure,  —  the  duties  of  that  office 
were  performed  with  evidence  of  the  highest  ability  and  the 
greatest  satisfaction.  During  the  time  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
serving  under  that  officer,  a  large  number  of  recruits  were 
raised,  both  to  iill  up  old  regiments  and  to  create  new  regi 
ments,  with  a  success  which  did  not  attend  the  service  when 
another  officer  was  in  charge  of  that  department.  I  take 
pleasure,  without  entering  into  the  controversy,  if  I  may  so 
call  it,  in  regard  to  the  duties  and  services  of  that  high  officer, 
to  say  to-day  that  I  bear  testimony  to  the  highest  ability  of  that 
officer  in  the  full  discharge  of  these  duties  "  : 

That  General  Fry  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point  from  Illi 
nois,  and  had  been  in  the  army  from  the  age  of  twenty;  that 
when  the  war  broke  out,  his  father,  though  a  Democrat  and 
over  sixty  years  of  age,  raised  a  regiment,  went  into  the  field, 
and  fought  in  some  of  the  severest  battles  of  the  war;  that 
General  Fry  was  attested  by  his  own  Congressmen  to  have  been 
one  of  the  most  gallant  men  we  ever  had  in  the  army,  whose 
character  had  been  without  reproach,  whose  integrity  had  never 
been  impeached  until  that  moment ;  that  after  fighting  the  bat 
tles  of  the  country  with  glory  and  with  joy,  the  bloodless 


mOGRAPIIY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  101 

battles  of  the   provost  marshalship  with  deserters  and  drafts 
and  bounty-jumpers,  were  so  distasteful  to  him  that  he  once  fell 
from  his  high  estate  of  unquestioning  obedience  into  complain 
ing  to  President  Lincoln  of  the  obloquy  attaching  to  the  mere 
administration  of  the  law  of   his   office ;  but   the  great-souled 
President,  who  had  himself  drank  to  the  full  the  cup  of  obloqu}-, 
instead  of  rebuking,  comforted  him  with  the  assurance,  "  That  is 
necessarily  the  case  for  the  present,  but  it  will  be  all  right  in  the 
end."     Suffer  it  to  be  so  now  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all 
righteousness.     Such  a  soldier,  so  attacked  on  a  field  where  he 
could  make  no  defence,  Mr.  Blame  was  not  likely  to  pass  by  on 
the  other  side.     When  Mr.  Conkling  began  to  speak,  Mr.  Blaine 
was  talking  to  a  friend  in  the  diplomatic  gallery  of  the  House ; 
but  his  quick  ear  caught  the  tenor  of  the  remarks,  and  hurry 
ing  to  his  seat  he  took  the  floor  the  instant  Mr.  Conkling  re 
leased  it.     He  was  on  the  Military  Committee  which  had  the 
bill  in  charge,  and  he  had  a  special  right  to  speak.     He  began 
calmly   enough,    replying    to    Mr.    Conkling's    implication    of 
falsehood  in  attributing  the  report  to  the  Lieutenant-General : 
"  I   wish  to  state  why  the  committee  reported  this  section  of 
the  bill  in  regard  to  which   the   gentleman    from    New   York 
shows  so  much  feeling.     I  believe  that  among  the  earliest  acts 
of  the  gentleman  from  New  York  at  this  session  of  Congress 
was  the  introduction  of  a  resolution  which  was  adopted  by  this 
House,  directing  the  War  Department  to  report  upon  the  ex 
pediency  of   abolishing   the  office  of  provost   marshal-general. 
In  the  routine  of  business  the  answer  of  the  Secretary  of  Wai- 
came  to  the  Military  Committee,  and  among  the  papers  was  a 
letter  from  Lieutenant-General  Grant      The   gentleman   from 
New  York  has  read  a  letter  from  the  Lieutenant-General,  which 
practically  recalls  the  recommendations  of  the  letter  on  which 
the  committee  acted ;  but  I  desire  the  Clerk  to  read  the  letter 
of  Lieutenant-General  Grant,  which  was  the  authorization,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  committee,  for  inserting  the  section."     The 
Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

WASHINGTON,  December  14,  1865. 

SIR:  Tn  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  13th  instant,  in  reference  to  deser 
tions,  1  would  make  the  following  remarks :    I  do  not  think  the  present 


162  HTOGRAPIir    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

method  of  recruiting,  as  curried  out,  sufficient  to  fill  up  the  regular  array 
to  the  force  required,  or  keep  it  full  when  once  filled. 

The  duty  is  an  important  one,  and  demands,  I  think,  the  exclusive  atten 
tion  of  an  officer  of  the  War  Department,  aided  by  a  well -organized  system 
extending  over  the  country.  I  think  the  officer  best  fitted  for  that  position, 
by  his  experience  during  the  present  war,  is  General  Fry,  and  would  rec 
ommend  that  the  whole  subject  of  recruiting  be  put  in  his  hands  and  all  offi 
cers  on  recruiting  duty  be  directed  to  report  to  him.  He  should  also  have 
charge  of  the  apprehension  of  deserters,  should  be  authorized  to  offer  such 
rewards  as  will  secure  their  apprehension.  When  caught  they  should  be 
tried,  and  the  sentence  rigidly  carried  into  effect;  this  would  soon  stop  the 
present  enormous  amount  of  desertion. 

I  would  recommend  that  the  duties  heretofore  performed  by  provost 
marshals  be  hereafter  performed  by  officers  detailed  for  recruiting  duty. 

Very  respectfully, 

U.  S.  GRANT, 

Lieutenant-  General. 

Hon.  E.  M.  ST ANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

Mr.  BLAIXE.  —  The  House  will  observe  that  the  Committee 
on  Military  Affairs  acted  precisely  in  accordance  with  the  rec 
ommendations  of  the  Lieutenant-General  as  contained  in  the 
letter  which  has  just  been  read.  When  the  gentleman  from 
New  York  quotes  the  letter  of  the  Lieutenant-General  in  con 
demnation  of  the  report  made  by  the  Committee  on  Military 
Affairs,  I  merely  wish  the  privilege  of  showing  that  that  report 
was  made  in  express  conformity,  verbatim  et  literatim,  with  the 
recommendations  of  that  officer's  letter,  which  came  officially 
before  the  committee,  and  which  was  not  smuggled  in  in  the 
manner  in  Avhich  the  letter  read  by  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  comes  before  us.  That  is  not  an  official  letter  ;  it  is  an 
unofficial  note.  The  letter  just  read  by  the  Clerk  is  an  official 
note,  communicated  to  this  House  by  the  Secretary  of  War  on 
a  regular  call,  and  referred  by  the  House  to  the  Committee  on 
Military  Affairs. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  care  anything  more  than  the  Committee  on  Military 
Affairs  about  the  great  recruiting  frauds  in  New  York,  or  the 
quarrels  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York  with  General  Fry,  in 
which  quarrels  it  is  generally  understood  the  gentleman  came 
out  second  best  at  the  War  Department.  I  do  not  think  that 
such  questions  ought  to  be  obtruded  here. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     RLAINK.  163 

Though  the  gentleman  from  New  York  has  had  some  differ 
ence  with  General  Fry,  yet  I  take  pleasure  in  saying  that,  as  I 
believe,  there  is  not  in  the  American  Army  a  more  honorable 
and  high-toned  officer  than  General  Fry.  That  officer,  I  doubt 
not,  is  ready  to  meet  the  gentleman  from  New  York  or  any 
body  else  in  the  proper  forum.  I  must  say  that  I  do  not  think 
it  is  any  very  creditable  proceeding  for  the  gentleman  from 
New  York  here  in  this  place  to  traduce  General  Fry  as  a  mili 
tary  officer  when  he  has  no  opportunity  to  be  heard.  I  do  not 
consider  such  a  proceeding  the  highest  specimen  of  chivalry 
that  could  be  exhibited. 

The  gentleman  from  New  York  has  had  his  issues  with  Gen 
eral  Fry  at  the  War  Department.  They  have  been  adjudicated 
upon  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  I  leave  it  for  the  gentleman 
to  say  whether  he  came  out  first  best.  I  do  not  know  the  par 
ticulars  ;  the  gentleman  can  inform  the  House.  All  I  have  to 
say  is  —  and  in  this  I  believe  I  speak  the  sentiment  of  a  majority 
of  the  members  of  this  House  —  that  James  B.  Fry  is  a  most 
efficient  officer,  whose  character  is  without  spot  or  blemish;  a 
gentleman  who  stands  second  to  no  other  officer  in  the  Ameri 
can  army ;  and  he  is  ready  to  meet  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  and  all  other  accusers  anywhere  and  everywhere.  And, 
sir,  when  I  hear  the  gentleman  from  New  York  rehearse  in 
this  House,  as  an  impeachment  of  General  Fry,  all  the  details 
of  the  recruiting  frauds  in  New  York,  which  General  Fry  used 
his  best  energies  to  repress  with  iron  hand,  a  sense  of  indigna 
tion  carries  me  beyond  my  personal  strength  and  impels  me  to 
denounce  such  a  course  of  proceeding. 

To  this  Mr.  Conkling  replied  in  words  which,  as  reported  in 
the  "  Congressional  Globe,"  were  : 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  if  General  Fry  is  reduced  to  depending  for 
vindication  upon  the  gentleman  from  Maine,  he  is  to  be  com 
miserated  certainly.  If  I  have  fallen  to  the  necessity  of  taking 
lessons  from  that  gentleman  in  the  rules  of  propriety,  or  of  right 
or  wrong,  God  help  me.  I  say  to  him  further  that  1  mean  to 
take  no  advantage  such  as  he  attributes  of  the  privileges  of  this 
place  or  of  the  absence  of  General  Fry.  On  the  contrary,  I  am 
ready  to  avow  what  I  have  here  declared  anywhere.  I  have 


inoGitAPirr  OF  .TAME*  G.   ELAINE. 


stated  facts  for  which  I  am  willing  to  be  held  responsible  at  all 
times  and  places." 

What  the  newspapers  reported  Mr.  Conkling  to  have  said 
was,  "  I  am  entirely  responsible,  not  only  here,  but  elsewhere, 
for  what  I  have  said."  "  To  the  particular  individual  to  whom  it 
may  give  offence  I  will  answer  not  here,  but  elsewhere  —  any 
where  it  may  be  agreeable  to  have  the  answer." 

44  1  say,  further,  that  the  statement  made  by  the  gentleman 
from  Maine  with  regard  to  myself  personally,  and  my  quarrels 
with  General  Fry  and  their  results,  is  false." 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  What  does  the  gentleman  mean  to  say  was 
false  ? 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  I  mean  to  say  that  the  statement  made  by 
the  gentleman  from  Maine  is  false. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  What  statement  ? 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  Does  not  the  gentleman  understand  what 
I  mean  ? 

Declining  to  answer  Mr.  Blame's  question  directly,  Mr. 
Conkling  at  length  came  around  in  his  own  way  to  the  point 
of  his  objection,  which  was  the  statement  that  he  had  "  had 
personal  quarrels"  with  General  Fry  and  had  been  worsted 
in  them,  and  that  too  before  the  Secretary  of  War  and  by  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

Mr.  Blaine  replied  that  what  he  had  understood  was  "  from 
very  high  authority,"  but  "  I  left  it  to  him  to  say  whether  it 
was  so,  but  added  I  could  not  consent  to  go  into  this  cheap  sort 
of  stuff  about  answering  'here  and  elsewhere,'  and  about  'per 
sonal  responsibility,'  and  all  that  kind  of  thing. 

"  Sir,  I  do  not  know  how  to  characterize  it.  When  we  had 
gentlemen  here  from  the  eleven  seceded  States,  they  used  to 
talk  about  answering  '  here  and  elsewhere  ;  '  and  it  was  under 
stood  that  they  meant  a  duel.  1  suppose  the  gentleman  from 
New  York  means  nothing  of  that  kind  ;  I  do  not  know  whether 
he  does  or  not  ;  but  that  is  the  only  meaning  that  can  be  at 
tached  to  the  phrase.  When  a  man  says  that  he  is  ready  to 
answer  k  here  or  elsewhere  '  he  means  that  he  is  willing  to 
receive  a  note  outside  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  Well,  now, 
that  is  veiy  cheap,  and  certainly  beneath  my  notice.  I  do  not 
believe  the  gentleman  from  New  York  wants  to  fight  a  duel; 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     JiLAINE.  165 

and  I  am  sure  he  needs  no  assurance  from  me  that  I  do  not 
intend  it.  When  I  have  to  resort  to  the  use  of  the  epithet  of 
4  false  '  upon  this  floor,  and  this  cheap  swagger  about  being 
responsible  '  here  or  elsewhere,'  I  shall  have  very  little  faith  in 
the  cause  which  I  stand  up  to  maintain." 

On  the  second  day  of  the  debate  Mr.  Blaine  read  the  Globe 
report,  and  threw  down  the  gauntlet  himself,  informing  the  House 
that  in  personal  controversies  between,  gentlemen  it  is  a  point  of 
honor  that  as  the  reporter  puts  what  takes  place  it  shall  be  printed, 
and  that  if  alterations  are  made  they  shall  be  made  by  mutual 
understanding  and  knowledge.  On  reading  the  report  at  the 
Globe  office  he  found  essential  alterations,  and  was  told  the 
alterations  were  made  by  the  member  from  New  York,  and  are 
in  his  handwriting.  "  I  now  hold  the  report  of  his  remarks  in 
my  hand,  and  there  is  scarcely  a  page  but  what  has  been 
altered.  But  I  merely  want  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House 
to  one  point  where  the  gentleman  sought  by  an  alteration  to 
take  away  the  entire  point  of  my  reply  to  him.  I  characterized 
some  of  his  bravado  as  cheap  swagger  when  he  talked  about 
meeting  me  '  here  or  elsewhere.'  The  gentleman  eliminates 
that  important  part  of  his  speech,  and  inserts  these  words :  '  I 
have  stated  facts  for  which  T  am  willing  to  be  held  responsible 
at  all  times  and  places.'  Now  the  phrase  4  here  and  elsewhere  ' 
is  a  phrase  well  known  in  Congress  —  it  is  the  phrase  of  bully- 
ism.  It  was  a  phrase  upon  which  I  commented,  and  which  1 
denounced,  and  justly  denounced,  and  which  the  gentleman 
had  no  right  to  alter  at  the  Globe  office.  T  want  members  to 
understand  the  precise  point  of  my  complaint.  Though  T  am 
reported,  and  correctly  reported,  as  referring  to  the  phraseology 
'  here  and  elsewhere,'  and  commenting  upon  the  bravado  of 
his  manner,  yet  a  person  reading  the  debate  might  be  led  to 
ask  what  T  was  replying  to  when  T  quoted  a  phrase  of  that 
kind,  the  very  mild  phrase  '  at  all  times  and  places  '  having 
been  cunningly  substituted.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  never  expected 
to  make  a  personal  explanation  in  this  House  in  my  life.  As 
to  courage,  I  am  like  the  Methodist  deacon  about  his  piety,  I 
have  none  to  speak  of." 

Mr.  Conkling  asked  and  was  permitted  to  look  at  the  sheets, 
protested  that  he  had  made  no  improper  alterations,  that  he 


1GG  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    RLAINE. 

was  "  as  incapable  as  the  gentleman  from  Maine  pretends  to 
be  of  doing  anything  in  violation  of  the  rights  or  the  position 
of  any  other  member,"  reviewed  the  debate  in  question,  de 
fended  his  course  and  rights  therein,  declared  that  he  never  saw 
the  notes  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine,  did  not  know  they  con 
tained  any  statement  about  "  here  or  elsewhere,"  did  not  think 
there  was  the  slightest  significance  in  those  words  more  than  in 
any  other  for  this  purpose,  characterized  Mr.  Elaine's  remarks 
as  "  frivolously  impertinent  and  also  incorrect,"  and  that  the  im 
putation  of  duelism  was  "  a  cheap  way  of  clawing  off,"  and,  after 
expressing  with  great  fervor  his  indifference  to,  not  to  say  con 
tempt  for,  the  opinion  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine,  proceeded 
to  read  the  original  phrases  and  the  alterations,  and  "  throw  back 
to  the  gentleman  any  imputation  which  he  seeks  to  cast  upon 
me,"  -  which  reading  showed  him  to  have  done  exactly  what 
Mr.  Elaine  said  that  he  had  done  ! 

So  the  second  day  came  and  went,  and  on  the  morning  of  the 
third  Mr.  Elaine  reappeared  with  a  fresh  fusillade,  comprising 
the  proof  of  his  statement,  —  which  was  much  more  in  his  way 
than  shooting  Mr.  Conkling,  or  being  shot  by  him,  with  an 
entirely  illogical  and  therefore  impertinent  bullet. 

"  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  from  Provost  Marshal-General 
Fry,  which  I  ask  to  have  read  at  the  Clerk's  desk,  for  the  double 
purpose  of  vindicating  myself  from  the  charge  of  having  stated 
in  debate  last  week  what  was  false,  and  also  for  the  purpose, 
which  I  am  sure  will  commend  itself  to  the  House,  of  allowing 
fair  play  to  an  honorable  man  in  the  same  forurn  in  which  he 
has  been  assailed." 

The  SPEAKER.  —  It  requires  unanimous  consent  to  have  it 
read.  Is  there  objection  ? 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  I  infer  that  this  has  some  reference  to 
me.  I  shall  make  no  objection,  provided  I  may  have  an 
opportunity  to  reply  to  whatever  the  letter  may  call  for  here 
after. 

Mr.  ELAINE. —  I  wish  further  to  say  that  if,  on  investigation,  I 
had  found  1  was  in  error  in  the  statement  I  had  made  touching 
the  member  from  the  Utica  district  of  New  York  [Mr.  Conk- 
ling]  and  Provost  Marshal-General  Fry,  I  would,  mortifying  as 
it  would  have  been,  have  apologized  to  the  House.  Whether 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  167 

I  was  in  error  or  not,  I  leave  to  those  who  hear  the  letter  of  the 
Provost  Marshal-General. 

A  letter  from  General  Fry  was  then  read  in  which  he  said  : 
u  Your  assertions  touching  Mr.  Conkling's  difficulties  with  this 
bureau  are  amply  and  completely  justified  by  the  facts  which 
this  letter  will  disclose.  .  .  . 

"  My  official  intercourse  with  Representatives  in  Congress  dur 
ing  the  past  three  years  has  been  constant  and  in  many  cases 
intimate,  and,  with  the  solitary  exception  of  Mr.  Conkling,  it 
has  been  marked,  so  far  as  I  remember,  by  mutual  honor  and 
fair  dealing."  After  giving  in  detail  the  three  main  issues  be 
tween  himself  and  Mr.  Colliding,  (which  were,  first,  that  General 
Fry  removed  the  first  Provost  Marshal  of  Mr.  Conkling's  dis 
trict,  that  Mr.  Conkling  complained  of  this  action  both  to  the 
President  and  to  the  War  Department,  but  failed  to  procure 
any  modification  of  General  Fry's  course.  Second,  that  General 
Fry  had  removed  the  second  Provost  Marshal  of  the  district, 
and  that  Mr.  Conkling  had  failed  to  restore  him.  Third,  that 
Mr.  Conkling  had  attempted  to  secure  counsel  from  the  gov 
ernment  to  defend  the  second  Provost  Marshal  in  his  litiga 
tions  and  had  failed)  General  Fry  added,  "  Notwithstanding 
Mr.  Conkling's  denial  in  the  House,  his  own  letters  as  well  as 
the  foregoing  statements  show  that  there  were  differences,  and 
that  he  was  'worsted.'  On  the  25th  of  October,  1865,  he 
wrote  the  Secretary  of  War,  saying  :  'It  is  now  many 
months  since  I  have  been  able  to  obtain  any  response  from  the 
department  touching  the  interests  of  the  government  in  this 
district.  Still  I  venture  one  more  trial,  etc.'  Every  request, 
complaint,  or  accusation  of  any  importance  made  by  Mr. 
Conkling  affecting  General  Fry's  bureau  had  been  laid  before 
the  Secretary  of  War,  and  passed  upon  by  him.  The  result  in 
nearly  every  instance  had  been  unfavorable  to  Mr.  Conkling, 
and  assuming  that  these  were  the  differences  or  quarrels 
which  were  referred  to  in  the  debate  as  those  in  which  Mr. 
Conkling  came  out  second  best,  he  asserted  what  was  not  true 
when  he  denied  them." 

This  was  sufficiently  conclusive  of  the  existence  of  the 
quarrels  referred  to ;  but  General  Fry,  having  been  so  very 
definitely  and  sorely  attacked,  did  not  stay  his  hand.  To  the 


168  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    JJLAINE. 

insinuation  that  he  u  should  allow  the  War  Department  and  the 
country  to  know  precisely  what  has  become  of  the  twenty-five 
million  and  odd  dollars  which,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1863, 
went  to  its  credit,"  General  Fry  replied  triumphantly,  k4  My 
official  report,  now  partly  in  the  hands  of  the  public  printer, 
shows  in  detail  the  disposition  of  every  dollar  of  this  money, 
and  shows,  moreover,  a  completeness  and  accuracy  in  accounts 
that  is  not  surpassed,  if  it  is  equalled,  by  any  bureau  under  the 
government;  and  I  hold  a  certificate  from  the  Second  Comp 
troller  of  the  Treasury  that  all  my  accounts  relating  to  this 
fund  have  been  examined  and  found  correct."  And  in  turn  he 
added  a  suggestion  whether  Mr.  Conkling's  action  in  exercis 
ing  the  functions  of  judge  advocate,  and  receiving  pay  therefor 
from  the  United  States  to  the  amount  of  $3,000  while  receiving 
his  compensation  as  a  member  of  Congress,  was  a  violation  of 
the  letter  or  spirit,  or  both,  of  article  one,  section  two,  of  the 
Constitution : 

"  He  was  as  zealous  in  preventing  prosecutions  at  Utica  as  he 
was  in  making  them  at  Elmira,  and  the  main  ground  of  difficulty 
between  Mr.  Conkling  and  myself  has  been  that  I  wanted  ex 
posure  at  both  places,  while  he  wanted  concealment  at  one.  I 
have  been  at  all  times  amenable  to  the  severest  form  of  law,  — 
the  military  code,  —  liable  at  any  moment  to  summary  arrest, 
court-martial,  and  extreme  punishment  in  case  of  any  derelic 
tion  of  official  duty.  No  one  knew  or  knows  this  fact  better 
than  Mr.  Conkling,  and  if,  while  acting  as  judge  advocate,  he 
came  into  the  possession  of  any  fact  impugning  or  impeaching 
my  integrity  as  a  public  officer,  he  was  guilty  of  grave  public 
wrong  and  unfaithfulness  if  he  did  not  instantly  file  formal 
charges  against  me  with  the  Secretary  of  War.  He  can,  there 
fore,  only  escape  the  charge  of  deliberate  and  malignant  false 
hood  as  a  member  of  Congress  by  confessing  an  unpardonable 
breach  of  duty  as  judge  advocate.  He  held  both  offices  and 
took  pay  for  both  at  the  same  time  ;  he  has  certainly  been  false 
to  honor  in  one,  and  perhaps,  as  the  sequel  may  show,  in  both. 

"  Copies  of  official  documents  substantiating  statements  herein 
made  are  subjoined." 

Mr.  Elaine  did  not  ask  that  these  documents  should  be  read 
but  that  they  and  the  letter  should  be  printed,  Mr.  Ross,  of 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  169 

Illinois,  moved  that  ten  thousand  extra  copies  be  printed.  Mr. 
Conkling  desired  them  to  be  read,  rather  childishly  declaring 
that  he  enjoyed  it  very  much,  and  proceeded  to  justify  in  de 
tail  his  acceptance  of  the  $3,000  fee  till  Mr.  Ross  interrupted 
him  again,  "  If  it  will  not  discompose  the  gentleman  too  much, 
I  would  ask  him  to  state  whether  that  was  during  the  time  he 
was  drawing  pay  as  a  member  of  Congress." 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  I  do  not  quite  understand  the  pertinence 
of  the  question  of  the  gentleman  from  Illinois.  But  I  will 
endeavor  to  enlighten  him.  He  probably  knows,  for  I  presume 
that  information  has  extended  to  him,  that  the  term  of  members 
of  Congress  commences  on  the  fourth  of  March.  And  as  the 
retainer  which  I  have  spoken  of  was  in  April,  which,  I  will  in 
form  the  gentleman,  is  a  month  that  comes  after  March  in  the 
calendar,  he  will  very  likely  be  able,  by  the  rule  of  three,  or  by 
some  other  rule  with  which  he  is  familiar,  to  cipher  out  whether 
I  was  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  time  or  not. 

I  should  be  sorry  to  suppose  that  the  member  from  Illinois, 
or  any  other  member  of  this  House,  —  indeed,  I  should  be  sorry 
as  an  American  to  suppose  that  the  standard  of  intelligence 
anywhere  in  the  country  is  so  low  that  any  human  being,  un 
less  it  be  that  distinguished  mathematician  and  warrior,  Provost 
Marshal-General  Fry,  believes  there  is  the  slightest  impropriety 
in  a  man  who  is  a  member  of  Congress  practising  his  profession 
as  counsel  in  courts,  or  accepting  from  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  or  from  any  other  client,  a  retainer  for  such  pro 
fessional  services. 

But  after  he  was  again  in  the  full  tide  of  explanation,  Mr. 
Ross  again  interposed,  "  Will  the  gentleman  from  New  York 
yield  to  me  a  moment?" 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  For  what  purpose  ? 

Mr.  Ross.  —  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  whether  he  was  draw 
ing  pay  as  judge  advocate  at  the  same  time  when  he  was  receiving 
$3,000  a  year  from  the  government  as  a  member  of  Congress. 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  I  will  answer  the  gentleman's  question, 
Mr.  Speaker ;  because  nothing  interests  me  in  connection  with 
this  matter  more  than  the  laudable  curiosity  of  the  gentleman 
from  Illinois. 


170  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JANES    G.    BLAINE. 

I  beg,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  assure  the  gentleman  "  confidentially," 
as  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  would  say,  and  I  hope 
he  will  regard  it  as  a  confidential  communication,  that  I  never 
did  receive  salary  as  judge  advocate  during  the  period  lie 
refers  to,  or  during  any  other  period  ;  not  one  penny.  Indeed, 
Mr.  Speaker,  I  found  myself  very  unexpectedly  elevated  when 
I  saw  the  announcement  in  some  paper  that  this  retainer  which 
the  government  had  given  me  made  me  acting  judge  advocate 
for  the  purpose  of  trying  a  case.  It  was  merely  an  employ 
ment  as  counsel ;  and  the  counsel  fee  which  was  paid  is,  I 
beg  to  assure  the  gentleman,  the  only  compensation  that  I 
ever  received  for  my  services.  I  never  received  any  pay  as 
judge  advocate  during  any  period  whatever.  ...  I  beg 
leave,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  remind  gentlemen  of  the  precise  state 
ment  which  on  that  occasion  I  pronounced  untrue.  The  mem 
ber  from  Maine  said  —  T  read  from  the  Globe  :  "  I  do  not 
suppose  that  the  House  of  Representatives  care  anything  more 
than  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  about  the  great  recruit 
ing  frauds  of  New  York,  or  the  quarrels  of  the  gentleman  from 
New  York  with  General  Fry,  in  which  quarrels,  it  is  generally 
understood,  the  gentleman  came  out  second  best  at  the  War 
Department."  I  will  not  stop  to  read  further  (although  I 
propose  to  have  all  I  have  marked  inserted  in  my  remarks)  the 
various  forms  in  which  the  statement  was  made  that  I  had  had 
personal  quarrels  with  Provost  Marshal-General  Fry. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  read  the  whole.  If 
he  will  show  me  the  word  "  personal "  in  the  speech  to  which 
lie  is  replying,  I  will  reward  him.  He  cannot  do  it.  He  is  put 
ting  his  own  interpretation  upon  it.  Let  the  gentleman  read 
all  that  he  is  going  to  print. 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  Mr.  Speaker,  I  hope  the  active  member 
from  Maine  will  preserve  himself  as  free  from  agitation  as 
possible. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  demand  that  whatever  the  gentleman  puts 
in  the  Globe  he  shall  read. 

The  Speaker  ruled  that  the  demand  was  parliamentary,  and 
Mr  Conkling  perforce  yielded :  "  Mr.  Speaker,  this  is  a  little 
episode,  I  suppose,  for  the  amusement  and  diversion  of  the 
House.  It  is  quite  unnecessary.  The  member  had  better  be 


H  TOOK  A  PHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  171 

quiet ;  I  am  entirely  disposed  to  have  the  whole  passage  read, 
and  I  will  ask  to  have  it  read."  The  whole  passage  was  read, 
and  then  Mr.  Blaine  scored  his  point  by  declaring,  "  The  word 
personal  does  not  occur  there,"  to  which  Mr.  Conkling  made 
the  astonishing  confession  and  avoidance,  "  The  House  will 
observe  I  did  not  say  the  word  '  personal '  did  occur.  But 
that  is  not  here  nor  there,"  and  continued  his  argument  to 
prove  that  he  had  "  no  personal  quarrel  with  General  Fry," 
and  concluded  by  hoping  that  the  House  would  "  pardon  some 
thing  to  the  extraordinary  incident  which  has  been  witnessed, 
of  the  head  of  a  bureau,  a  clerk  in  the  War  Department,  sending 
here  to  be  read  such  a  pile  of  rubbish  as  that,  a  personal  assault 
upon  a  member  of  this  House,  under  the  pretence  of  vindicating 
himself  in  some  way  or  other." 

Mr.  Blaine  responded  in  his  most  off-hand  manner  :  "  I  do 
not  know  that  I  have  anything  to  say,  and  I  shall  not  take  very 
long  to  say  it.  I  do  not  happen  to  possess  the  volubility 
of  the  gentleman  from  the  Utica  district.  It  took  him  thirty 
minutes  the  other  day  to  explain  that  an  alteration  in  the 
reporter's  notes  for  the  Globe  was  no  alteration  at  all ;  and 
I  do  not  think  he  convinced  the  House,  after  all.  And  it 
has  taken  him  an  hour  to-day  to  explain  that  while  he  and 
General  Fry  have  been  at  swords'  points  for  a  year,  there  has 
been  no  difficulty  at  all  between  them.  He  has  said  that  General 
Fry  is  of  no  consequence,  that  he  is  a  mere  clerk  in  the  War 
Department.  Yet  he  is  a  very  sensitive  clerk,  and  when  he 
has  been  accused  of  all  sorts  of  fraud,  he  should  have  a  little 
chance  to  be  heard.  Now,  one  single  word.  The  gentleman 
from  New  York  has  attempted  to  pass  off  his  appearance  in 
this  case  as  simply  the  appearance  of  counsel.  I  want  to  read 
again,  for  the  information  of  the  House,  the  appointment  under 
which  the  gentleman  from  New  York  appeared  as  the  prosecutor 
on  the  part  of  the  government.  It  is  as  follows  : 

WAK  DEPARTMENT, 
WASHINGTON  CITY,  April  3,  1865. 

SIR:  I  am  instructed  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  authorize  you  to  inves 
tigate  all  cases  of  fraud  in  the  Provost  Marshal's  department  of  the 
western  division  of  New  York,  and  all  misdemeanors  connected  with 
recruiting.  You  will  from  time  to  time  make  report  to  this  department  of 


172  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (1.     TiLAINE. 

the  progress  of  your  labors,  ;ui<l  will  apply  for  any  special  authority  for 
which  you  may  have  occasion.  The  Judge  Advocate-General  will  be  in 
structed  to  issue  to  you  an  appointment  as  special  judge  advocate,  for  the 
prosecution  of  any  cases  that  may  be  brought  to  trial  before  a  military 
tribunal.  You  will  also  appear  in  behalf  of  this  department  in  any  cases 
that  it  may  be  deemed  more  expedient  to  bring  before  the  civil  tribunals. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

0.  A.  DANA, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  War. 

Mr.    KOSCOE   C'ONKLING. 


"  Now,  sir,  I  find  in  Brightly \s  Digest,  Section  46,  page  821, 
that:  k  No  person  who  holds  or  shall  hold  any  office  under  the 
government  of  the  United  States  whose  salary  or  annual  com 
pensation  shall  amount  to  the  sum  of  $2,500  shall  receive 
compensation  for  discharging  the  duties  of  any  other  office.' 

"  I  leave  it  for  the  House  to  decide  whether  the  gentleman 
can  get  off  under  the  technical  plea  that  he  was  not  a  judge  ad 
vocate.  He  cannot  deny  that  he  discharged  the  duties  of  judge 
advocate  under  the  special  commission  which  I  have  read,  and 
he  was  paid  for  the  discharge  of  those  duties.  The  case  falls 
under  the  same  law  as  that  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Schenck],  who,  being  a  Representative  in  Congress  while  yet  a 
major-general,  declined  to  receive  any  pay  as  a  member  until  he 
had  resigned  his  office  in  the  army,  and  had  taken  his  seat  in 
this  House.  I  have  no  suggestions  to  make  about  this,  except 
that  I  consider  the  point  well  taken,  and  that  in  my  view  this 
committee,  if  appointed,  ought  to  investigate  the  matter.  I  do 
not  believe  that  the  gentleman  received  the  money  rightfully, 
though  I  will  say  this  much  of  him,  if  he  will  permit  me,  that  T 
have  no  doubt  he  will  restore  it  if  convinced  he  has  taken  it 
improperly. 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  all  1  have  to  say  further  in  connection  with  this 
matter  is,  that  what  I  stated  the  other  day  has,  as  I  conceive,  been 
fully,  entirely,  and  emphatically  vindicated  by  the  record.  I 
believe  I  have  shown  the  members  of  this  House  that  I  am  in 
capable  of  stating  anything  here  for  which  I  am  not  responsible 
—  not  exactly  'here  or  elsewhere,'  but  responsible  as  a  gentle 
man  and  as  a  Representative." 

If  the  debate  had  stopped  even  there,  the  situation,  though 


BIOGHAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     RLAINE.  173 

dilapidated,  might  not  have  been  irreparable  ;  but  Mr.  Conkling 
added,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  sought  the  floor  again  to  say  this, 
which  possibly  I  omitted  to  state  before :  that  no  commission 
was  ever  issued  to  me  by  the  Judge  Advocate-General.  For 
fear  that  I  omitted  to  state  it,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  no  com 
mission,  paper,  or  authority  whatever  was  ever  issued  to  me 
except  the  letter  of  retainer  which  has  been  read,  employing  me 
to  act,  according  to  its  language,  before  military  courts  and 
before  other  tribunals." 

Mr.  Blaine,  who  had  already  said  his  final  word,  was  instantly 
up  again,  but  Mr.  Conkling's  patience  was  exhausted  to  the 
point  of  direct  and  simple  ire. 

The  SPEAKER.  —  Does  the  gentleman  from  New  York  yield 
to  the  gentleman  from  Maine? 

Mr.  CONKLING.  —  No,  sir.  I  do  not  wish  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  member  from  Maine,  not  even  so  much  as  to 
yield  him  the  floor.  [But  he  quickly  recovered  his  rhetoric  and 
attested  the  fervor  of  his  indifference.]  Mr.  Speaker,  if  the 
member  from  Maine  had  the  least  idea  how  profoundly  indif 
ferent  I  am  to  his  opinion  upon  the  subject  which  he  has  been 
discussing,  or  upon  any  other  subject  personal  to  me,  I  think 
he  would  hardly  take  the  trouble  to  rise  here  and  express  his 
opinion.  And  as  it  is  a  matter  of  entire  indifference  to  me 
what  that  opinion  may  be,  I  certainly  will  not  detain  the 
House  by  discussing  the  question  whether  it  is  well  or  ill- 
founded,  or  by  noticing  what  he  says.  I  submit  the  whole 
matter  to  the  members  of  the  House,  making  as  I  do  an 
apology  for  the  length  of  time  which  I  have  occupied  in  con 
sequence  of  being  drawn  into  explanations  originally  by  an 
interruption  which  I  pronounced  the  other  day  ungentlemanly 
and  impertinent,  and  having  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
question. 

Mr.  Blaine,  taking  the  floor,  began  : 

*^"  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  pursue  this  controversy  further ; 
but  still  the  gentleman  from  New  York  cannot  get  off  on  the 
technicality  which  he  has  suggested.  He  says  that  a  com 
mission  never  was  issued  to  him.  I  understand  him  to  admit 
that  if  a  commission  had  been  issued  to  him  he  could  not  have 
taken  pay  for  both  oftices.  Now  every  one  knows  that  those 


174  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

preliminary  authorizations  are  the  tilings  on  which  half  the 
business  arising  out  of  the  war  has  been  done.  Men  have 
fought  at  the  head  of  battalions  and  divisions  and  army  corps 
without  having  received  their  formal  commissions.  The  gentle 
man  was  just  as  much  bound  to  respect  the  law  under  that 
appointment  as  though  it  had  been  a  formal  commission  with 
the  signature  of  the  Secretary  of  War."  Turning  then 
directly  to  Mr.  Conkling,  who  was  accentuating  his  profound 
indifference  to  what  the  gentleman  from  Maine  might  be  say 
ing  by  writing  busily,  there  came  one  swift  downpour  of  scorn 
for  scorn.  "  As  to  the  gentleman's  cruel  sarcasm,  I  hope  he 
/  will  not  be  too  severe.  The  contempt  of  that  large-minded 
gentleman  is  so  wilting,"  his  haughty  disdain,  his  grandiloquent 
swell,  his  majestic,  supereminent,  overpowering,  turkey-gobbler 
strut,  has  been  so  crushing  to  myself  and  all  the  members  of  this 
House,  that  I  know  it  was  an  act  of  the  greatest  temerity  for  me 
to  venture  upon  a  controversy  with  him."  Referring  then  to  a 
chance  newspaper  comparison  of  Mr.  Conkling  to  Henry  Winter 
Davis  (which  he  interpreted  satirically),  he  continued,  "  The 
gentleman  took  it  seriously,  and  it  has  given  his  strut  additional 
pomposity.  The  resemblance  is  great,  it  is  striking.  Hyperion 
to  a  Satyr,  Thersites  to  Hercules,  mud  to  marble,  dunghill  to 
diamond,  a  singed  cat  to  a  Bengal  tiger,  a  whining  puppy  to  a 
roaring  lion.  Shade  of  the  mighty  Davis,  forgive  the  almost 
,  profanation  of  that  jocose  satire ! " 

The  House  of  Representatives  proved  to  be  but  children 
of  a  larger  growth.  It  listened  to  every  word,  shouted 
its  inextinguishable  laughter,  then  pulled  itself  together  to 
comfort  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  and  to  discipline  the 
gentleman  from  Maine.  The  Chair  recovered  presence  of  mind 
first,  and  laid  the  blame  on  the  House.  "  If  any  member  had 
called  to  order,  the  Chair  would  at  once  have  strictly  enforced 
the  rule  ; "  but  it  is  noticeable  that  the  Chair  took  care  not  to 
make  this  suggestion  prematurely.  The  House,  having  first 
gratified  its  curiosity  by  listening  to  the  whole  letter,  appointed 
a  committee  "  to  investigate  the  statements  and  charges  made 
by  Hon.  Roscoe  Conkling,  in  his  place,  against  Provost  Marshal- 
General  Fry  and  his  bureau,  whether  any  frauds  have  been  per 
petrated  in  his  office  in  connection  with  the  recruiting  service  ; 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   .TANKS    (f.    KLAINE.  175 

also  to  examine  into  the  statements  made  by  General  Fry 
in  his  communication  to  Hon.  Mr.  Elaine  read  in  the  House." 
The  committee  met,  gave  one  look  at  the  mass  of  docu 
ments  which  \vere  to  be  examined,  and  determined,  "in 
view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  task  assigned  to  it,"  to  under 
take  only  half  of  it ;  that  is,  to  dispose  of  the  charges  of 
General  Fry  against  Mr.  Conkling,  and  to  leave  General  Fry  to 
fight  his  way  out  of  Mr.  Conkling's  charges  as  best  he  could. 
This  task  it  accomplished  to  its  own  satisfaction.  The  com 
mittee  asserted,  and  the  House  assented,  that  Mr.  Fry's 
charges  against  Mr.  Conkling  were  wholly  without  foundation 
in  truth,  that  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Conkling  had  been  in  all 
respects  above  reproach,  and,  too  late  horror-stricken  at  the 
spectacle  of  a  mere  clerk  of  a  department  attacking  a  member 
of  Congress  in  Congress  simply  to  defend  his  own  unimpor 
tant  character,  and  forgetting  that  the  House  was  advised  of 
the  contents  of  the  letter  before  it  was  read,  that  it  agreed  to 
the  reading  without  an  objection,  when  a  single  objection  could 
have  kept  it  back,  and  that  it  must  therefore  be  particeps  crimi- 
nis,  it  nevertheless  condemned  General  Fry  for  breach  of  the 
privileges  of  the  House.  Indeed,  General  Fry  fared  so  ill  at 
the  hands  of  the  committee  that  the  question  was  openly  asked 
on  the  floor  of  the  House,  why  some  steps  had  not  been  taken 
to  send  him  to  the  penitentiary ;  which  it  appeared,  in  answer, 
the  House  might  have  done,  but  that  the  sin  of  General  Fry  in 
writing  the  letter  was  so  closely  connected  with  the  sin  of  Mr. 
Elaine  in  offering  the  letter  that  the  same  prison-door  \vhich 
opened  on  the  one  must  needs  close  on  the  other,  by  which  the 
dignity  of  the  House  would  be  still  further  violated.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  that  while  they  laid  exculpating  hands  on  Mr. 
Conkling,  and  kept  inculpating  hands  off  Mr.  Elaine,  they  all 
turned  upon  poor  General  Fry,  and,  forgetting  that  he  had  any 
grievance  at  all,  gave  him  a  very  bad  time  of  it.  The  com 
mittee  reported,  and  the  House  adopted  the  report,  condemning 
General  Fry  for  attempting  to  resent  and  disprove,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  the  charge  made  in  the  House  that 
he  had  prostituted  "the  whole  machinery  of  the  government 
to  miscreants  and  robbers." 

Still  there  was  a  world  outside.    The  House  adopted  the  report 


176  HfOGRAPHY     OF   JAMEK    G.     HLAINE. 

on  the  14th  of  July.  On  the  17th  of  the  same  month,  General 
Fry  was  appointed  "major-general  by  brevet,  for  faithful,  meri 
torious,  and  distinguished  services  in  the  Provost  Marshal-Gen 
eral's  department."  And  the  Senate  confirmed  the  appointment. 
June  10,  1868,  he  was  appointed  "  brigadier-general  by  brevet, 
for  gallant  and  meritorious  services  in  the  battles  of  Shiloh, 
Tennessee,  and  Perryville,  Kentucky."  And  the  Senate  con 
firmed  the  appointment.  He  was  appointed  "  colonel  by  brevet, 
for  gallant  and  meritorious  services  in  the  battle  of  Bull  Run 
(first),  Virginia."  And  the  Senate  confirmed  the  appointment. 
March  12,  1875,  he  was  appointed  colonel  in  Adjutant^General's 
department.  And  the  Senate  confirmed  the  appointment.  So 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  War  Department  each 
drew  its  own  child  from  the  fierce  flame,  to  its  own  fond  eyes 
unscarred,  while  the  other  child  was  all  scathed  and  blackened 
by  the  lightning  stroke. 

This  controversy  has  been  given  with  more  detail  than  its 
intrinsic  importance  would  justify,  because  of  the  innumerable 
variations  which  time  and  tradition  have  lent  to  the  tale,  and 
because  of  the  factitious  importance  with  which  the  subsequent 
prominence  of  the  two  chief  contestants  invested  it.  National 
policies  and  presidencies  have  been  hung  on  its  issues,  and  the 
poison  of  an  imaginary  bitterness  has  been  diffused  through 
an  entirely  constructive  fc'  life-long  feud."  But  to  a  feud  there 
must  be  two  parties.  On  Mr.  Elaine's  side  certainly,  there 
was  no  feud  whatever.  He  spoke  to  the  occasion,  and  smote  no 
more.  He  had  fought  in  his  own  field  the  soldier's  battle,  who 
had  fought  on  the  bloody  field  the  citizen's  battle,  and  that  was 
the  end.  Thereafter  was  no  moment  when  he  was  not  ready  for 
peace,  —  at  least  for  such  peace  as  was  possible  with  Mr.  Conk- 
ling.  At  intervals  along  the  way  were  ever  springing  up 
friends  who  wished  to  heal  the  breach,  and  Mr.  Elaine  always 
lent  himself  cheerfully,  without  their  urging,  to  their  desire  and 
design.  He  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  go  over  the  story  in 
detail,  or  to  make  an  apology,  or  any  scene  whatever  ;  he  was  quite 
willing  that  the  dead  past  should  bury  its  dead,  but  he  would 
assist  at  no  funeral  ceremony.  Hearing  that  the  obstacle  to  rec 
onciliation  in  Mr.  Conkling's  mind  was  a  supposed  reflection 
on  his  integrity  by  Mr.  Blaine,  the  latter  denied  promptly  any 


BIOGKAPHY    OF    JAMES    (/.     KLATNE.  177 

such  reflection,  and  half  humorously  maintained  that  any  un 
prejudiced  reader  of  the  debate  would  testify  that  in  this  aspect 
he  had  more  to  complain  of  than  Mr.  Conkling.  But  he  not 
only  admitted,  he  was  quick  to  avow  his  admission,  that  in  the 
excitement  of  the  moment  both  had  spoken  some  words  which 
in  cooler  moments  both  regretted  and  would  have  been  glad  to 
recall.  So  much  he  volunteered  without  regard  to  Mr.  Conk- 
ling's  attitude.  To  peace-lovers  and  well-wishers  of  both, 
and  to  loyal  adherents  of  the  Republican  party,  who  thought  its 
interests  involved  in  the  relations  of  its  prominent  leaders,  he 
from  the  first  averred  his  willingness,  even  his  desire,  at  any 
moment  to  resume  relations  with  Mr.  Conkling,  and  to  disavow 
at  the  same  time,  and  at  all  times,  any  intention  whatever  to 
reflect  on  his  honor  as  a  gentleman.  On  one  of  the  many 
occasions  when  he  was  approached  by  friends  of  Mr.  Conkling  in 
the  cause  of  reconciliation,  he  closed  with  the  proposition,  "  If 
you. will  assure  me  of  Mr.  Conkling's  acceptance,  I  will  without 
any  other  preliminary  invite  him  and  Mrs.  Conkling  to  the 
best  dinner  I  can  proffer  to  the  best  company  I  can  gather  in 
Washington."  This  was  after  he  had  been  made  Speaker  and 
had  established  his  home  with  its  usual  hospitalities  in  Wash 
ington.  The  gentlemen  withdrew,  but  the  desired  assurance 
was  never  given  and  the  proffered  table  was  never  spread.  On 
another  and  similar  occasion  he  replied  that  he  would  "  far 
rather  be  Mr.  Conkling's  friend  than  his  foe,  and  I  can  say 
with  entire  candor  that  I  never  i«lt  towards  him  any  of  the 
rancor  of  an  enemy."  During  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1884,  renewed  efforts  were  made  by  loyal  Republicans  towards 
friendly  intercourse  in  the  interests  of  political  cooperation. 
Again  Mr.  Elaine  responded,  as  always,  with  assurances  of 
good-will.  He  reiterated  his  readiness  to  resume  friendly 
relations  and  to  disavow  any  intention  of  imputing  dishonor  to 
Mr.  Conkling,  but  added,  "  To  do  so  now  would  subject  me  to 
the  imputation  of  improper  motives,  but  when  the  election  is 
over,  whichever  way  it  may  end,  I  would  be  glad  as  a  step  to 
reconciliation  to  make  that  disavowal  in  any  way  that  would 
be  agreeable  to  Mr.  Conkling,  assuming  of  course  that  he  feels 
ready  to  make  similar  disavowal  respecting  myself."  The 
reconciliation  went  no  further. 


178  nioGRAPiiY  OF  JAM  EX  a.  ULAJNE. 

Yet  it  probably  was  not  wholly  due  to  Mr.  Conkling's  un 
willingness  to  be  reconciled,  but  partly  perhaps  to  his  practical 
inability  to  overcome  what  seemed  to  him  the  awkwardness  of 
the  step. 

It  must  also  be  admitted  that  Mr.  Elaine  did  not  set  a  high 
private  value  on  Mr.  Coiikling's  friendship.  To  the  core  of  the 
heart  they  were  different  men.  They  worshipped  different 
gods  with  different  rites.  They  cherished  different  ideals  and 
followed  them  on  different  lines.  Mr.  Elaine  was  not  gladly  on 
ill  terms  with  any  one,  but  he  was  not  pressed  to  a  reconcilia 
tion  with  Mr.  Conkliug  by  any  inward  urgency. 

The  controversy  did  not  affect  Mr.  Elaine's  political  course, 
and  not  perceptibly,  I  think,  his  political  fortunes.  The  situa 
tion  was  not  indeed  without  its  humorous  side  — •  as  at  a 
dinner  where  important  matters  were  discussed  with  Secretary 
Fish,  and  Mr.  Elaine  would  refer  Mr.  Fish  to  the  Senator  from 
New  York  as  the  proper  authority,  and  Mr.  Conkling,  address 
ing  also  Mr.  Fish,  would  presently  refer  another  question  to 
the  decision  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House.  On  another  day  it 
chanced  that  a  group  of  friends,  including  both  Mr.  Elaine  and 
Mr.  Conkling,  were  travelling  from  New  York  to  Washington, 
and  enjoying  the  liveliest  nonsense  of  leisurely  talk.  One  of 
them,  Mr.  (since  Senator)  Chandler,  amused  himself  with  contriv 
ing,  as  opportunity  offered,  a  cut  de  sac  in  which  to  entrap  Mr. 
Elaine  and  Mr.  Conkling,  for  the  sake  of  forcing  their  skill  at 
keeping  out.  In  a  careless  moment  Mr.  Conkling  produced  some 
confection  or  other  and  began  to  pass  it  around,  apparently 
without  thinking  of  the  great  gulf  fixed  between  himself  and  his 
constructive  foe.  When  it  should  have  come  to  Mr.  Elaine, 
there  was  a  visible  rudimentary  movement  of  Mr.  Conkling's 
proffering  hand  towards  Mr.  Elaine  ;  but  alas  !  the  habit  of  a 
lifetime  prevailed,  his  good  angel  of  gayety  forsook  him  and 
fled,  more  to  Mr.  Conkling's  chagrin,  possibly,  than^o  any  other 
person's.  "  Would  you  have  taken  it  if  he  had  offered  it?" 
asked  a  friend  of  Mr.  Elaine  afterwards.  "  Certainly,  if  it  had 
choked  me  !  "  was  the  careless  reply. 

It  was  inevitable  that  they  should  be  often  in  opposition,  but 
they  never  clashed  on  the  old  battle-field.  They  never  contended 
where,  but  for  that  battle-field,  they  would  have  combined. 


moan ATII Y   or  JAMKS  a.   BLAINE.  179 

On  the  contrary,  that  early  conflict  was  rather,  doubtless  one 
of  the  things  that  made  for  peace.  Mr.  Conkling's  manner 
was  intolerable,  and  Mr.  Elaine  disembarrassed  himself  of  it 
once  for  all,  and  thus  the  world  remained  unvexed  of  many 
a  storm.  Mr.  Blame  never  made  the  mistake  of  under-estimat 
ing  Mr.  Conkling  while  fully  recognizing  his  limitations,  and 
Mr.  Conkling,  I  think,  never  again  made  the  mistake  of  even 
pretending  to  leave  Mr.  Blaine  out  of  the  account.  "  Mr.  Conk 
ling  and  I  have  usually  cooperated  in  political  struggles,  and  I 
have  never  withheld  my  frank  expression  of  admiration  for  his 
great  abilities, "  wrote  Mr.  Blaine  to  one  of  the  great  army  of 
peace-makers.  "  You  can  talk  with  Conkling  and  I  can't,"  said 
Senator  Blaine  to  a  brother  Senator  when  a  pet  measure  of  Conk- 
ling's  was  at  stake.  "I  have  seen  L.,  and  I  think  he  is  on 
the  borders.  .  .  .Go  and  tell  Conkling  if  he  will  talk  with 
L.,  I  believe  he  can  bring  him  in."  And  it  was  observed 
that  Mr.  Conkling  speeded  to  Mr.  L.  like  an  arrow  from  a  bow. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  some  of  Mi\  Blaine's  many  minorities, 
Mr.  Conkling  did  not  shrink  from  ranging  himself  alongside.  "  If 
any  gentleman  on  this  floor  has  made  himself  singular,"  was 
the  euphuism  by  which  Mr.  Conkling  indicated  that  it  was  Mr. 
Blaine's  forlorn  hope  which  he  was  following.  In  presidential 
nomination  campaigns,  as  often  in  other  causes,  Mr.  Conkling 
opposed  Mr.  Blaine,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  attribute  Mr. 
Blaine's  defeats  to  Mr.  Conkling,  any  more  than  to  Mr.  Sher 
man  or  to  Mr.  Windom,  or  to  others  with  whom  Mr.  Blaine 
never  had  a  personal  conflict,  but  who  were  working  each  for 
his  own  man  with  as  undoubted  honesty  and  zeal  as  if  that  man 
had  not  been  himself.  "Mr.  Blaine  never  nursed  the  old  dis 
pute,  never  seemed  to  hold  it  in  mind,  never  used  it  as  a  base 
of  operations,  never  gathered  or  disseminated  from  it  any  poi 
sonous  fruitage,  never  looked  upon  it  as  other  than  an  incident 
of  the  past,  right  in  its  origin  and  motive,  improvable  perhaps 
in  its  manner,  to  be  left  for  what,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
it  was  worth. 

The  metropolitan  press  seems,  like  the  House  of  Represent 
atives,  to  have  joined  in  the  laugh,  but  to  have  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  member  from  New  York.  A  leading  and  powerful 
newspaper,  the  New  York  Tribune,  marvelled  that  a  bureau 


180  BIOGKAPl-ir    OF"    JAMES    (}.     HLAINK. 

clerk  should  impudently  cause  such  a  letter  to  be  read  to  the 
House.  It  declared  each  and  all  the  charges  against  Mr.  Conk- 
ling  to  be  proved  false  and  frivolous  and  foolish,  while  only  the 
novelty  of  the  attack  redeemed  General  Fry  and  its  lamented 
supporter  from  Maine  from  general  contempt.  It  was  the 
Provost  Marshal-General's  bureau  that  was  about  to  be  put  on 
trial,  and  the  prediction  was  that  Roscoe  Conkling  would  con 
vict  it  of  the  grossest  crimes  or  compel  it  to  prove  innocence 
by  confessing  to  the  most  finished,  incalculable,  and  complete 
stupidity. 

When  u  The  Historic  Congress  "  was  delineated  in  that  jour 
nal,  Mr.  Conkling  appeared  in  minute  and  accurate  detail, 
"  brimful  of  blood  and  action,  forceful  and  commanding,  with 
the  height  of  Mars,  crowned  with  the  forehead  and  locks  of 
Hyperion,  eyes  large  and  black,"  —  though  in  the  search-light 
of  the  newspapers  they  often  flashed  blue,  —  u  auburn  hair,  and 
beard  peaked  as  his  nose,  set  above  shoulders  that  become  a 
great  captain !  "  but  near  the  end  of  four  and  one-half  columns, 
the  member  from  Maine  comes  perfunctorily  in  only  as  "an 
editor  from  Maine,  and  the  ally  of  Mr.  Fry  in  the  pending  in 
vestigation." 

One  journal  did  not  consider  him  of  sufficient  importance  to 
be  named,  and  brought  him  forward  indiscriminately  as  Mr. 
Blane  and  Mr.  Blain. 

Five  years  flew  by  and  another  day  had  dawned.  On  the  same 
pages  u  Conkling  rose  with  his  slow  undulations  like  nothing 
so  much  as  a  yellow  viper  coupled  with  the  accompany  ing- 
venom,"  and  by  that  time  the  " crimes,"  and  the  u stupidity" 
were  alike  merged  in  "  the  annoyance  which  we  all  suffered 
under  General  Fry's  legal  tyranny,"  but  that  u  he  did  his  duty 
faithfully,  industriously,  and  honestly  is  too  well  vouched  for 
by  his  superiors,  among  them  the  lamented  Stanton,"  to  be 
doubted ;  while  Mr.  Conkling's  "  overbearing  manner  has  made 
him  the  most  unpopular  man  in  the  Senate,  and  he  carries  it  in 
debate  to  an  extreme  almost  beyond  belief.  Though  his  rasp 
ing  tones  are  disagreeable  at  all  times,  they  are  specially  and 
incomparably  odious  when  employed  (as  they  are  every  day) 
to  convey  an  insult  to  one  of  his  associates.  ...  In  answer 
ing  a  political  opponent,  it  is  his  custom  to  give  the  lie  as 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     TiLAINE.  181 

nearly  as  he  can  without  being  called  to  order.  .  .  .  Not 
being  called  to  order,  he  went  on  to  make  that  unfortunate 
observation  about  4  courage  '  and  4  strutting '  which  brought 
upon  him  the  severest  rap  he  has  received  in  six  years.  When 
Mr.  Schurz  begged  pardon  if  he  had  done  anything  like  strut 
ting,  4  because  he  did  not  want  to  interfere  with  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  his  friend  from  New  York,'  the  application  was  so 
perfect  that  the  galleries  roared  with  laughter,  and  some  of  the 
Senators  were  convulsed  with  delight.  For  the  strut  of  Mr. 
Conkling  is  one  of  the  sights  of  the  Capitol. 

"  Six  years  ago,  Roscoe  Conkling  and  James  G.  Elaine  had  a 
famous  tilt  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  debate  was 
then  upon  ...  a  piece  of  sharp  practice  which  Mr.  Conk 
ling  justified,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  upon  the  plea  that,  though 
he  took  the  appointment  and  the  pay,  he  did  not  receive  a 
formally  engrossed  commission.  In  the  course  of  the  discus 
sion  Mr.  Conkling  was  guilty  of  an  airy  exhibition  towards 
Mr.  Elaine,  and  the  member  from  Maine  retaliated  with  a  piece 
of  denunciation  so  cruelly  descriptive  that  it  will  long  hold  a 
place  in  our  political  literature." 

Only  the  Creator,  never  the  created,  is  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever. 


JilOGliAPHY    OF    JAMES    C.    BLAINE. 


X. 

VACATION  IN  EUROPE  AND  WORK  AT  HOME. 

IN  May,  1867,  Mr.  Blaine  took  a  short  vacation  voyage  to 
Europe,  and  often  boasted  that  he  had  outstripped  Napoleon, 
having  in  three  months  conquered  three  languages  and  overrun 
live  kingdoms !  Mr.  Morrill,  of  Vermont,  was  his  travelling 
companion,  and  though  twenty  years  his  senior,  they  sailed  into 
New  York  harbor  on  their  return,  agreeing  that  if  the  journey 
were  to  be  taken  again,  each  could  choose  no  better  companion 
ship. 

"  He  was  a  delightful  traveller,"  says  Mr.  Morrill,  "  mar 
vellous.  We  fell  in  with  many  English  gentlemen,  and  he 
seemed  to  know  more  about  their  country  than  they  did  them 
selves.  He  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  history  and  the 
associations  of  every  battle-ground  we  visited,  of  every  spot 
connected  with  great  events.  His  observation  was  remarkably 
quick  and  wide,  and  we  swept  a  great  deal  of  interest  and  value 
into  a  short  time." 

He  landed  at  Queenstowii  on  the  last  day  of  May,  and  never 
dreamed  of  anything  in  vegetation  so  splendid  as  the  green  of 
Ireland,  but  noted  Spike  Island,  on  the  outer  side  of  the  harbor, 
a  penal  institution  strongly  walled  in  and  "  just  now  filled  with 
condemned  Fenians,  waiting  for  transportation  to  Botany  Bay." 
He  rode  on  the  engine  to  Cork,  for  a  better  view  of  the  mag 
nificent  country.  "  The  only  fault,  the  double  fault  rather,  is 
the  absence  of  trees  and  the  absence  of  houses.  The  inhabi 
tants  are  all  rooted  out  by  the  large  proprietors.  I  had  no  idea 
of  the  beauty  of  Ireland,  nor  of  the  fearful  effects  of  absenteeism, 
and  the  general  disaster  to  the  native  race  caused  by  the  Eng 
lish  policy."  On  the  way  to  Dublin  he  made  friends  with  the 
"  guard  "  and  rode  on  his  car,  an  elevated  one  with  forward  and 
rear  lookout,  and  £ot  all  the  views  and  information  attainable. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    d.     ELAINE.  183 

One  Sunday  in  Dublin  the  travellers  decided  "  to  go  to  church 
on  a  large  scale ;  so  we  took  a  carriage,  and  between  10.30 
and  1.30  we  attended  four  Catholic  and  three  Episcopal 
churches.  .  .  .  We  heard  a  very  good  sermon  at  the  last 
one,  where  we  wound  up  our  ecclesiastical  perambulations.  At 
St.  Patrick's,  the  great  Episcopal  cathedral,  the  highest  of  High 
Churchdom,  there  were  by  actual  count  more  persons  engaged 
at  the  altar  and  in  the  choir  than  were  to  be  found  in  the  pews. 
The  audience  did  not  number  over  fifty,  including  Morrill  and 
myself,  and  such  an  array  of  rectors  and  vicars  and  deans  and 
canons  and  prebendaries  and  deacons  and  sub-deacons  you 
never  saw  and  never  will  in  America.  The  cathedral  would 
probably  seat  at  least  three  thousand,  and  it  only  lacked  two 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty  of  being  full ;  and  the  church 
is  maintained  by  tithes  on  the  property  of  all  denominations. 
What  a  cruel  farce  !  The  music  in  all,  both  Catholic  and  Epis 
copal,  is  very  fine."  At  the  great  cemetery  he  noted  O'Con- 
nell's  monument  and  the  memorial  stone  of  an  Irish  soldier  who 
fell  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  "  in  defence  of  the  '  Great 
Republic,'  as  the  inscription  said."  From  Kingston  they  em 
barked  for  Holyhead  on  the  Isle  of  Anglesey  opposite,  and 
made  the  trip  in  three  and  three-quarters  hours.  "I  never 
saw  anything  so  long  and  sharp  as  the  steamers  are.  We  shot 
out  into  the  English  channel  like  an  arrow,  passed  a  lightship 
seven  miles  out  from  the  pier  in  precisely  twenty  minutes  by 
Mr.  Merrill's  watch.  Fare  on  steamer  very  high,  12  shillings, 
$3  gold,  for  sixty-six  miles." 

In  Menai  Bridge  he  was  disappointed  and  gave  it  only  the 
honors  of  a  pioneer.  But  with  the  beauty  of  the  scenery  he 
was  greatly  impressed.  At  Chester  he  measured  the  Roman 
wall  in  his  usual  way  by  pacing  it.  At  Eton  his  comment  on 
the  park,  architecture,  and  greenhouses,  which  alone  covered 
fifty-two  acres,  was  enthusiastic,  but  of  a  distinctly  Maine 
flavor.  From  Wolverhampton  fourteen  miles  to  Birmingham, 
through  the  Black  Country,  —  uone  continuous  Pittsburg. 
Mr.  Morrill,  who  is  so  familiar  with  statistics  of  trade  and 
manufactures,  confessed  himself  utterly  amazed  at  the  magni 
tude  and  extent  of  the  display  we  witnessed."  Giving  two 
hours  to  Birmingham,  they  went  to  Warwick,  thence  a  drive 


184  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

four  miles  out  to  Kenilworth,  then  another  drive  with  fresh 
horses  to  Stratford-on-Avon,  and  at  4.30,  train  to  Oxford,  after 
lunch  driving  out  to  Blenheim.  They  slept  at  Oxford,  visited 
all  the  colleges,  gave  over  an  hour  to  the  Bodleian  Library, 
and  reached  London  at  2.20  P.M.  "  It  is  only  five  days  since 
we  landed  at  Queenstown.  .  .  .  An  attentive  study  of  the 
trains  and  the  notable  localities  that  are  accessible  on  the  route 
has  enabled  us  to  do  more  in  these  five  days  than  tourists  often 
accomplish  in  two  or  three  weeks.  We  find  a  great  number  of 
those  who  came  over  on  the  "  China "  with  us  here  at  the 
Langham,  and  all  they  have  done  is  simply  to  travel  from 
Liverpool,  stopping  nowhere  and  seeing  nothing.  We  have 
seen  rural  England,  ridden  on  its  Hue  roads,  talked  with  its 
people,  seen  its  splendid  country  seats. 

"  Take  the  finest  finished  and  ornamented  lawn  in  Brookline, 
Koxbury,  or  any  of  those  beautiful  towns  around  Boston,  and 
you  see  there  only  what  you  see  in  all  directions  in  England, 
only  what  I  have  seen  for  every  mile  of  the  four  hundred  miles 
that  1  have  travelled  by  rail  or  carriage  011  English  soil.  It  is 
just  as  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  says  of  it  in  his  English  notes, 
4  England  is  finished  with  a  pencil,  America  with  a  plough/ 

"  Travelling  here  is  expensive.  .  .  .  My  English  experi 
ence  thus  far  has  cost  me  twenty-one  dollars  a  day  in  our  money. 
I  had  previously  written  Mr.  Morse,  our  consul,  from  Oxford, 
that  he  would  procure  us  admission  to  the  House  of  Parliament 
and  have  the  necessary  papers  at  the  Langham.  We  found  his 
note  containing  a  card  of  introduction  to  Mr.  W.  E.  Foster, 
and  down  we  went  about  5  P.M.,  when  we  found  to  our  dismay 
that  he  was  not  in  his  seat.  ...  I  was  not,  however,  to  be 
so  easily  put  off,  and  remembering  the  almighty  power  of  the 
shilling  in  England,  I  made  up  to  one  of  the  guards,  door 
keepers,  explained  our  dilemma,  slipped  a  half-crown  into  his 
hand,  and  away  he  flew  and  reappeared  in  a  few  minutes  with 
Lord  Henry  Cavendish's  order  for  our  admission  ;  .  .  .  and 
for  several  hours  we  enjoyed  the  sight  of  the  British  House  of 
Commons.  I  was  intensely  interested  in  everything  that  was 
said  and  done.  .  .  . 

"  Next  morning  Mr.  Morse  called,  and  we  all  called  on  Mr. 
Adams  and  were  very  oordiallv  received.  He  said  he  would  send 


HfOGKAFTTY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  185 

his  Secretary  of  Legation  to  our  hotel  at  3.30  to  escort  us  to 
Parliament  House  and  procure  our  admission  to  the  floor.  So 
at  the  hour  Mr.  Moran  very  promptly  appeared,  and  off  we 
drove.  .  .  .  Mr.  Foster  was  in  his  seat,  and,  hearing  about 
us  from  Mr.  Morse,  he  did  not  wait  to  be  introduced,  but  came 
right  over,  and  soon  after  brought  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  then 
Lord  Amberley  and  many  other  of  the  Liberal  members. 

tk  After  about  half  an  hour  Mr.  Foster,  having  left  us  for  a  few 
minutes,  returned  with  the  compliments  of  the  Right  Honorable 
John  Evelyn  Dennison,  Speaker  of  the  House,  inviting  us  to 
take  seats  on  the  Peers'  Bench, — a  most  eligible  location,  — 
and  Sending  us  word  that  during  our  stay  in  London  he  would 
be  happy  to  have  us  occupy  that  seat  whenever  it  might  suit 
our  pleasure.  Mr.  Morrill  and  myself  felt  quite  overwhelmed 
with  the  attention,  but  a  member  of  the  American  Congress  is 
a  bigger  animal  in  England  than  he  ever  was  before.  Our  war 
has  infused  a  tremendous  respect  for  us  into  the  minds  of 
Englishmen. 

"  After  staying  for  several  hours  we  repaired  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  here  again  we  had  seats  on  the  floor,  at  'the  foot  of 
the  throne.'  We  had  an  admirable  chance  of  seeing  all  the 
notables  in  both  Houses,  Derby,  Disraeli,  Russell,  Stanley,  etc.  ; 
we  did  not  see  Bright  or  Gladstone,  as  they  are  both  out  of 
town.  I  never  cared  [for]  a  sight  so  much  as  the  British  Par 
liament,  and  I  have  now  seen  it  under  the  most  favorable  cir 
cumstances.  .  .  .  But  withal  it  is  a  body  of  notable  men 
worth  a  trip  across  the  Atlantic  to  see.  .  .  .  Mr.  Morrill  is 
a  capital  travelling  companion  in  every  sense  —  even-tempered 
and  with  wide-awake  interest  and  attention." 

From  London  to  Brussels,  through  Antwerp,  Malines,  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  to  Cologne  ;  but  he  could  not  call  Belgium  prosper 
ous,  because  while  some  were  accumulating  enormous  wealth  the 
laboring  classes  seemed  deprived  of  their  fair  share  of  the  profit. 
The  "stolid,  stupefied,  resigned,  and  saddened  look  so  un 
affectedly  assumed  would  touch  the  heart  of  stone  —  far  worse 
than  any  I  saw  in  England  or  Ireland,"  and  he  could  "  imagine 
no  country  better  adapted  for  the  marshalling  and  manoeuvring 
of  troops  than  Brussels." 

Everywhere  the  works  of  art  and  of  architecture  receive  his 


186  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAJNE. 

word  of  criticism,  of  enthusiasm  or  of  indifference,  sometimes  of 
disappointment.  Of  the  most  beautiful  face  he  ever  saw :  "I  could 
have  choked  the  valet  when  he  told  me  that  the  Antwerp  tra 
dition  was  that  Rubens  painted  it  from  the  face  of  his  mistress." 
From  his  window  he  hears  "  in  the  soft  moonlight  the  ceaseless 
gabble  and  gibberish  of  the  German  crowds  in  the  street.  Prus 
sian  soldiers  are  plenty,  the  fellows  who  fought  at  Sadovva. 
They  look  small  and  mean,  and  before  an  army  of  Americans 
would,  I  think,  be  a  small  obstacle ;  "  but  "  Prussian  power  and 
prestige  are  everywhere  visible  after  you  leave  Cologne.  It  is 
really  a  nation  of  tremendous  energy  and  enlightenment."  With 
carriage,  horses,  driver,  and  guide  they  made  a  thorough  inspec 
tion  of  the  field  of  Waterloo. 

From  Cologne  they  took  steamer  to  Mayence  —  so  charmed 
with  the  scenery  that  he  could  not  leave  the  deck,  having  lunch 
brought  up  to  him  instead  of  going  down  to  the  saloon.  Dis 
appointed  at  not  rinding  Elihu  Washburn  at  Homburg,  they 
went  on  to  Ragatz,  Switzerland,  where  he  was  taking  the  fa 
mous  hot  baths  of  mineral  water,  but  stopped  all  along  the  way: 
two  hours  at  Frankfurt,  and  a  drive  to  Hanau  in  Hesse  Cassel, 
then  a  night  and  a  morning  at  Heidelburg,  an  afternoon  at 
Baden  Baden,  presenting  themselves  dutifully  at  Strasbourg 
Cathedral  at  12  M.  to  see  the  apostles  come  out,  a  night  and  a 
morning  at  Zurich,  and  meeting  at  the  Hof  Ragatz  not  only  Mr. 
Washburn,  but  a  dozen  unexpected  American  friends.  Thence 
they  took  carriages  through  the  wild  Alpine  scenery  to  the  Swiss 
village  Tusis  in  the  canton  of  Grison,  where  they  ate  mountain 
trout  and  played  "  '  Old  Hundred '  and  '  John  Brown  '  on  a  fine 
piano  in  the  Hotel  Via  Mala  "  till  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and 
at  half-past  seven  the  next  morning  began  the  ascent  of  the  real 
Alps  by  the  Splugen  Pass.  When  they  had  passed  the  last  bridge 
of  the  Via  Mala  they  called  a  halt  and  celebrated  a  feast  of  the 
meeting  and  parting  "  with  as  cordial  a  feeling  of  fellowship  as 
ever  animated  the  hearts  of  seven  Americans.  .  .  .  We 
parted  with  songs  and  cheers,  waving  of  hats  and  handker 
chiefs,  the  cordial  grasp  of  hands,  and  with  more  than  one  pair 
of  eyes  moistened  by  the  grateful  pleasure  of  the  romantic  meet 
ing  and  the  inexpressible  sadness  of  the  parting  —  they  back  to 
Ragatz,  Mr.  Morrill  and  myself  on  to  Italy  ;  .  .  .  zigzagging 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  187 

up  the  precipitous  sides  of  the  mountain  just  after  the  fashion  of 
the  pictures  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  in  the  old  Bibles.  .  .  .  We 
have  a  splendid  carriage  all  to  ourselves,  three  horses,  and  pay 
for  it  one  hundred  and  forty  francs  from  yesterday  P.M.  to 
bo-morrow  at  eleven,  when  we  reach  the  head  of  Lake  Como." 
They  sailed  across  the  lake  to  the  city  of  Como,  thence  to 
Milan  one  night,  with  a  glimpse  of  city  and  cathedral,  then  on 
to  Florence,  and  found  in  the  wonderful  railroad  engineering 
proof  of  "  a  new  birth  for  Italy,  hope  of  a  great  future  and  even 
increased  glory  for  the  Latin  race" 

At  Florence,  he  had  "  considered  the  crossing  of  the  Alleghe- 
nies  Central  as  a  wonderful  triumph  of  human  skill  and  enter 
prise,  but  it  is  absolutely  lame  and  inconsiderable  compared  with 
what  has  been  achieved  in  the  Apennines." 

Two  days  to  Florence  and  its  fascinations.  "As  we  drove 
home  we  passed  the  elegant  palace  in  which  Bigelow  Lawrence 
resides  —  not  the  finest  by  any  means  in  Florence;  but  it  is 
very  elegant,  and  the  grounds  are  by  far  the  grandest  in  the 
city,  except  those  of  the  king.  They  are  in  the  city,  sixteen 
acres  in  extent,  and  these,  with  the  splendid  house >  he  has  on  a 
lease  of  six  thousand  francs  (twelve  hundred  dollars)  a  year. 

Then  eleven  hours  in  a  gondola  at  Venice,  to  Milan  through 
the  famous  quadrilateral  of  the  Italian  war  of  1859,  over  the 
Simplon  Pass,  "doing  Geneva  very  thoroughly/' 

By  July  5  he  was  "  living  in  clover "  at  the  Hotel  de  Hol- 
lande  on  the  Rue  de  la  Paix  —  just  as  it  turns  out  of  the  Place 
Vendome  ;  Elihu  Washburn  was  there  and  Governor  Curtin, 
and  he  was  constantly  accosted  by  Augusta  people  and  Maine 
people  and  Americans,  for  it  was  the  Exposition  year.  As  he 
stood  just  where  the  garden  of  the  Tuileries  opens  into  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde  he  had  a  good  look  at  the  Emperor  Louis 
Napoleon  and  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  which  was  all  he  wanted. 
The  travellers'  only  trouble  was  in  regard  to  Congress.  "  It 
seems  to  be  the  very  general  impression  that  if  we  should  start 
to-day  we  should  not  reach  Washington  before  the  adjournment. 
All  our  advices  are  to  that  effect,  and  yet  I  dislike  very  much 
not  to  start  and  try  to  reach  there.  .  .  . 

"At  the  Theatre  LTmperatrice  last  night  I  saw  John  Breck- 
enridge  arid  his  wife.  They  sat  but  a  very  few  boxes  from  us, 


188  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE. 

and  were  very  intently  gazing  on  our  party  the  whole  evening. 
They  look  sad,  downcast,  and  dispirited.  He  is  in  Paris  without 
money.  What  situation  could  be  more  deplorable  ! 

" 1  had  a  very  fine  day  in  the  Corps  Legislatif.  Heard  Berier 
speak,  also  Rouher,  the  great  minister.  Saw  Jules  Favre,  Thiers, 
and  all  the  magnates.  The  Assembly  is  very  impressive,  and  I 
think  contains  far  more  talent  than  the  British  House  of 
Commons.  The  speakers  displayed  marvellous  readiness  and 
eloquence.  They  were  discussing  the  Mexican  question,  which 
is  now  exciting  France  profoundly.  The  death  of  Maximilian 
is  a  terrible  blow  to  Napoleon.  It  shows  his  infallibility  too 
palpably.  The  sensation  created  is  immense  and  intense.  One 
can  see  the  excitement  about  it  on  all  hands.  .  .  .  The 
dismay  at  the  Tuileries  is  said  to  be  great.  .  .  .  Neverthe 
less,  I  fully  believe  the  power  of  the  Emperor  to  be  firmly  fixed 
for  his  lifetime.  His  improvements  in  Paris,  which  are  truly 
vast,  and  visible  on  every  hand,  give  him  this  city,  and  with  that 
and  the  army  he  can  hold  France.  I  saw  him  again  yesterday. 
I  le  bears  himself  stoically  and  splendidly." 

The  Representative  conscience  continued  to  Hatter  them  that 
( 'ongress  would  adjourn  in  a  very  few  days.  "  I  am  very  glad  that 
I  did  not  attempt  to  get  home  for  the  session-  Had  I  been  in 
London  when  John  Sherman  sailed  I  would  doubtless  have 
gone  with  him,  but,  luckily  or  unluckily,  1  was  that  very  day  on 
the  top  of  the  Alps,  and  by  the  utmost  exertion  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  me  to  reach  Washington  before  this  time, 
or  say  July  20,  and  that,  I  apprehend,  would  have  been  just  in 
season  to  see  Congress  adjourn.  At  least,  such  were  the  rea 
sonings  of  Mr.  Mori-ill  and  myself,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  we 
acted  wisely.  We  have,  at  all  events,  done  the  best  we  could 
witli  the  light  before  us,  and  that  is  all  that  human  nature  is 
expected  to  do." 

From  Paris  Mr.  Blaine  and  Mr.  Washburn  went  again  to 
Homburg  for  a  fortnight,  while  Mr.  Merrill  went  on  to  Eng 
land.  Witli  all  the  distractions  of  Homburg  he  remembered 
his  desire  to  secure  "George  Field,  if  we  can,  for  the  Augusta 
church.  I  never  saw  the  day  when  I  did  not  prefer  him  to  any 
other." 

On  August  8  he  rejoined  Mr.  Morrill  in    London,  met  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  189 

Garfields  next  day,  and  went  down  to   see   Mr.  Washburn  on 
the  way  from  Bremen  to  America. 

Two  years  afterwards  Mr.  Washburn  returned  to  Europe  as 
American  Minister  to  France,  an  appointment  that  elicited  much 
ridicule  from  a  class  of  reformers,  for  its  unfitness.  Mr.  Wash- 
burn  very  soon  distinguished  himself  throughout  Europe  by  his 
eminent  fitness,  staying  at  his  post  when  all  other  ministers  fled, 
and  shielding  under  our  flag,  from  the  perils  of  the  Franco-Prus 
sian  war  and  the  greater  perils  of  the  commune,  not  only  the 
property  and  the  lives  of  his  own  countrymen,  but  of  the  still 
more  endangered  Germans.  In  the  House  of  Representatives, 
April  17,  1894,  Mr.  Hitt,  of  Illinois,  than  whom  no  one  is  better 
entitled  to  speak  of  American  diplomacy,  said  of  Mr.  Wash- 
burn,  "  When  the  first  peal  of  that  awful  cannonade  burst 
upon  Paris,  all  the  other  diplomats,  every  one  of  the  lords,  and 
counts,  and  marquises  hurried  away :  Washburn  stayed  —  stayed 
through  it  all.  The  stars  and  garters  all  disappeared,  but  the 
stars  and  stripes  stood  fast.  His  house  was  pierced  with  shot. 
The  bomb-shells  fell  all  about  the  Legation,  but  he  never 
failed  one  day  nor  one  hour  from  his  post.  He  had  the  respect 
and  the  confidence  of  both  the  French  and  German  governments 
wheii  they  trusted  no  one  else.  For  weeks  he  was  the  onlv 
means  of  communication  between  the  contending  forces,  a  pure 
politician  turned  diplomat,  a  dignified,  courageous,  discreet 
American  minister." 

But  before  the  stress  of  war  came  on,  while  Mr.  Washburn 
had  hardly  yet  occupied  his  new  position,  he  recalled  the  old 
visit  of  two  years  before  with  a  touch  of  homesickness : 

"The  good  old  lady,  three  hundred  avoirdupois,  the  well- 
beloved  daughter,  the  polite  4  cabtain,'  and,  last,  little  4  Bet- 
chen.'  .  .  .  The  walk  and  the  waters  in  the  early  morning, 
the  same  simple  breakfast  brought  to  the  room,  and  the  dinner 
at  the  Kursaal.  I  often  sat  at  the  same  table  where  we  took  so 
many  meals,  and  never  without  thinking  of  you.  Homburg  was 
for  all  the  world  the  same.  The  same  sort  of  a  crowd,  the 
same  eternal  jingle  of  the  money,  the  same  imperturbable 
'  croupiers,'  and  many  of  the  self-same  persons  that  we  saw 
every  day  were  there.  Though  the  irrevocable  edict  has  gone 
forth  that  the  gambling  must  cease  in  1872,  the  effort  to  make 


190  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

everything  attractive  as  possible  has  not  abated.  There  is  the 
music,  the  theatre,  the  ball,  the  illuminations,  and  the  demi 
monde,  the  latter  more  gorgeous  than  ever.  A  still  larger  crowd 
of  Americans  were  there  than  two  years  ago,  but  I  missed  the 
pleasant  people  we  had  there,  the  Whitmans,  the  Fields,,  the 
Kings,  the  Van  Bergers,  the  Holmeses,  and  others.  .  .  . 
The  regret  at  the  removal  of  Murphy  is  very  great,  among  the 
Americans  and  Germans  equally.  Never  were  people  more 
beloved  than  both  he  and  his  wife,  and  particularly  by  the 
Frankfort  people,  who,  in  view  of  their  departure,  have  pre 
sented  them  touching  souvenirs.  Webster,  his  successor,  Ben 
Butler's  brother-in-law,  has  been  a  long  time  at  Homburg 
waiting  for  his  commission  to  come,  and  now  Kreisman  writes 
me  that  Bancroft  tells  him  that  it  is  detained  with  two  or  three 
others,  purposely,  at  the  State  Department.  This  leads  me  to 
say  that  there  have  been  many  curious  changes  made  in  the 
consuls  abroad.  .  .  .  Further  about  Homburg  people.  The 
good  madam  was  jolly  as  ever,  with  the  bright,  charming  little 
girls.  In  Paris,  for  seven  weeks,  I  was  still  unwell.  The 
weather  was  the  most  wretched  I  ever  knew,  and  on  the  whole 
I  was  not  jolly.  My  reception  was  very  cordial  and  all  that  I 
could  desire.  My  intercourse  with  the  officials  was  very  pleas 
ant.  Rouher  was  the  acting  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  when 
I  arrived,  and  he  was  particularly  cordial.  He  is  a  great  man, 
but  now  the  worst-hated  man  in  France.  His  ability  and  elo 
quence  are  conceded,  but  he  is  considered  as  utterly  without 
principle.  De  Valette,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  whom 
I  saw  often,  was  a  most  agreeable  and  charming  gentleman,  and 
I  am  sorry  the  new  deal  has  thrown  him  out.  Buiiingame 
writes  me  that  the  new  Minister  is  a  good  fellow.  I  liked 
Marshal  Neil  (now  very  ill)  and  Duruy,  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction,  very  much.  There  are  '  high  old  times '  now  in 
political  circles  in  Paris,  and  the  coming  winter  bids  fair  to  be 
a  very  interesting  one.  ...  I  think  I  shall  like  my  position 
very  well.  The  official  duties  will  not  worry  me.  The  social 
duties  are  the  most  burdensome.  ...  I  shall  not  be  lone 
some  as  I  was  at  Ragatz  when  I  saw  you  and  Justin  Morrill 
streaking  it  up  to  the  4  Hof  Ragatz.' " 

In  the  House  of  Lords  Mr.  Blaine  heard  "  a  splendid  speech 


OF   JAMES    O.    ELAINE.  191 

from  Lord  Derby,  one  of  the  most  elegant,  graceful,  and  eloquent 
men  I  ever  listened  to.  I  heard  also  moderate  speeches  from 
Lord  John  Russell  and  from  Earl  Stanhope." 

The  travellers  took  a  week  in  Scotland  exploring  the  Tros- 
sachs,  one  at  least  with  the  memory  of  his  well-beloved  Walter 
Scott  for  a  guide. 

"  Yesterday  before  starting  for  Ayr,  I  thought  I  would  look 
up  Mrs.  B. ;  but  alas !  the  directory  spoke  of  more  than  thirty 
John  B.'s,  and  at  least  a  dozen  of  the  same  business  that  I 
knew  John  B.  pursued.  But  I  looked  them  all  over  carefully 
and  found  one  whose  residence  was  at  5  Royal  crescent.  I  said, 
4  That  is  highly  genteel,  and  that  must  be  the  one.'  So  at  9 
o'clock  I  took  a  cab  and  posted  away  off  a  mile  and  a  half,  and 
stopped  in  front  of  an  elegant  house  in  the  most  aristocratic 
section  of  the  city.  A  tidy  Scotch  serving-maid  answered  the 
bell.  4  Does  Mr.  Black  live  here  ?  '  4  Yeas,  but  he  bes  gone 
down  to  his  business.'  '  Well,  is  Mrs.  Black  in  ?  '  rejoined  I, 
adding  that  I  was  not  sure  I  was  at  the  right  house.  4 1  trow 
you  are,'  said  she, *  for  Mrs.  Black  is  an  American  ! ' ' 

August  24  they  sailed  for  America  in  the  "  Persia,"  and 
Mr.  Blaine  reached  Maine  in  season  to  vote  at  the  September 
election. 

On  the  day  of  his  departure  from  home  he  had  written  to  his 
mother  : 

44 1  sail  for  Europe  to-day  on  the  Cunard  steamer  '  China,'  a 
fine  boat,  and  you  must  not  feel  uneasy  about  me." 

He  had  hardly  returned  before  he  was  asking  her,  "  What 
are  your  desires  as  to  the  winter?  T  mean  for  yourself  and 
Maggie.  It  is  my  wish  that  you  select  just  the  place  you  may 
desire  to  pass  the  winter.  It  is  not  for  me  to  suggest  where  you 
had  better  go  —  you  and  Maggie  can  judge  far  better  in  regard  to 
that  point  than  I  can  ;  and  as  it  more  immediately  and  directly 
concerns  you,  I  desire  you  to  settle  it  for  yourself." 

Mr.  Blaine  derived  health  and  pleasure  from  his  foreign  jour 
ney,  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  he  needed  it.  Amusement 
he  always  found  in  his  work.  Intellectual  occupation  was  his 
panacea.  A  definite  purpose  gave  him  bounding  health.  "  Cam 
paigning  "  was  to  him  a  recreation,  not  an  exhaustion.  His 
neighbors  say  that  he  did  more  service  on  the  stump  than  any 


192  KTOGJtAPHV    OF    JAMES    (}.     HLATNE. 

other  man  in  Maine.  With  a  horse  and  buggy,  sometimes  with 
two  horses,  and  generally  accompanied  by  some  member  of  his 
family,  he  drove  over  the  hills,  through  the  woods,  along  the 
shores,  of  the  picturesque  State. 

To  stop  in  some  pleasant  village,  or  by  some  pleasant  pond,  and 
talk  under  the  trees  for  an  hour  or  two  on  a  theme  with  which 
he  was  entirely  conversant,  and  in  which  he  was  deeply  inter 
ested,  to  a  great  company  of  friends  and  neighbors,  who  had 
come  from  far  and  near  to  hear  him,  who  listened  intently  and 
responded  quickly,  — •  what  was  it  all  but  a  festivity,  an  exhila 
ration,  no  labor ;  and  the  hearty  greetings,  the  sympathetic  and 
often  humorous  advice  and  comment,  the  quick  mother-wit,  were 
a  stimulus  both  to  heart  and  mind.  He  had  great  respect  for 
his  audiences,  and  never  found  it  necessary  to  talk  down  to  an 
assumed  lower  level,  but  paid  them  the  compliment  of  addressing 
them  on  his  own  level.  Speaking  in  the  open  air  he  considered 
as  good  as  gymnastics,  especially  for  the  chest  exercise,  and  it 
gave  him  no  sense  of  fatigue.  Generally  he  avoided  hotels,  and 
was  greatly  humored  in  such  avoidance  by  the  hospitality  which 
opened  all  houses  to  him,  not  only  as  an  honored  but  as  an 
entertaining  guest.  His  bearing  was  so  simple  and  gentle,  his 
interest  in  others  so  sincere,  his  talk  so  earnest  and  informing, 
that  men  and  women,  alike  the  cultured  and  the  unlearned, 
were  eager  to  welcome  him,  and  by  these  excursions  he  made 
and  kept  himself  acquainted  with  the  people,  diffused  his  own 
spirit  around  him,  and  felt  himself  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  pop 
ular  currents. 

As  his  family  had  grown  in  numbers  and  stature  the  old  home 
had  grown  straitened,  and  he  had  bought  a  house  adjoining  the 
State  House,  so  that  the  State  House  grounds  simply  enlarged 
his  own.  In  a  far  corner,  near  the  river  which  flowed  by  out 
of  sight  beyond  its  high  north  bank,  was  "  the  governor's 
grave,"  where  lay  buried  the  young  Governor  Lincoln  who 
died  in  office;  to  this  grave  led  a  path  bordered  by  elms;  all 
through  these  grounds  and  through  the  State  House  woods  and 
Mulliken's  farm,  and  up  the  Betsy  Howard  hill,  and  by  Canada 
brook  he  rambled  and  roved  with  his  children  and  neighbors 
and  friends,  in  ever  fresh  and  keen  enjoyment  of  the  common 
lot  of  life.  As  the  children  went  from  under  his  roof  to  school 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAM  EX    G.     BLAJNE.  193 

and  brought  young  friends  home  with  them,  and  the  outside 
world  came  in  upon  him  faster  and  thicker,  this  second  house 
had  to  be  enlarged,  and  every  summer  the  home  was  radiant 
and  not  infrequently  rampant  with  life.  The  croquet  mallet 
and  the  tennis  racket  and  the  billiard  cue  kept  the  balls  in 
steady  leap,  and  no  carriage  was  too  fine  and  no  go-cart  too 
shabby  for  climbing  the  far-off  hills  or  winding  along  the  river ; 
and  if  there  was  a  lull  in  politics  there  was  always  theology 
to  fall  back  upon,  in  which  the  youngest  child  showed  interest 
as  soon  as  he  could  articulate  ;  and  the  old  questions  of  litera 
ture  are  new  to  every  generation.  Fresh  visitors  have  been 
startled  in  the  early  morning  by  hearing  mysterious  voices  of 
disputation  ;  and  inspection  has  revealed  a  boy's  unkempt  head 
stretched  far  out  of  window  arguing  with  other  unkempt  heads 
stretched  out  of  other  windows,  at  various  angles,  all  bear 
ing  down  hard  on  some  insoluble  problem  which  they  had  fallen 
asleep  over  the  night  before.  Frequent  also  were  excursions 
along  the  coast,  taking  on  all  the  traits  of  a  pleasure  party, 
though  generally  with  some  political  or  business  aim  to  give  it 
purpose  and  reason  to  be,  and  usually  some  outside  friends  to 
impart  to  it  the  grateful  touch  of  hospitality.  It  was  a  breezy, 
healthful,  stirring,  satisfying  life,  in  which  work  was  the  under 
lying  earth  and  pleasure  the  overspringing  bloom. 

In  work,  in  bringing  knowledge  and  power  to  bear  on  some 
beneficent  end,  Mr.  Blaine  was  always  happy  ;  and  the  larger 
and  loftier  the  aim,  the  more  buoyantly,  almost  boyishly,  was 
he  happy.  Work  seemed  never  to  exhaust  him.  He  wore  out 
every  one  else,  but  himself  remained  bright  and  elastic.  He 
had  the  inestimable  gift  of  sleep,  at  convenience,  in  continu 
ance.  For  him  indeed  there  was  no  such  thing  as  work  ;  it  was 
merely  expression. 

In  the  course  of  the  summer  he  would  strike  off  from  all 
business  to  drink  the  waters  of  Saratoga,  or  he  would  run  up 
for  a  few  days  with  as  many  of  his  family  as  were  foot-free  to 
Poland  Springs.  In  the  cooler  weather  he  would  go  down  from 
Washington  for  ti  week  to  the  White  Sulphur  Springs  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  once  he  even  adventured  the  Hot  Springs  of  Arkan 
sas.  His  journeys  to  his  Pennsylvania  properties,  or  on  political 
missions,  always  seemed  like  celebrations,  so  welcome  was  he  to 


194  mOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    JILAINJS. 

his  old  neigborhood  and  to  his  old  State.  It  is  pleasant  to 
think  that  the  two  communities  of  his  birth  and  of  his  adoption 
held  him  in  equal  confidence,  honor,  and  love,  as  one  alto 
gether  unique  and  worshipful,  and  that  he  lost  nothing  even 
of  the  satisfactions  of  the  heart  by  his  northward  migration, 
and  perhaps  added  by  the  transplantation  —  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  growing  things  —  to  his  mental  equipment  and  his 
moral  force. 

But  always  he  went  back  to  Congress  with  fresh  energy,  and 
especially  was  he  earnest  and  untiring  in  working  for  the  weak 
against  the  strong,  in  helping  the  South  to  recover  from  the 
war,  in  extending  all  the  benefits  of  the  Union,  while  seeing 
that  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  received  no  detriment. 

One  of  the  most  important  steps  in  the  great  work  of  recon 
struction  was  the  amendment  of  the  Constitution  regarding  the 
basis  of  suffrage.  Mr.  Elaine,  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress, 
made  the  first  argument  against  the  plan  of  basing  representa 
tion  on  voters,  and  presented  and  urged  the  plan  of  basing  it 
upon  population.  Fully  sharing  the  sense  of  justice  which  had 
inspired  the  first  plan,  he  aimed  to  secure  its  benefits  without 
incurring  its  evils.  Its  object  was  to  deprive  the  lately  rebel 
lious  States  of  the  unfair  advantage  of  a  large  representation 
in  Congress  based  on  the  colored  population,  while  that  popula 
tion  was  denied  political  rights.  But  women,  children,  and  other 
non-voters  lie  maintained  may  have  as  vital  an  interest  in  the 
legislation  of  the  country  as  have  voters,  and  if  persons  be 
excluded  from  the  basis  of  representation,  they  should  be  ex 
cluded  also  from  the  basis  of  taxation.  The  ratio  of  voters  to 
population  varies  from  nineteen  to  fifty-eight  per  cent.,  and 
hence  would  come  gross  inequalities  of  representation.  To  make 
voters  the  basis  of  representation  "  would  cheapen  suffrage ; 
would  cause  an  unseemly  scramble  to  increase  voters,  and  the 
ballot,  which  cannot  be  too  sacredly  guarded,  would  be  de 
moralized  and  disgraced  everywhere." 

His  proposition  was  that  representation  and  direct  taxes 
should  be  apportioned  according  to  the  population,  and  that  the 
population  should  be  determined  after  excepting  all  to  whom 
civil  or  political  rights  or  privileges  should  be  denied  or  abridged 
on  account  of  race  or  color. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    (7.     HLATNE.  1U6 

" .  .  .  No  statistics  show  any  loss  to  Maine,  and  on  sev 
eral  theories  we  gain  one  member.  My  opposition,  therefore, 
is  not  grounded  on  local  selfishness,  but  upon  the  belief  that 
the  principle  is  a  dangerous  one ;  that  it  is  an  abandonment  of 
one  of  the  oldest  and  safest  landmarks  of  the  Constitution,  and 
that  it  is  a  most  perilous  leap  in  the  dark.  It  introduces  a  new 
principle  in  our  government,  whose  evil  tendency  and  results 
no  man  can  measure  to-day." 

Apportionment  on  the  basis  of  voters  was  abandoned,  and  Mr. 
Blaine's  proposition  was  substantially  embodied  in  the  Four 
teenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution. 

He  was  equally  strenuous  against  any  measure  that  should 
place  the  South  under  military  government  without,  at  the  same 
time,  prescribing  the  methods  by  which  the  people  could  by  their 
own  action,  reestablish  civil  government.  To  this  end  he  offered 
"  the  Blaine  amendment,"  making  impartial  suffrage  the  way  of 
escape  from  "military  police"  -which  also  was  subsequently 
embodied  in  the  reconstruction  laws. 

In  March,  1865,  defending  an  amendment  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  which  should  strike  out  the  clause  that  forbids  the  taxing 
of  exports,  in  a  speech,  which  caused  an  extraordinary  agitation 
throughout  the  country,  he  had  declared  that  in  the  future  of 
our  country  "  the  great  task  and  test  of  statesmanship  will  be 
in  the  administration  of  our  finances,  and  the  wise  distribution 
of  the  burdens  of  taxation.  ...  An  immense  amount  of 
money  will  be  required  to  meet  the  interest  of  our  National 
debt,  to  maintain  our  army  and  navy  —  even  on  a  peace  founda 
tion,  and  to  defray  the  ordinary  expenses  of  civil  government. 
The  revenue  for  these  objects  may  be  raised  so  injudiciously  as 
to  cripple  and  embarrass  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests 
of  the  whole  country ;  or  on  the  other  hand,  the  requisite  tax 
may  be  so  equitably  distributed  and  so  skilfully  assessed  that 
the  burden  will  be  inappreciable  to  the  public.  Whoever,  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  shall  accomplish  the  latter  and 
avoid  the  former  result,  must  be  armed  with  a  plenitude  of  power 
in  the  premises.  He  must  have  open  to  him  the  three  great 
avenues  of  taxation  —  the  tariff,  the  excise  system,  and  the 
duties  on  exports ;  and  must  be  empowered  to  use  each  in  its 


196  BTOGitAprrr   OF  JAMEK   o.    KLAINE. 

appropriate  place  by  Congressional  legislation.  At  present  only 
two  of  these  modes  of  taxation  are  available,  and  the  absence 
of  the  third  takes  from  the  general  government  half  the  regu 
lation  of  trade.  It  is  for  Congress  to  say  whether  the  people 
shall  have  an  opportunity  to  change  the  organic  law  in  this  im 
portant  respect,  or  whether  with  a  blind  disregard  of  the  future 
we  shall  rush  forward,  reckless  of  the  financial  disasters  that 
may  result  from  a  failure  to  do  our  duty  here. 

"  I  do  not  know  whether  there  is  the  slightest  hope  that  this 
amendment  will  be  adopted,  but  I  believe,  with  the  old  Cove 
nanters  of  Scotland,  that  it  is  sometimes  valuable  to  bear  testi 
mony  against  a  wrong  which  we  are  unable  to  resist.  I  think 
the  tax  on  raw  cotton  is  altogether  the  most  extraordinary  that 
was  ever  laid  by  an  intelligent  government.  Six  years  ago, 
when  the  war  began,  we  had  a  monopoly  of  this  article  in  the 
markets  of  the  world.  The  course  and  events  of  the  war 
robbed  us  of  that  monopoly.  The  system  of  labor  on  whicli 
the  cotton  culture  rested  was  utterly  destroyed  —  destroyed  as 
a  necessity  of  war  and  for  the  permanent  welfare  of  the  nation, 
as  well  as  to  vindicate  the  right  of  every  man  to  personal 
freedom.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  war  in  its  ravages  consumed 
the  horses,  the  mules,  and  the  farming  implements  of  the 
South,  laying  waste  the  plantations  and  using  up  the  accu 
mulated  wealth  and  the  reserved  capital  of  the  South.  Brazil, 
Central  America,  the  West  Indies,  Egypt,  Australia,  and  the 
East  Indies  were  greatly  stimulated  and  encouraged  to  engage 
in  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  and  hence  during  the  five  years  in 
which  the  business  was  practically  suspended  in  the  United 
States,  every  other  country  in  the  world,  where  the  climate  and 
soil  are  suitable,  engaged  in  the  effort  with  great  zeal  and 
enterprise. 

"  We  now  desire  to  regain  our  ascendency,  and  the  first  step 
which  Congress  takes  is  to  impose  a  heavy  tax  of  $15  on  each 
and  every  bale  of  cotton  before  it  can  be  removed  from  the 
plantation  where  it  is  raised.  It  seems  to  me  that  absurdity 
cannot  go  further  ;  that  if  we  had  specially  designed  to  lay  a 
great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  ever  reviving  the  cotton  busi 
ness  in  this  country,  we  could  not  have  invented  a  more  certain 
and  efficient  mode.  The  fate  of  the  negro  and  the  cotton  plant  in 


BJOGKAPTfY    OF    JAUfKS    (1.     BLAINK.  197 

this  country  seems  to  be  inclissolubly  connected,  and  just  in  the 
degree  that  we  retard  the  cotton  culture  we  retard  the  progress 
and  the  profit  of  negro  labor.  In  urging  the  repeal  of  the  cot 
ton  tax,  therefore,  I  feel  that  I  am  most  effectively  pleading  the 
cause  of  the  emancipated  negroes  of  the  Southern  States. 

"  The  idea  that  we  are  punishing  the  South  by  this  tax  (which 
some  gentlemen  advance)  is  utterly  delusive,  if  it  were  not 
indeed  unworthy.  The  cotton  tax  is  not  an  injury  to.  the 
South  merely,  but  to  the  whole  country,  and  quite  as  great  an 
injury  to  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  interest  as  it  is  to 
the  agricultural.  Resentment  is  always  an  unsafe  basis  for 
legislation.  Let  us  remember  that  a  heavy  export  of  cotton 
with  cheap  cotton  at  home  is  among  the  most  desirable  objects 
for  the  whole  country  that  can  possibly  be  obtained ;  that  the 
tax  of  815  per  bale  is  not  merely  an  oppression  and  a  hindrance 
to  cotton-growing  in  the  United  States,  but  that  it  is  a  bounty 
and  a  stimulus  to  cotton-growing  in  Egypt,  in  India,  and 
everywhere  else  that  the  plant  can  be  successfully  cultivated. 

"  We  may,  I  know,  get  several  millions  per  annum  from  the 
tax,  but  every  dollar  derived  from  this  source  is  a  loss  of  f  5  in  its 
adverse  effects  on  other  business  interests  of  the  country.  It 
is  a  tax,  in  short,  Mr.  Chairman,  which  we  cannot  afford  to 
collect." 

Refusing  to  take  a  questionable  advantage  even  for  the  Re 
publican  party,  Mr.  Blaine  directed  attention  to  the  fact  that 
k4  we  have  had  an  able  committee  of  this  House  diligently  at 
work  on  the  question  of  loyalty  or  disloyalty  of  Mr.  B.,  and 
after  seven  or  eight  months'  investigation  the  committee  re 
ported  that  his  record  was  disloyal.  It  took  nine  astute  men, 
with  all  the  powers  of  investigation  that  this  House  could 
clothe  them  with,  to  find  out  that  fact,  and  then  the  com 
mittee  could  not  agree.  .  .  . 

"I  desire  to  know,  if  this  doctrine  be  laid  down,  how  an}r 
constituency,  in  the  disturbed  condition  of  the  Southern  States, 
could  ever  be  sure  that  they  were  to  have  a  foothold  in  this 
House  \)y  giving  this  man  or  that  man  a  certificate  of  election. 
The  power  of  the  House  is  ample  ;  it  has  been  exercised,  and 
exercised  with  tremendous  power,  in  refusing  to  let  Mr.  B. 


198  BTOCRAPJfY    OF    JAMES    G.     P.LATNE. 

take  the  oath  and  assume  a  seat  in  this  House,  and  I  —  one 
among  the  majority  —  voted  to  refuse  him  the  right  to  sit  here ; 
but  I  am  not  going  to  turn  round  thereafter,  and  with  this 
House  elect  a  man  to  represent  that  district.  Let  them  have 
another  chance.  If  they  send  a  loyal  man  here  with  a  majority 
vote,  he  shall  take  the  oath.  If  they  send  a  disloyal  man  here, 
we  will  send  him  back.  We  can  stand  that  just  as  long  as  the 
second  district  in  Kentucky  can  stand  it.  ... 

"  If  there  were  anything  decided  by  the  election  in  this  dis 
trict  of  Kentucky,  it  was  that  they  did  not  want  Mr.  S.  to  rep 
resent  them.  Now  it  appears  to  me  to  be  stretching  technical 
constitution  to  the  last  point,  where  it  cracks  and  where  it 
breaks,  if  you  are  going  to  hold  up  nine,  ten,  or  twenty  thou 
sand  men  to  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  precise  political 
record  of  the  various  candidates  asking  their  suffrage.  We 
have  a  peculiar  case  pending  now,  I  believe,  before  the  Com 
mittee  of  Election.  One  of  the  gentlemen  from  Tennessee, 
who  is  in  sympathy  with  this  side  of  the  House,  was  arrested 
ut  the  Speaker's  desk  on  the  first  day  of  the  session,  and  was 
not  allowed  to  take  the  oath  because  he  had  once  taken  an 
oath  to  support  the  confederate  constitution.  If  the  Com 
mittee  of  Election  shall  report  that  he  is  ineligible  on  that 
account,  why  of  course  then  this  copperhead  competitor  by  this 
construction  comes  immediately  in." 

ELDRIDGE.  —  I  rise  to  a  question  of  order.  I  insist  that  the 
term  copperhead  is  not  parliamentary. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  recall  the  word.  I  never  used  it  before  in 
a  debate  here.  I  will  say  his  Democratic  competitor. 

The  Speaker  overruled  the  point  of  order  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  not  speaking  of  any  gentleman  in  the  House,  but  Mr. 
Blaine  refused  to  be  thus  upheld :  "  I  did  not  withdraw  the 
word  as  a  question  of  order.  I  should  have  told  the  gentleman 
that  he  had  made  no  point  of  order.  As  a  question  of  taste 
I  confess  that  I  have  transgressed,  and  as  a  question  of  taste  I 
change  the  word.  It  was  in  bad  taste,  as  it  always  is,  to  use 
offensive  political  epithets  in  debate.  To  resume  the  line  of 
my  argument :  I  am  unwilling  to  lay  down  a  precedent  affect 
ing  the  other  side  of  the  House,  that  I  would  not  be  willing  to 
follow  for  this  side  of  the  House.  And  it  does  seem  to 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     PLAINS.  199 

me  that  it  is  a  most  extraordinary  proposition  —  and  I  say  it 
with  all  due  respect  to  the  admirable  arguments  that  have  been 
made  on  that  side  —  the  most  extraordinary  proposition  that  I 
ever  knew  advanced  here  in  an  election  case,  that  the  House 
should  deliberately  declare  that  a  man  who  has  a  pitiful  minor 
ity  of  the  votes  in  the  discussion  shall  be  declared  here  en 
titled  to  the  seat." 

The  same  scruplous  respect  for  the  will  of  the  people  as  the 
foundation  of  government  is  everywhere  seen.  On  the  bill 
concerning  land-grants  to  Southern  railroads:  "  We  expect 
within  the  next  few  weeks,  or  at  most  the  next  few  months, 
these  States  which  are  to  be  immediately  affected  by  this 
legislation  will  be  represented  on  this  floor,  that  those  States 
will  have  on  this  floor  Representatives  in  the  interest  of  the 
very  class  in  whose  behalf  he  advocates  the  passage  of  this  bill. 
Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  it  not  at  least  fair  that  before  passing  a 
bill  of  this  kind  we  should  wait  until  these  Representatives 
shall  come  upon  this  floor  and  be  heard  in  their  own  behalf? 
They  should  be  heard  on  this  subject  as  the  Representatives 
and  Senators  from  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  have  been  heard. 
Why,  just  as  the  reconstruction  system  is  approaching  its  con 
summation,  should  we  rush  through  a  bill  of  this  kind  ?  I 
greatly  distrust  the  wisdom  of  denying  to  these  Southern  States 
the  means  of  finishing  their  lines  of  transportation.  If  these 
lands  were  ever  necessary  to  those  States,  I  believe  them  to  be 
much  more  necessary  to-day  than  they  were  at  the  time  when 
they  were  originally  granted.  I  do  not  say  that  I  shall  vote  in 
favor  of  a  renewal  of  those  grants.  I  have  not  voted  for  other 
land-grants  this  session.  But  we  lose  nothing  by  waiting.  To 
the  accusation  that  they  were  rebels  and  lost  by  war,  if  the 
Southern  country  is  ever  to  be  built  up  again,  then  upon  those 
lines  of  railroad  depends  the  future  of  the  South,  just  as  if  rebels 
never  had  anything  to  do  with  them.  We  do  not  propose  to 
have  the  rebels  here.  Reconstruction  is  to  bring  loyal  men 
here,  and  the  best  loyal  men.  Why,  then,  cannot  the  gentle 
men  wait  until  they  get  here  ?  " 

In  the  same  spirit  of  justice  lie  opposed  anything  like  the 


200  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

exclusion  of  the  South  from  West  Point.  k>  I  differ  entirely 
with  the  committee.  I  do  not  believe  in  punishing  children 
in  the  rebel  States.  When  this  war  began  the  persons  eligible 
to  be  appointed  to  West  Point  were  nine,  ten,  or  eleven  years 
of  age,  and  I  do  not  propose  to  punish  them  for  the  faults  of 
their  fathers." 

Being  answered  that  it  punished  no  children,  but  merely 
provides  that  no  rebel  should  be  admitted  to  West  Point,  he 
answered :  u  I  am  opposed  to  keeping  up  this  imaginary  line.'' 
"  I  should  think  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  would  see  - 
if  I  had  not  a  great  respect  for  him,  I  would  say  — the  absurdity 
of  such  a  notion." 

At  the  time  when  all  were  angry  with  President  Johnson, 
when  he  was  called  on  the  floor  kk  His  Royal  Highness,"  and  had 
made  inquiry  of  the  Attorney-General  if  he  could  turn  Con 
gress  out  of  the  House,  Mr.  Elaine  insisted  that  it  was  "  perfectly 
absurd,  to  use  a  strong  phrase,  when  the  business  of  all  the  other 
departments  has  increased  three,  four,  five,  and  six  fold,  and  ab 
solutely  requires  a  proportionate  addition  of  clerical  force,  to 
suppose  that  the  Executive  Department,  which  is  the  head  of 
the  whole,  should  need  no  more  clerical  assistance  than  in  the  days 
of  Madison.  .  .  .  Every  one  knows  that  the  business  of  the 
Executive  Department  has  increased  enormously  of  late,  .  .  . 
and  I  ask  any  gentleman  if  it  be  at  all  possible  for  the  execu 
tive  head  of  all  the  departments  to  get  along  with  precisely 
the  same  number  of  secretaries  and  clerks  that  he  had  five  years 
ago.  I  think  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  is  wrong." 

Offering  communication  from  Judge  Advocate-General  Holt: 
"  The  report  is  clear  and  explicit,  and  nothing  I  can  say  will 
add  to  it.  If  gentlemen  will  not  listen  to  what  the  Judge 
Advocate  writes,  I  am  sure  they  will  not  listen  to  what  I  may 
say.  I  move  the  previous  question." 

"  I  give  notice  of  a  vote  soon,  so  that  gentlemen  may  not 
consider  the  question  as  sprung  upon  them  when  I  call  it  up." 

"  I  understand  perfectly  well  that  gentlemen  on  the  other 
side  desire  this  bill  shall  not  by  any  possibility  go  to  the  Presi 
dent  till  morning,  but  they  must  see  very  plainly  that  it  is  now 
impossible  it  should  go  to  him  before  to-morrow.,  I  appreciate 


1UOGRAPIIY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  201 

their  motives.  They  have  the  power,  and  I  am  willing  they 
should  exercise  it.  But  it  is  a  mere  capricious  demand  on 
their  part  that  this  bill  shall  again  be  postponed  a  whole  day/' 

"  Unanimous  consent,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  is  only 
another  name  for  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  House.  It 
was  gross  negligence  in  this  case." 

"  I  move  to  strike  out,  and  insert  4  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Seriate.'  The  appointing  power  is  vested  by  the  Constitution 
in  the  President  of  the  United  States.  The  secretaries  aje  but 
his  servants,  and  we  do  not  intend  to  invest  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  with  a  power  distinct  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States/' 

As  a  specimen  of  Mr.  Blaine's  parliamentary  manner  we  may 
refer  to  his  conduct  of  the  Army  Appropriation  Bill  shortly 
before  he  was  elected  Speaker : 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Before  the  Clerk  proceeds  to  read  the  bill 
for  amendment,  I  desire  to  make  a  statement  in  reference 
to  the  aggregate  amount  of  the  appropriations  comprised  in 
the  bill. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  total  amount  appropriated  by  the 
bill  is  $43,199,500.  ...  I  desire  for  myself  to  say  now, 
as  1  said  then,  that  it  is  my  conviction  that  the  army  ought  to 
be  reduced.  I  had  the  honor  to  introduce  last  year  a  provision 
in  the  Army  Appropriation  Bill  for  the  reduction  of  the  army, 
which  did  not  meet  with  the  concurrence  or  approval  of  the 
House.  .  .  .  Therefore,  the  Committee  on  Appropriations 
have  not  this  year  made  any  recommendation  touching  that 
question.  But  in  order  to  preserve  my  own  consistency,  which 
is  important  to  me  if  not  to  other  people,  I  hold  now  that  in 
stead  of  sixty  regiments,  this  Congress,  or,  if  not,  the  very  next, 
ought  to  provide  for  the  reduction  of  the  army  to  thirty  regi 
ments,  or  just  one-half  what  it  now  is. 

General  Grant,  as  General-in-Chief  of  the  Army  during  the 
past  year,  has  done  everything  within  the  existing  law,  and 
under  the  power  that  the  law  confers  upon  him,  to  reduce  the 
army.  All  that  it  contains  now,  with  its  sixty  regiments  of 


202  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

enlisted  men  and  non-commissioned  officers,  is  about  forty-nine 
thousand.  That  is  nearly  the  minimum  of  the  army,  and  yet  we 
have  the  same  number  of  officers.  There  are  between  twenty- 
eight  and  twenty-nine  hundred  officers  on  the  pay-roll,  which,  in 
my  judgment,  is  a  larger  number  than  it  ought  to  be,  and  more 
than  Congress  ought  to  allow.  But  as  the  army  is  now  cir 
cumstanced,  with  the  exigencies  which  seem  to  be  upon  it  with 
reference  to  army  operations,  the  Committee  on  Appropriations 
have  not  felt  at  liberty  to  readjust  its  proportions  by  this  bill 
to  what  they  believe  the  size  of  the  army  ought  to  be,  but  have 
felt  it  their  duty  to  report  the  appropriations  for  it  under  ex 
isting  law,  leaving  to  the  appropriate  committees  of  the  House 
itself  to  give  directions  as  to  whether  the  army  shall  be 
reduced.  With  this  explanation  I  ask  that  the  bill  be  read  for 
amendment. 

Mr.  BROOKS.  —  I  would  ask  the  gentleman  if  tinder  the 
rules,  orders,  and  proceedings  of  this  House  it  is  practicable 
during  this  session  to  pass  an  act  reducing  the  army  from  sixty 
to  thirty  regiments  save  in  this  bill  ? 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  am  very  glad  to  answer  the  gentleman.  If 
by  unanimous  consent  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means,  or  the  gentleman  from  Illinois,  who  opposed  my 
proposition  last  year,  could  to-day  move  to  put  a  proviso  in 
this  bill  for  the  reduction  of  the  army,  I  would  be  glad  to  have 
it  done.  Or  if  any  one  else  will  move  it,  it  will  gratify  me.  I 
decline  to  do  it  myself,  because,  having  been  voted  down  last 
year,  I  do  not  choose  to  run  the  hazard  of  a  second  rebuff.  No 
one  would  support  such  a  proposition  more  cheerfully  than 
myself.  It  need  not  be  moved  now :  it  can  be  done  at  any 
stage  of  the  bill. 

Mr.  BROOKS.  —  To  what  committee  does  this  business  appro 
priately  belong  ? 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  To  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  of 
course. 

Mr.  BROOKS.  —  Will  that  committee  or  the  Committee  on 
the  Militia  have  any  opportunity  to  report  before  the  fourth  of 
March  ? 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  think  not.  ...  I  have  a  suggestion 
which  I  think  is  practicable.  This  is  Friday ;  the  bill  will  be 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     HLAJNK.  203 

considered  about  one  hour  to-day,  and  I  think  it  will  be  possi 
ble  to  get  through  it  to-morrow,  when  it  will  be  reported  to  the 
House.  I  will  not  call  the  previous  question  till  Monday, 
which  is  suspension  day.  In  the  meantime,  if  any  gentleman 
can  devise  a  plan  for  the  reduction  of  the  army  which  will 
meet  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds  of  the  House,  it  will  bring 
it  within  the  power  of  two-thirds  under  the  rule  to  act  upon  the 
proposition. 

Mr.  WOOD.  —  I  have  not  wished  to  interrupt  this  interesting 
discussion  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House.  Per 
haps  it  would  be  as  well  to  leave  it  to  them,  as  the  responsi 
bility  rests  with  them.  But  I  wish  to  remind  the  House  and 
the  country  that  we  have  repeated  discussions  of  this  character 
by  the  gentlemen  who  have  recently  participated  in  this  discus 
sion,  proposing  a  reduction  of  the  army  and  of  the  great  expend 
itures  which  grow  out  of  the  army.  It  is  about  time  that  we 
should  have  a  practical  reduction  of  the  army,  which  has  been 
so  often  promised.  Although  the  war  has  been  closed  for  now 
nearly  four  years,  and  although  it  is  contrary  to  the  genius 
of  the  country  to  keep  up  a  standing  army  in  a  time  of  pro 
found  peace,  yet  this  bill  proposes  to  tax  the  people  of  the 
country  over  $43,000,000  to  maintain  an  army  at  this 

time one-sixth  of  the  whole  amount  required  to  be  raised  for 

the  support  of  the  entire  government  of  the  country.  This  is 
proposed  for  the  support  of  an  army  when  no  necessity  exists 
for  an  army  of  over  six  or  eight  thousand  men.  I  think  the 
country,  like  myself,  is  tired  of  hearing  of  a  reduction  of  the 
army  when  there  is  no  practical  proposition  to  reduce  the  army, 
and  when  the  majority  in  Congress  persist  in  maintaining 
the  present  large  army,  for  the  support  of  which  this  bill 
appropriates  money.  Our  avenues  and  streets  are  filled  with 
generals  and  major-generals  and  captains  and  colonels  draw 
ing  full  pay,  while  the  poor  tax-payer  is  overburdened  with 
unnecessary  taxation,  wrung  from  him  for  the  purpose  of 
supporting  these  idle  vagabonds,  who  are  so  well  paid  and  do 
nothing. 

I  ask,  therefore,  that  we  shall  have  some  practical  proposition 
presented  to   us  on   this  subject.     I  ask  the  gentlemen  on  the 


204  HIOGRAP1IY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

other  side  to  show  that  they  are  acting  in  good  faith  by  com 
mencing  an  actual  reduction  of  the  army.  I  want  to  see  these 
$43,000,000  cut  down  to  what  it  was  before  the  war. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  It  was  $22,000,000  before  the  war. 

Mr.  WOOD.  —  I  wish  the  gentleman  to  tell  the  country  why, 
although  the  war  has  closed  for  almost  four  years,  we  are  called 
upon  at  this  day  to  appropriate  these  immense  sums  of  money 
for  the  support  of  the  army. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  During  Buchanan's  administration  of  four 
years  the  annual  expenditures  for  the  support  of  the  army,  as 
the  gentleman  will  find  by  reference  to  the  documents,  were 
$22,000,000  in  gold  for  nineteen  regiments.  While  I  will  go  as 
far  as  the  farthest  in  favor  of  a  just  reduction  of  the  expenditures 
of  the  government,  I  wish  the  House  to  understand  that  the 
rate  of  expenditure  for  the  army  under  the  administration  of 
James  Buchanan  was  greater  than  at  any  time  during  the  last 
eight  years.  This  bill  only  proposes  about  $700,000  in  paper 
for  each  regiment,  when  during  the  administration  of  James 
Buchanan  before  the  war  the  cost  of  supporting  a  regiment  was 
a  little  in  excess  of  $1,000,000  in  gold. 

Mr.  WOOD.  —  I  know  that  the  gentleman  from  Maine  is  ex 
ceedingly  ingenious  in  making  the  worse  appear  the  better 
reason.  I  will  remind  him  that  under  Buchanan's  administra 
tion  we  had  to  suppress  a  rebellion  in  the  Western  country. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  There  were  only  nineteen  regiments  employed, 
and  not  a  single  extra  regiment  was  called  into  service. 

Mr.  FARNS WORTH. —  I  hope  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  will 
submit  his  amendment,  so  that  we  may  have  it  printed  and 
before  us  for  our  consideration. 

Mr.  ELAINE. —  That  consent  having  been  given,  the  proper 
place  for  the  amendment  will  be  at  the  end  of  the  bill. 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  —  Of  course. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  hope  it  will  be  printed  for  use  to-morrow, 
as  I  hope  to  be  able  to  get  through  with  this  bill  to-morrow. 
Unanimous  consent  having  been  given,  it  will  not  be  necessary 
to  carry  this  bill  over  to  suspension  day. 

Mr.  LAWRENCE,  of  Ohio.  —  Will  the  gentleman  yield  to  me 
for  a  moment  ? 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <V.     BLAINE.  205 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  LAWRENCE,  of  Ohio.  —  I  ask  unanimous  consent  of  the 
committee  that  other  amendments  may  be  offered  to  this  bill 
providing  for  the  consolidation  of  the  regiments  of  the  army 
and  the  mustering  out  of  the  necessary  officers. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  The  permission  given  to  the  Committee  on 
Military  Affairs  covers  the  whole  ground. 

Before  the  committee  is  compelled  to  rise  I  desire  that 
some  little  progress  may  be  made  in  the  consideration  of 
this  bill.  I  wish  only  to  say  this  for  the  benefit  of  gentle 
men  on  my  right  and  my  left :  this  matter  is  now  exactly  in 
the  position  where  it  should  be.  The  Committee  on  Appro 
priations  tried  their  hands  last  winter  at  the  work  of  reducing 
the  army,  and  met  with  such  discouraging  results  from  the 
action  of  the  House  that  they  are  not  very  eager  to  try  their 
hands  at  it  again.  It  belongs  properly  to  the  Committee  on 
Military  Affairs,  and  I  think  the  responsibility  has  now  been 
very  properly  shifted  to  their  shoulders.  Unanimous  consent 
having  been  given  for  the  introduction  of  a  measure  looking  to 
the  reduction  of  the  army,  the  whole  question  will  be  opened, 
and  all  amendments  pertinent  to  the  subject  will  be  in  order. 

Mr.  WINDOM.  —  I  would  like  to  know  whether  that  will 
enable  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  to  introduce  an 
amendment  contemplating  a  reform  with  reference  to  commu 
tation  of  quarters,  subsistence,  etc.,  in  connection  with  which 
there  has  been  so  much  swindling  of  the  government  ? 

Mr.  GARFIELD.  —  And  I  will  inquire  whether  we  shall  be 
permitted  to  submit  a  proposition  for  the  transfer  of  the  Indian 
Bureau  to  the  War  Department?  (Laughter.) 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  decline  to  yield  further.  I  ask  that  the  bill 
be  now  read  for  amendment. 

The  Clerk  proceeded  to  read  the  bill  by  paragraphs  for 
amendment,  and  read  the  following : 

"  For  expenses  of  recruiting  and  transportation  of  recruits, 
$300,000." 

Mr.  Ross.  —  I  move  to  amend  the  item  just  read  by  striking 
out  "  three  "  and  inserting  "  one,"  so  as  to  make  the  amount  of 
the  appropriation  .$100,000. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 


Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  desire  to  make  a  single  remark.  If  the 
army  is  to  be  kept  at  the  present  minimum  standard,  this 
appropriation  of  $ 300,000  is  absolutely  necessary;  but  if  the 
army  is  to  be  reduced,  then  I  think  there  might  be  a  reduction 
in  this  item  ;  but  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Ross]  pro 
poses  too  small  a  sum.  If  he  will  modify  his  amendment  so  as 
to  make  the  amount  $150,000,  it  will  obviate  the  necessity  for 
offering  an  amendment  to  his  amendment. 

o 

Mr.  Ross.  —  I  decline  to  modify  my  amendment. 
Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Then  I  move  to  amend  the  amendment  so  as 
to  make  the  amount  of  the  appropriation  $150,000. 

Mr.  MAYNARD.  —  I  see  that  the  appropriation  for  this  pur 
pose  for  the  present  fiscal  year  was  only  $100,000. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Yes  ;  but  we  recruited  for  only  four  months 
in  the  year.  We  were  reducing  the  army  down  to  the  min 
imum.  Eut  to  keep  the  number  of  men  at  the  present  minimum 
a  larger  amount  will  be  necessary.  One  hundred  thousand 
dollars  were  appropriated  last  year  because  it  was  intended  to 
cover  only  about  one-third  of  the  year. 

Mr.  MAYNARD.  —  Then  the  gentleman  is  of  opinion  that 
$150,000  will  be  needed  for  this  purpose? 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Absolutely. 

Mr.  BURLEIGH.  —  I  move  to  amend  by  adding:  Provided, 
that  no  officer  or  soldier  of  the  army  of  the  United  States  under 
the  age  of  sixty-five  years,  unless  he  be  a  married  man  and 
takes  his  wife  with  him,  shall  be  assigned. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  It  is  unnecessary  to  read  that  amendment 
further.  I  raise  the  point  of  order  that  it  proposes  independent 
legislation,  and  cannot  be  entertained  as  an  amendment  to  this 
bill. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  —  The  Chair  sustains  the  point  of  order. 

Mr.  LOUGHRIDGE.  —  I  move  to  amend  the  pending  para 
graph  by  striking  out  "  fifteen  "  and  inserting  "  ten,"  so  as  to 
make  the  amount  of  the  appropriation  for  the  pay  of  the  army 
$10,000,000. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  think  the  gentleman  from  Iowa  will  not 
urge  that  amendment  when  he  understands  fully  the  cir 
cumstances  of  the  case.  If  the  House  should,  to-morrow  or 


BTOCIRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLATNE.  '207 

Monday,  take  the  action  which  seems  to  be  contemplated  for 
the  reduction  of  the  army,  the  amount  named  in  the  bill  will 
be  absolutely  needed.  The  reduction  of  the  army  will  lead  to 
mustering  out,  whereby  additional  expense  will  be  incurred  ; 
and  if  the  mustering  out  process  is  to  go  on,  it  is  probable  this 
item  will  have  to  be  increased. 

Mr.  LOUGHBIDGE.  —  T  would  like  to  ask  the  gentleman  from 
Maine  how  or  where  we  are  to  reduce  these  appropriations. 
It  is  understood  that  the  army  is  to  be  reduced :  where  are  we 
to  reduce  the  expenditures? 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  In  the  quartermaster's  department. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  move  that  the  rules  be  suspended,  and  that 
the  House  resolve  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the 
state  of  the  Union,  to  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  the 
Army  Appropriation  Bill;  and  pending  that  motion,  I  move  that 
all  general  debate  upon  it  shall  cease  in  one  minute  until  we 
reach  the  point  where  the  amendment  which  was  allowed  to 
be  presented  yesterday  for  the  reduction  of  the  army  shall  be 
introduced. 

The  motions  were  agreed  to. 

Mr.  BLAINE. — In  view  of  the  very  general  agreement  that 
seemed  to  pervade  the  House  yesterday,  that  an  amendment 
should  be  presented  for  the  reduction  of  the  army,  I  have 
consulted  several  members  of  the  Committee  on  Appropria 
tions,  all  that  I  could  meet,  and  all  excepting  one  gentleman, 
and  they  agreed  that  I  should  move  such  amendments  to 
the  appropriations  as  would  cut  down  the  aggregate  to  the 
amount  appropriated  last  year.  That  will  reduce  the  amount 
$10,000,000.  I  think,  from  the  examination  I  have  given  the 
bill,  that  I  know  better  than  those  who  have  not  examined  it 
at  all,  just  where  these  amendments  ought  to  be  put,  and  where 
they  can  most  profitably  and  easily  be  made.  For  that  pur 
pose,  I  propose,  if  the  gentleman  from  Iowa  will  withdraw 
his  amendment,  to  move  to  reduce  the  pay  of  the  army  from 
•115,000,000  to  111,000,000.  That  will  be  a  reduction  of 
$4,000,000. 


208  TtrncKAPHY  OF  JAMES  a.    KLATNE. 

Mr.  LOUGHBIDGE.  —  That  is  entirely  satisfactory  to  me,  and 
I  withdraw  my  amendment. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

"  For  commutation  of  officers'  subsistence,  $2,000,000." 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  move  to  reduce  that  appropriation  to 
11,500,000. 

Mr.  WINDOM.  — ^  I  move  to  amend  the  amendment  by  reduc 
ing  the  amount  to  $1,000,000. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  think  the  reduction  that  I  propose  is  a 
very  considerable  one,  and  it  is  on  a  scale  that  will  cut  down 
the  bill  just  $10,000,000.  I  think  every  dollar  that  is  left 
after  that  reduction  is  made  will  be  absolutely  needed. 

Mr.  WINDOM.  —  My  reason  for  moving  to  cut  this  appropria 
tion  down  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  gentleman  from  Maine 
proposes  to  reduce  the  bill  generally  is,  that  I  think  upon  this 
point  we  shall  have  an  amendment  offered  by  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Butler]  that  will  prevent  the  cor 
ruptions  growing  out  of  this  system.  Now,  sir,  it  has  been  my 
fortune  during  the  last  years  to  board  in  a  good  many  boarding- 
houses  in  this  city ;  and  1  think  I  never,  with  one  exception, 
was  in  a  boarding-house  where  there  was  a  military  officer  that 
a  part  of  his  board  bill  was  not  paid  by  allowing  the  boarding- 
house  keeper  to  get  beef  cheaper  than  it  could  otherwise  be 
bought.  I  know  of  one  honorable  exception,  and  only  one. 
Now,  I  am  opposed  to  this  sort  of  swindling  of  the  government, 
and  to  this  whole  system  of  commutation  of  subsistence.  I 
do  not  believe  there  should  be  such  a  thing.  I  believe  the 
provision  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  should  be 
carried  out,  and  that  this  kind  of  fraudulent  dealing  with  the 
government  should  be  prevented. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  — - 1  do  not  understand  that  the  gentleman  from 
Minnesota  proposes  to  cure  the  evil  at  all.  If  you  do  not 
change  the  law  you  must  appropriate  what  the  law  allows.  If 
we  do  not  need  $1,500,000  we  do  not  need  anything. 

Mr.  WINDOM.  —  I  move  to  amend  the  amendment  by  strik 
ing  out  the  whole  clause. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  think  that  would  be  a  very  injudicious 
amendment,  and  I  hope  the  committee  will  not  concur  in  it. 

Mr.  WINDOM.  —  When  we  come  to  act  on  the  amendment  of 


H1O<U:APIIY    OF    JAMKS    G.     HLMXK.  209 

the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  we  can  prevent  this  kind  of 
corruption. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  do  not  think  it  fair  to  call  it  "  corruption.' 
This  is  an  appropriation  for  pay  under  the  existing  law.  The 
law  may  be  unwise,  but  I  think  the  gentleman  uses  too  severe  a 
term  when  he  calls  it  "  corruption."  There  is  not  a  gentleman 
upon  this  floor  who  has  served  in  the  army  —  and  there  are  u 
great  many  who  have  served  with  great  distinction  —  who  has 
not  drawn  a  part  of  his  pay  in  this  form.  It  is  a  part  of  the  pay 
of  officers  of  the  army  under  the  law,  and  so  long  as  the  law  re 
mains  as  it  is,  it  is  idle  to  talk  about  its  being  corruption  to  draw 
pay  in  that  form. 

Mr.  SCOFIELD.  —  I  ask  unanimous  consent  of  the  committee 
to  pass  over  this  and  the  two  succeeding  clauses  providing  for 
commutation  of  officers'  subsistence,  forage  for  officers'  horses, 
and  clothing  for  officers'  servants,  so  as  to  consider  them 
in  connection  with  the  amendment  offered  by  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  and  which  has  been  ordered  to  be  printed. 

Mr.  BLAIXE.  —  I  think  that  is  a  good  suggestion.  I  am  will 
ing  that  these  three  clauses  shall  be  passed  over  until  we  see 
what  fate  will  betide  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts. 

Mr.  WOOD.  — I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  from  Maine 
whether  in  this  appropriation  of  $60,000  for  contingencies  of 
the  arm}-  there  is  included  $25,000  to  be  paid  to  a  horse  doctor 
by  the  name  of  Dun  bar  ? 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  The  Committee  on  Appropriations  have  no 
knowledge  of  a  horse  doctor  named  Dunbar,  or  any  other  horse 
doctor,  being  interested  in  this  appropriation.  Xothing  of  the 
kind  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  committee,  and  I  never  heard 
of  it  before.  It  is  an  appropriation  840,000  less  than  up  to  last 
year  has  usually  been  made  for  that  item. 

Mr.  WOOD.  —  The  Secretary  of  War  has  made  a  contract  witli 
a  horse  doctor  for  which  he  proposes  to  pay  him  $25,000  a  year 
for  curing  horses'  feet.  I  meant  to  ask  in  what  part  of  this  bill 
the  appropriation  is  made  which  would  include  that  expenditure  ? 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  think  it  is  in  the  item  of  appropriation  for 
cavalry  and  artillery  horses,  which  I  propose  to  materially 
reduce  when  we  reach  it. 


210  1UOGEAPHY    OF    JAMES    d.     KLAJNE. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  I  desire  to  inquire  of  the  gentleman  from 
Maine  if  there  is  in  this  bill  any  appropriation  for  the  purchase 
of  the  museum  called  the  Army  Museum,  I  believe  ?  And 
then  I  would  like  to  have  him  inform  the  House,  if  he  will,  by 
what  authority  that  museum  was  purchased — how  it  became 
the  property  of  the  War  Department,  or  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  — We  have  already  passed  the  item  for  the  Army 
Medical  Museum ;  but,  of  course,  I  will  not  take  advantage  of 
that  point  of  order.  It  was  by  authority  of  an  appropriation 
made  by  this  House,  for  which  I  suppose  the  gentleman  voted 
in  common  with  the  rest  of  us. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  I  beg  pardon  of  the  gentleman;  I  think  I 
did  not  vote  for  it. 

Mr.  ELAINE. —  I  suppose  there  is  no  record  to  sustain  the 
gentleman  in  his  assertion. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  Perhaps  not ;  but  I  generally  vote  against 
such  things,  and  think  I  did  this.  I  hope  the  gentleman  will 
inform  the  house  by  what  authority  this  museum  was  purchased. 
Mr.  BLAINE.  —  This  Army  Medical  Museum  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  Ford's  Theatre  museum,  to  which  I 
suppose  the  gentleman  refers.  The  Army  Medical  Museum  is 
under  the  management  of  the  Medical  Department,  and  is 
regarded  as  of  great  use.  The  appropriation  given  for  it  has 
been  considered  a  very  wise  expenditure  ;  it  is  not  very  large 
in  amount. 

As  to  the  Ford's  Theatre  Museum,  that  is  a  matter  of  three 
or  four  years  ago.  And  if  there  was  anything  done  in  that 
matter  that  was  not  right,  the  gentleman  from  Wisconsin 
should  tell  the  House,  if  he  knows  it.  T  do  not  know  it. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  I  will  tell  what  I  know  about  it.  I  have 
understood,  and  I  believe,  that  the  Secretary  of  War  took  pos 
session  of  that  building  without  authority  of  law,  without  any 
right  whatever  to  do  so,  without  any  authorization  from  Con 
gress  or  from  any  other  source,  and  made  it  the  property  of  the 
United  States  by  force  —  he  only  consenting.  I  believe  that  to 
have  been  done  ;  and  that  is  tne  reason  why  I  make  the  inquiry 
of  the  gentleman. 

Mr.  BLATNE.  —  Does  the  gentleman  object  to  that  having 
been  done  ? 


RTOGRAPirr    OF    JAMES    (1.     JtLAJNE. 

Mr.  KLDRIDGE. —  Yes,  sir;  since  the  gentleman  asks  me  the 
question,  I  object  most  emphatically  to  any  man  or  any  officer 
of  the  government  doing  anything  without  authority  of 
law.  I  would  never  consent  that  any  officer  of  the  government 
make  any  purchase  of  property  or  do  any  other  act  not  author 
ized  by  law.  I  oppose  all  such  things  now  and  at  all  times. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  I  desire  to  say  to  the  gentleman  from  Wis 
consin,  who,  I  think,  rather  ungraciously  brings  up  this  subject 
and  obtrudes  it  upon  us  at  this  time,  that  the  Secretary  of  War, 
in  the  case  alluded  to,  acted  in  a  way  which  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  clearly  approved,  in  rescuing  that  building,  which 
was  the  scene  of  the  greatest  sacrifice  that  lias  been  made  in 
modern  times. 

Mr.  VAN  TRUMP.  —  I  rise  to  a  point  of  order. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  —  The  gentleman  will  state  his  point  of 
order. 

Mr.  VAX  TRUMP.  —  Unless  there  is  something  here  in  the 
way  of  instalments  for  the  purchase  of  Ford's  Theatre,  I  object 
to  this  debate. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  It  was  to  prevent  that  desecration  [the  use 
of  it  as  a  place  of  common  amusement],  that  the  Secretary  of 
War  took  possession  of  the  building ;  and  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  afterward  gave  him  the  money  necessary  to  vest 
the  title  to  it  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  SHANKS.  —  I  wish  to  say  that  the  murder  of  President 
Lincoln  was  an  act  of  war,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  take  such  steps  as  became  a  nation  in  a 
state  of  war. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  ...  If  at  this  late  day  the  gentleman 
from  Wisconsin,  or  any  other  gentleman  on  that  side  of  the 
House,  desires  to  criticise  acts  of  Secretary  Stanton  which  he 
believes  to  have  been  outside  the  Constitution  or  outside  the 
laws,  he  makes  a  very  unfortunate  selection  when  he  singles 
out  this  particular  transaction ;  'for  among  the  many  deeds 
which  will  for  all  time  commend  the  name  of  Edwin  M. 
Stanton  to  the  patriotic  people  of  this  country,  that  will  not 
be  among  the  least. 


212  moGRAPirr  OF  JAMES  a.   BLAJNE. 

.  .  .  I  desire  to  say  a  very  few  words  in  reply  to  what 
was  said  this  morning  by  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts 
touching  the  amendment  for  reducing  the  army.  I  hope  the 
House  will  not  vote  to  sustain  the  amendment  of  the  gentle 
man  from  Massachusetts.  1  hope  the  House  will  not  vote  to 
deprive  General  Sherman  of  the  right  to  be  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  general.  I  hope  the  House  will  not  vote  that  Gen. 
George  H.  Thomas  or  Gen.  Phil.  Sheridan  shall  never  be  pro 
moted  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant-general.  I  hope  the  House 
will  not  say  that  Meade  or  Hancock  must  and  shall  be  mustered 
out  as  major-generals  of  the  army ;  and  yet  that  is  what  they 
would  say  if  they  voted  for  the  proposition  of  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts.  There  is  a  great  deal  in  his  proposition 
which  is  meritorious,  and  which  I  would  vote  for  if  it  was  by 
itself.  But  there  are  features  in  it  which  I  do  not  believe  this 
I  louse  will  ever  be  willing  to  approve. 

The  amendment  which  I  have  moved  as  a  substitute  for  his 
proposition  has  this  extent  and  no  more :  it  ties  up  the  army 
so  that  there  can  be  no  more  new  appointments  or  promotions 
until  Congress  can  take  hold  of  the  question.  And  in  that 
wa}r  all  increase  of  the  army  will  be  prevented,  and  under  the 
administration  of  General  Grant  the  army  may  be  very  rapidly 
decreased. 

The  criticism  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  that  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  not  General  Grant  will  have  the  control 
of  this  matter,  is  very  superficial.  The  Secretary  of  War  under 
General  Grant  will  be  very  apt  to  carry  out  the  ideas  and 
wishes  of  General  Grant  in  this  matter.  I  do  not  think  there 
is  any  great  danger  that  General  Grant  and  the  Secretary  of 
War  will  differ  very  much  about  this  matter. 

Mr.  BUTLER,  of  Massachusetts.  —  Why  did  the  gentleman 
leave  it  entirely  to  the  Secretary  of  War  last  year? 

Mr.  BLAIXE.  —  Because  Andrew  Johnson  was  President. 
Was  not  that  a  good  reason? 

Mr.  BUTLER,  of  Massachusetts.  —  Yes,  it  was  a  good  reason 
for  the  time. 

Mr.  BLAIXE.  —  When  the  question  was  up  last  year  there 
was  a  very  serious  trouble  between  President  Johnson  and 
Secretary  of  War  Stan  ton,  and  my  svmpathies  were  with  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMK8    O.     71LAINE.  218 

Secretary  of  War,  and  the  provision  was  made  accordingly; 
and  when  I  moved  the  amendment  last  night,  T  did  not  think 
it  worth  while  to  change  it  from  what  it  was  last  year,  because 
I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  any  doubt  that  the  Secretary  of 
War  under  General  Grant  will  carry  out  the  wishes  and  views 
of  General  Grant  on  the  subject. 

Upon  the  election  of  General  Grant,  Mr.  Blaine  congratulated 
the  American  Congress  and  the  American  people,  making  one  of 
his  rare  pauses  in  an  unwearying  march  to  look  back  along  the 
path  already  followed.  The  victory  of  1860  he  recounted  as 
having  dealt  the  fatal  blow  to  slavery-propagandism  —  the  Am 
erican  people  deciding  that  at  all  hazards  the  further  spread  of 
human  servitude  into  free  territory  should  cease. 

"  The  election  of  1864  turned  upon  the  point  of  continuing  or 
discontinuing  the  bloody  contest,  which  up  to  that  time  had 
raged  with  unabated  fury  and  with  enormous  sacrifice  of  life  and 
property.  The  vote  of  the  people  demanded  the  prosecution  of 
the  war  until  the  rebellion  should  be  suppressed,  the  national 
unity  secured,  and  slavery  utterly  abolished  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  But  the  unexpected  and  unpre 
cedented  course  of  the  Executive,  the  revived  malignity  of  the 
southern  rebellion,  and  the  manifold  attacks  on  our  national 
character  and  credit  by  the  Democratic  party,  rendered  the  vic 
tory  of  1868  as  absolutely  essential  to  conserve  and  preserve  the 
fruits  of  our  great  triumph,  as  was  the  victory  of  1864  to  insure 
the  prosecution  of  the  war  to  a  successful  conclusion.  And  now 
that  the  victory,  complete  and  unsullied,  has  been  won,  the 
points  that  have  been  solemnly  adjudicated  and  permanently 
settled  by  the  American  people  in  the  election  of  General  Grant 
to  the  presidency,  are : 

"  First.  The  union  of  the  States  has  been  maintained,  and  its 
perpetuity  guaranteed,  by  this  election,  in  a  sense  and  with  a 
force  that  were  never  before  enunciated  when  the  question  was 
involved. 

"Second.  The  reconstruction  laws  of  Congress  have  been 
vindicated  and  sustained  by  General  Grant's  election. 

u  Third.  The  election  of  General  Grant  had  settled  the  Finan 
cial  question.  The  American  people  have  deliberately,  solemnly, 


iJ14  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    (!.     ELAINE. 

and  emphatically  recorded  their  decision  in  favor  of  an  honest 
discharge  of  their  public  obligations,  and  against  all  the  forms 
of  evasion  and  delusion  so  temptingly  set  forth  in  Democratic 
platforms.  They  have  declared  against  the  policy  of  wildly  in 
flating,  depreciating,  and  ruining  their  currency  in  order  to  prema 
turely  pay  off  any  portion  of  the  government  bonds ;  and  they 
have  declared  with  equal  emphasis  in  favor  of  lightening  the 
public  burdens  by  reducing  the  interest  on  the  national  debt  as 
promptly  and  as  rapidly  as  may  be  done  with  honor.  They  have 
decided  against  all  forms  of  repudiation  "open  or  covert, 
threatened  or  suspected,"  and  in  favor  of  upholding  the  public 
faith  and  maintaining  the  public  honor  spotless  and  stainless. 
Nay,  they  have  gone  one  step  further ;  the  question  of  paying 
the  public  debt  "  in  the  utmost  good  faith,  according  to  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  contract "  is  no  longer  to  be  made  the  subject 
of  controversy  or  of  doubt  in  the  American  Congress. 

"  Fourth.  With  the  election  of  General  Grant  comes  a  higher 
standard  of  American  citizenship  —  with  more  dignity  and  char 
acter  to  the  name  abroad  and  more  assured  liberty  and  security 
attaching  to  it  at  home.  Our  diplomacy  will  be  rescued  from 
the  subservient  tone  by  which  we  have  so  often  been  humiliated 
in  our  own  eyes  and  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  and  the  true  position 
of  the  first  nation  of  the  earth  in  rank  and  prestige  will  be  as 
serted  ;  not  in  the  spirit  of  bravado  or  Avith  the  mere  arrogance 
of  strength,  but  with  the  conscious  dignity  which  belongs  to 
power,  and  with  the  moderation  which  is  the  true  ornament  of 
justice.  And  with  this  vindication  of  the  rights  and  the  rank 
of  our  citizenship  abroad  will  come  also  its  protection  and  its 
panoply  at  home. 

u  Whatever,  therefore,  may  lie  before  us  in  the  untrodden  and 
often  beclouded  path  of  the  future,  —  whether  it  be  financial 
embarrassment,  or  domestic  trouble  of  another  and  more  serious 
type,  or  misunderstandings  with  foreign  nations,  or  the  exten 
sion  of  our  flag  and  our  sovereignty  over  insular  or  continental 
possessions  north  or  south,  that  fate  or  fortune  may  peacefully 
offer  to  our  ambition,  —  let  us  believe  with  all  confidence  that 
General  Grant's  administration  will  meet  every  exigency  with 
the  courage,  the  ability,  and  the  conscience  Avhich  American 
nationality  and  Christian  civilization  demand." 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  215 

With  all  Mr.  Elaine's  foresight  and  forecast  which  often  left 
him  alone  on  the  mount  of  vision,  with  all  his  undisguised 
directness  and  intellectual,  vehemence,  the  rectitude  of  his 
judgment,  the  depth  and  delicacy  of  his  sympathy,  his  sense 
of  justice,  his  enthusiasm  for  humanity,  and  his  over-brimming 
good-will  to  men,  were  always  in  evidence.  His  parliament 
ary  skill  and  power  had  been  attested  by  repeated  temporary 
service  in  the  chair,  and  during  the  winter  of  1869,  the  gossip 
of  Washington  in  the  newspapers  began,  as  early  as  January, 
to  invest  him  with  the  speakership,  and  his  "great  popu 
larity  with  his  fellow  members  "  began  to  be  "inferred  from 
his  prospective,  promotion."  The  Republicans  made  good 
the  gossip  by  his  unanimous  nomination  on  March  2,  and  his 
harmonious  election  on  March  4.  The  oath  was  administered 
by  his  long-time  friend  and  comrade,  Mr.  Elihu  Washburn. 

The  approval  of  his  promotion  to  the  speakership  was 
general,  but  not  extravagant.  He  was  described  with  the  not 
immoderate  praise  of  being  a  hard-working  member  who  never 
made  long  speeches,  but  was  ready  and  quick  in  debate.  His 
frequent  service  as  speaker  pro  tern,  was  declared  to  have  certi 
fied  his  fitness  for  the  permanent  position,  and  though  he  had 
"  assumed  the  chair  at  a  critical  moment,  he  has  proved  himself 
equal  to  the  emergency."  He  was  congratulated  that  there 
was  so  much  excitement  attending  President  Grant's  Cabinet 
appointments  as  to  leave  him  at  peace  in  the  appointment  of 
his  committees. 

But  when  the  fifteenth  of  March  had  come  and  he  had  not 
announced  those  committees,  even  the  warmly  Republican  news 
papers  began  gentle  gibes,  and  fables,  and  philosophies,  warning 
him  of  the  folly  and  the  futility  of  trying  to  please  every  one 
on  committees,  which  were  "  said  to  be  the  reasons  "  of  the  delay. 

On  March  16  the  committees  were  announced,  and  the  press 
made  a  handsome  retreat,  avowing  that  the  attributed  reasons 
were  all  erroneous,  and  that  the  delay  was  on  account  of  the 
New  Hampshire  members  who  had  not  been  sworn  in,  and 
could  therefore  not  be  on  committees,  which  would  leave  New 
Hampshire  unrepresented.  The  appointments,  in  spite  of 
prophecy  and  fable,  were  declared  to  have  elicited  general  sat 
isfaction.  Important  committees  were  pronounced  especially 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

strong,  and  every  section  of  the  country  was  represented.  Two 
years  later,  at  the  beginning  of  his  second  term  in  the  chair, 
to  which  he  was  re-elected  practically  without  opposition,  Mr. 
Blaine  pointed  out  the  care  and  preparation  required  in  making 
appointments,  especially  in  the  case  of  new  members,  and, 
referring  to  these  eleven  days  of  committee-making,  suggested 
that  the  announcement  even  then  was  in  many  respects  pre 
mature  ! 


From  Hon.  Elihu  Washburn : 

GALENA,  ILLINOIS,  September  15,  1868. 

DEAR  BLAINE:  Well,  you  have  gone  and  done  it  in  good  earnest. 
What  a  campaign,  what  a  fight,  and  what  a  victory  !  I  tell  everybody  you 
deserve  immense  credit  for  the  magnificent  conduct  of  the  campaign. 
Complete  success  in  November  is  now  assured  if  we  only  half  do  our 
duty.  .  .  .  There  is  a  terrific  fight  going  on  in  Indiana,  and  our 
friends  have  been  alarmed.  Your  election  will  help  them  out. 

.  .  .  I  think  Grant  will  remain  here  till  after  October  elections.  I 
wish  you  would  write  him  about  your  election  and  tell  him  to  remain  quiet 
at  home  till  the  October  elections  are  over. 


From  Mr.  Elaine : 

16  JANUARY,  1869. 

The  book  to  Senator  Fessenden  was  "  favored  by  Mr.  Blaine"  with 
prompt  delivery.  I  did  not  content  myself  with  sending  it  by  a  servant, 
but  carried  it  myself.  He  opened  it  very  deliberately  —  when  out  dropped 
a  note.  He  put  on  his  glasses,  read  the  note  with  some  apparent  interest, 
then  read  it  again  — and  then  "the  wretch"  (a  term  Beau  Brummel  ap 
plied  to  his  wife,  and  thus  sanctioned  its  use  in  polite  circles)  with  great 
care  returned  it  to  its  envelope,  laid  it  on  his  table,  and  proceeded  to  read 
the  marked  pages.  To  be  sure,  I  had  no  earthly  right  to  see  that  note, 
but  then  I  said  to  myself  he  might  just  as  well  have  shown  it  to  me,  for 
he  knows  I  would  have  enjoyed  reading  it.  ... 

You  write  very  sensibly  about  the  speakership.  Do  not  imagine  that 
I  am  unduly  excited  about  it,  or  that  I  desire  it  with  an  intensity  which 
leaves  me  unprepared  for  failure  and  its  consequent  disappointment  and 
chagrin.  I  have  measured  the  whole  matter  calmly,  logically,  and  phil 
osophically.  I  mean  to  win  if  I  can  fairly  and  honorably.  If  I  cannot, 
there's  the  end.  But  if  successful,  I  shall  not  have  the  self-reproach  of 
having  done  one  unworthy  act  to  secure  the  place ;  and  if  unsuccessful,  the 
same  consciousness  will  be  my  compensating  and  consoling  fact. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  217 

FEBRUARY  11,  1869. 

Your  search  in  the  papers  for  the  sayings  and  doings  of  Mr.  Elaine,  of 
Maine,  will  have  meagre  reward  this  winter  —  for,  by  a  wise  care  or  caution 
or  cunning  or  cowardice,  Mr.  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  Elaine,  of 
Maine,  are  taking  just  as  little  part  as  possible  in  the  current  business  of 
legislation  ;  not  exactly  dodging,  for  that  would  be  too  mean,  but  avoid 
ing  very  carefully  the  trampling  on  other  people's  corns  —  a  good  deal  of 
which  I  have  done  in  this  hall  during  the  last  half-dozen  years. 

What  a  very  sad  death  that  of  Mrs. .  And  what  a  sad  sort  of  life  to 

look  back  on.  A  married  life  that  has  so  much  that  is  necessarily  painful  in 
it  as  hers  must  have  had,  is  to  me  the  blankest  and  hardest  form  of  human 
woe.  For  it  is  so  ordained  that  all  those  relations  best  calculated  to  confer 
happiness  have  in  them  the  largest  capacity  for  suffering.  Weighed  down 
almost  continuously  with  the  "  primal  sorrow  of  her  sex,"  burdened  with 
the  care  of  a  family,  constantly  outgrowing  her  powers  and  resources,  her 
sympathy  drawn  upon  if  not  exhausted  by  an  invalid  husband ;  her  fate, 
to  my  observation  and  appreciation,  was  the  very  acme  and  essence  of 
domestic  misery.  But  all  these  sufferings  have  their  compensation.  I  am 
a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrine  that  suffering  here  is  to  be  carried  to  our 
account  on  the  credit  side  in  balancing  the  Ledger  of  Eternity.  Dickens' 
sermon  on  the  death  of  the  Chancery  prisoner  was  always  to  me  one  of  the 
most  touching  passages  in  his  writings. 

In  June,  1867,  I  stood  on  the  spot  where  this  scene  is  laid,  and  it  came 
upon  me  with  the  rush  of  reality,  far  more  than  when  viewing  the  local 
ities  of  actual  tragic  occurrences  of  life,  such  as  the  Tower  of  London  or 
the  Field  of  Waterloo.  T  realized  at  that  moment  the  creative  power  of 
Dickens  as  never  before,  —  and  I  say  this  not  liking  him,  — indeed,  having 
a  sort  of  distaste  for  the  man,  as  separated  from  the  author.  But  there  is 
one  thing  in  regard  to  which  I  have  always  done  him  injustice,  and  I  hasten 
to  offer  my  apology  through  you.  It  appears  after  all,  that  the  Chicago 
woman,  who  lately  destroyed  herself,  was  not  his  brother's  wife,  but 
merely  his  partner  in  crime;  that  the  actual  lawful  wife  or  widow  has 
always  been  in  England,  and  tenderly  cared  for  by  Dickens.  This  ought 
to  have  been  told  before,  and  Dickens  may  have  been  restrained  from  the 
explanation  by  a  desire  not  to  uncover  the  skeletons  of  his  household,  and 
still  more  by  a  chivalrous  reluctance  to  expose  and  farther  degrade  an 
erring  and  lost  woman.  Having  accepted  the  version  of  the  story  as  given 
by  the  Chicago  papers,  I  had  laid  up  a  heavy  charge  against  him,  which  E 
now  deliberately  retract.  If,  in  your  judgment,  it  would  be  wise  and  proper 
to  acquaint  Mr.  Dickens  with  my  "change  of  heart"  on  this  subject,  you 
can  give  the  pertinent  hint  to  your  friend,  Mr.  F.  Through  this  channel  it 
would  doubtless  reach  Mr.  Dickens  by  the  earliest  trans- Atlantic  mail,  if  not 
by  cable  despatch.  Probably,  however,  the  apology  would  create  a  more 
profound  sensation  in  England  if  I  should  wait  till  I  am  elected  Speaker 
of  the  House.  But  then  if  I  should  not  be  elected  Speaker  !  Why,  what 
then?  Dickens  might  have;  to  die  without  the  sublime  satisfaction  of 
readinir  niv  rcfraxii. 


218  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  a  friend  who  had  characterized  one  of 
his  letters  as  "just  a  scrawl,  with  an  umbrella  handle,  on  an 
acre  of  white  paper  " : 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  March,  1869. 

You  complain  in  an  audacious  and  umbrageous  manner  that  I  sprawl  my 
writing  out  to  such  a  degree  that  you  are  cheated  by  the  appearance  of  a 
letter  on  the  outside,  that  really  contains  nothing  within ;  now,  to  punish 
you  for  this  slur  and  contempt  of  my  precious  epistles,  I  have  a  great  mind 
to  send  you  sixteen  sheets  written  just  as  close  as  this,  so  as  to  weary 
your  brain  and  destroy  your  eyesight,  as  a  proper  punishment  for  the  dis 
respect  and  contumely  that  you  have  so  gratuitously  heaped  upon  me. 
Indeed,  I  would  surely  do  it  were  it  not  that  in  the  process  I  should  be  pun 
ished  as  severely  as  you  would  be ;  for  of  all  the  combined  mental  and 
physical  processes  to  produce  an  ecstasy  of  agony,  commend  me  to  this 
"  cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined  "  style  of  penmanship.  It  not  only  cramps 
my  hand  and  benumbs  my  fingers,  but  it  freezes  my  blood  and  paralyzes 
my  brain  and  reduces  me  to  a  condition  bordering  on  spiritual  despair.  I 
am  sure  that  one  of  the  occupations  of  lost  souls  doomed  to  eternal  punish 
ment  must  be  the  copying  of  Jonathan  Edwards'  sermons  forever  and  for 
ever  in  just  such  handwriting  as  I  am  now  joyfully  inflicting  on  you.  What 
a  delightful  torture  it  must  be  to  the  hopelessly  lost  to  continually  tran 
scribe  in  this  choice  chirography  the  special  causes,  the  general  grounds, 
and  the  absolute  justice  of  their  damnation ;  and  what  sublime  equity 
there  would  be  in  giving  you  a  temporary  purgatorial  experience  of  this 
fate,  in  compelling  you  to  read  the  transcriptions.  I  am  administering  a 
slight  taste  of  it  to  you,  and  I  shall  sicken  you,  I  am  sure,  of  this  type  of 
writing,  and  make  you  cry  aloud  in  agony  for  another  display  of  my 
sprawling  proclivities.  Please  remember  that  in  letter-writing  I  am  noth 
ing  if  not  "  sprawling.11  My  education  in  that  respect  was  once  good,  but 
by  bad  association  and  evil  practice  it  has  come  to  naught,  and  by  the  bless 
ing  of  God,  or  its  absence,  "  I  am  what  I  am." 

From  an  Andover  Professor  to  Mr.  Blame : 

MARCH  28,  1869. 

Mrs.  M.  has  for  some  time  declined  taking  boarders,  though 
much  pressed,  and  did  so  in  the  present  instance;  but  my  assurance 
respecting  vour  son,  founded  in  part  on  the  pleasant  impression  he  made 
on  me  when  I  saw  him  at  your  home  in  Augusta  and  again  last  spring, 
induced  her  to  change  her  mind. 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  enclosing  the  former : 

I  have  no  doubt  Mr.  S.  has  selected  wisely.  I  am  very  anxious  that 
Walker  should  be  continually  under  good  influences,  and  I  think  he  must 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  219 

have  secured  a  very  safe  and  excellent  place  in  this  regard.  He  has 
certainly  taken  great  pains  and  put  himself  to  much  trouble  to  accom 
modate  me. 

It  is  noticeable  and  notable  that  his  letter  is  written  on  Sunday.  Ando- 
ver  is  liberal. 

From   Mr.  Blame  : 

In  that  same  file  of  the  *«  Kenne bee  Journal  "  in  which  I  hunted  up  the 
Manchester  romance  of  the  Swedish  girl,  I  found  the  accompanying  para 
graph,  which  conclusively  establishes  the  date.  You  must  have  come  up  to 
Augusta  on  Thursday,  August  23.  Next  day,  Friday,  you  returned  to  Bath 
by  steamer,  and  went  thence  home  by  rail  on  Saturday,  August  25.  An 
other  trifling  fact  corroborates  Thursday  as  the  date  —  i.e.,  I  was  late  at 
tea  on  account  of  its  being  publication  day,  and  thus  by  my  industry  in 
my  business  I  was  cheated  out  of  more  thau  half  your  call.  Who  knows 
but  that  if  I  had  enjoyed  the  other  half,  we  should  not  have  been  compelled 
to  wait  thirteen  years,  two  months,  six  days,  twenty-one  hours,  and  thirty- 
six  minutes  for  a  new  introduction  and  a  second  meeting  !  You  may  rely 
on  this  interval  being  stated  with  absolute  accuracy,  it  having  been  cal 
culated  with  laborious  care  after  the  most  diligent  comparison  of  almanacs 
and  the  closest  astronomical  observations,  the  "reckoning  being  verified 
by  geometry  and  the  higher  mathematics.''1 

JULY  22,  1869. 

llow  sad  and  heavy  our  hearts  were  eight  years  ago  to-day.  We  were 
just  having  our  eyes  opened  to  the  magnitude  of  the  war  under  the  keen 
anguish  of  our  first  defeat.  The  first  shock  of  that  defeat  was  the  moment 
of  deepest  grief  I  ever  felt  in  my  life.  The  reaction,  of  course,  came 
promptly,  but  not  until  my  very  soul  was  harrowed  with  agony  unspeak 
able.  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever  been  the  same  man  since  ;  perhaps  I  am 
a  better  man  than  I  was  before,  but  no  stroke  so  stunning  could  ever  bo 
entirely  recovered  from.  I  felt  as  one  whose  treasure  and  honor  and  life 
were  at  stake. 

From  the  courage  I  gained  on  the  reaction,  I  never  once  afterwards  de 
spaired  or  grew  faint.  The  awful  magnitude  of  later  battles,  the  terrible 
carnage,  the  costly  sacrifices  never  had  in  them  the  fearful  omens  of  that 
trifling  fight  and  gigantic  defeat  at  Bull  Run. 

ELIZABETH,  PENN.,  ;>0th  July,  1869. 

1  write  you  from  a  house  of  mourning,  though  my  dear  mother,  with  :t 
fortitude  which  I  could  not  have  anticipated,  bears  the  burden  of  her 
great  sorrow  with  pious  resignation.  Indeed,  the  very  magnitude  of  the 
affliction  seems  to  have  given  her  the  nerve  and  Christian  courage  to 
endure  it. 

My  dear  sister  died  at  three  o'clock  on  Monday  morning.  She  was  taken 
very  suddenly  and  alarmingly  ill  on  Saturday  night,  and  all  day  Sunday 
she  was  sinking  —  was  in  a  state  of  great  debility,  though  not  suffering  any 


220  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

acute  pain.  She  was  in  entire  possession  of  her  faculties,  but  spoke  little, 
paying  attention,  however,  to  all  that  was  going  on  around  her.  She  was 
perfectly  conscious  that  her  time  on  earth  was  to  be  measured  by  hours 
only,  and  early  in  the  afternoon  she  expressed  a  desire  to  receive  the  last 
sacrament  of  her  church  —  the  extreme  unction  which  the  Catholics  base  on 
that  verse  in  St.  James,  "  Is  any  sick  among  you  ?  Let  him  call  for  the 
elders  of  the  Church  ;  and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with  oil 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord.11  After  the  ceremony  was  concluded  she  seemed 
to  revive  for  an  hour  or  two,  but  at  nightfall  she  grew  painfully  worse. 
At  midnight  she  said  that  her  hour  was  nigh,  and  desired  that  the  "  Liturgy 
of  the  Church  for  the  Dying  "  might  be  read  while  she  was  yet  able  to  fol 
low  it.  It  was  at  once  done,  and  the  two  physicians  in  attendance  —  both 
Protestants  —  begged  that  they  might  be  allowed  to  remain  and  join  in  the 
responses.  Many  parts  of  this  liturgy  are  very  impressive  : 

'*  Receive  thy  servant,  O  Lord,  into  that  place  where  she  may  hope  for 
salvation  from  thy  mercy. 

"  Deliver,  O  Lord,  the  soul  of  thy  servant  as  thou  didst  deliver  Enoch 
and  Elias  from  the  common  death  of  this  world. 

"  Deliver,  O  Lord,  the  soul  of  thy  servant  as  thou  didst  deliver  Isaac  from 
being  sacrificed  by  his  father. 

"  Through  thy  nativity,  deliver  her,  O  Lord! 

"  Through  thy  cross  and  passion,  deliver  her,  O  Lord  ! 

"  Through  thy  death  and  burial,  deliver  her,  O  Lord  ! 

"  Through  thy  glorious  resurrection,  deliver  her,  O  Lord  ! 

"  Through  thy  adorable  ascension,  deliver  her,  O  Lord  ! 

"Through  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter,  deliver  her,  O 
Lord !  " 

I  might  copy  much  more,  but  this  little,  selected  at  random,  will  show 
you  the  impressive  solemnity  both  of  the  thought  and  the  diction.  Really 
all  that  is  beautiful  in  the  Episcopal  service  is  borrowed  bodily  from  the 
Catholic  ritual. 

Parts  of  the  liturgy  were  repeated  at  intervals  for  two  hours  or  more, 
and  a  few  minutes  before  three  o'clock  she  dropped  off  into  a  sweet  and 
infant-like  slumber,  and  in  a  short  time  ceased  to  breathe,  —  without  a 
struggle  or  a  single  exhibition  of  pain,  —  peacefully  passing  to  her  reward. 

If  ever  a  sinless  life  was  lived,  she  lived  it.  If  ever  a  soul  went  before 
its  Maker  pure  and  white  and  spotless,  that  soul  was  hers  ! 

She  left  most  affectionate  and  affecting  messages  to  all  her  near  relatives, 
and  she  wished  it  to  be  told  to  me  that  she  "  had  always  loved  me  more 
devotedly  than  any  one  else  in  the  world  except  ma ;  "  and  she  added, 
among  the  last  things  she  ever  said,  "  Tell  him  from  me  to  be  very  mindful 
of  his  souPs  salvation11 —  speaking  in  the  somewhat  quaint,  strong  phrase 
that  was  natural  to  her  tongue.  Her  funeral  was  on  the  afternoon  of  Tues 
day.  It  was  attended  literally  by  a  vast  multitude.  The  services  were 
conducted  by  her  own  beloved  pastor,  and  among  those  present  were 
seven  Protestant  ministers.  Indeed,  the  entire  country  side  seemed  anxious 
to  testify  their  respect  for  her  life  of  faith  and  good  works  — an  exhibition 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 


221 


which  in  life  would  have  been  most  distasteful  to  her  modesty  and  hu 
mility,  but  over  the  grave  and  in  the  presence  of  death  there  was  nothing 
to  restrain  it  or  forbid  it. 

Between  the  good  and  the  pure  there  is  a  link  of  interest  and  identity 
which  binds  them  together  on  both  sides  of  the  grave.  She  was  lovely  to 
all  who  loved  purity  and  piety.  No  fear  of  death  darkened  her  last  hou 
—  her  mind  was  unclouded,  her  heart  undaunted,  her  hope  sure,  her  faitl 
steadfast.  She  fills  a  place  in  the  first  rank  of  those  who  are  redeemed 
from  the  earth,  who  stand  without  fault  before  the  throne  of  God,  who 
share  the  last  mighty  victories  of  the  Lamb,  who  are  called  and  chosen 
and  faithful. 


222  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLA1NE. 


XL 

THE    SPEAKER. 

TTPON  his  election  to  tlie  speakership,  Mr.  Elaine  bought  a 
^  house  and  established  a  home  in  Washington. 

It  was  a  glorious  era  of  intellectual  and  national  life,  the 
beginning  of  a  happier  time.  The  country  had  not  yet  wholly 
lost  the  first  rapture  of  slavery  abolished,  of  peace  renewed  and 
assured,  of  advanced  and  advancing  reconstruction.  The  irri 
tations  and  exasperations  of  Mr.  Johnson's  presidency  had  no 
place  under  the  administration  of  the  great  general.  The 
leaders  of  the  war  were  the  leaders  in  peace.  Congress,  army, 
and  navy  abounded  in  them,  and  one  saw  on  every  dinner-card 
names  still  aglow  with  the  heroism,  the  patriotism,  the  self- 
possession  and  self-surrender  which  have  lit  up  the  long,  sad 
story  of  humanity,  which  have  vitalized  history,  constituted 
poetry,  created  civilization. 

To  the  new  Washington,  the  centre  of  the  new  nation,  every 
thing  came.  The  new  life  was  represented  in  every  phase  of  its 
beauty  and  brilliancy,  its  intellectual  impulse,  and  its  moral 
activity. 

The  Speaker's  house  would  naturally  be  a  house  of  much 
resort.  With  his  family  about  him,  Mr.  Blaine  was  always 
happy,  and  that  happiness  left  him  free  to  seek  and  to  give 
pleasure.  His  modest  means  were  ample  for  a  generous  and 
refined,  but  never  ostentatious  hospitality,  which  indeed  his 
taste,  if  not  his  purse,  would  have  forbidden.  He  had  never 
wealth  for  the  demands  of  extravagance.  The  luxury  which 
is  a  necessity  he  had  never  lacked.  The  nursery  was  at  the 
top  of  the  house,  and  was  the  one  place  in  it  which  the  children 
disdained  even  to  visit.  His  library  was  between  the  dining- 
room  and  the  drawing-room,  his  writing-room  was  at  every  one's 
writing-desk,  where  he  was  a  great  disturbance  and  a  still 


KTOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

greater  delight.  No  child's  frolic,  no  talk  of  friends,  annoyed 
him.  His  power  of  abstraction  was  illimitable,  and  he  could 
always  be  interrupted  with  impunity.  The  world  of  his  thought 
builded  its  own  walls  and  closed  its  OAVU  gates  and  did  not  fear 
incursion.  There  was  but  one  imperative  and  external  law  of 
his  life_  to  be  in  the  Speaker's  chair  at  12  M.  As  often  as 
possible  lie  walked  thither  —  a  mile  or  more  —  from  his  house 
on  Fifteenth  street,  accompanied  by  as  many  members  of  his 
family  as  chose  to  go,  or  chanced  to  be  at  leisure.  He  declared 
that  any  proposal  of  his  for  walk,  or  drive,  or  concert,  or  theatre, 
or  any  other  outing  was  always  a  signal  for  town-meeting.  If 
the  Congressional  debates  were  interesting,  his  companions 
stayed  to  listen,  and  an  informal  luncheon  in  the  Speaker's  parlor, 
with  a  friend  or  two  from  the  House,  or  from  the  gallery,  was 
a  separate  attraction  and  an  agreeable  realization. 

On  the  one  side  of  Mr.  Elaine  lived  Governor  Buckingham, 
then  Senator  from  Connecticut,  a  churchman  without  pretence, 
a  total-abstinence  man  who  shunned  all  notoriety  from  it,  a 
knight  without  fear  and  without  reproach,  a  serious  man  with 
full  appreciation  of  humor,  and  abounding  in  unobtrusive  good 
works.  On  the  other  side  was  Governor  Swann,  handsome, 
hospitable,  and  luxurious,  a  Democratic  member  of  Congress 
from  Maryland,  but  knowing  no  North  or  South  in  social 
amenities.  Beyond  Governor  Swann,  in  the  corner  house,  Hon. 
Fernando  Wood,  of  New  York,  also  a  Democrat,  was  an  equally 
courteous,  friendly,  and  irreproachable  neighbor.  Opposite  lived 
Secretary  Fish,  ruling  his  diplomatic  world  with  iron  hand  and 
velvet  glove,  —  himself  ruled  in  all  things  lovely  and  of  good 
report  by  the  serene  and  stately  lady,  his  wife,  greatly,  but 
never  too  greatly,  praised  for  the  dignity,  the  elegance,  the  un 
tiring  assiduity  with  which  she  discharged  the  duties  of  her 
position. 

The  friends  of  Mr.  Elaine's  childhood  helped  to  make  the 
atmosphere  home-like.  The  Hugh  and  Tom  Ewing  of  his  boy 
ish  comradeship  had  gone  from  the  army  to  become,  in  time,  one 
minister  to  Belgium,  one  a  lawyer  in  Washington,  afterwards 
member  of  Congress.  Their  sister  Ellen,  wife  of  General 
Sherman,  was  living  in  the  house  011  I  street,  that  had  been 
given  first  to  General  Grant  and  then  to  General  Sherman; 


'224  BIOGRAPHY     OF    JAMK8    (1.     HLAJNK. 

and  the  father,  Hon.  Thomas  Ewing,  passed  the  tranquil  even 
ing  of  his  years  find  honors  sometimes  with  one  child,  sometimes 
with  another.  Younger  members  of  all  these  houses  were 
naturally  gathered  in  Washington,  and  Mr.  Blaine  had  the  hap 
piness  in  his  new  home  of  finding  himself  in  the  midst  of  closest 
friends  and  kin  of  his  old  homes. 

Walker  and  Emmons  were  at  school  at  Andover.  Mr. 
Elaine's  letters  to  his  absent  children  were  not  long  or  over- 
frequent.  A  word  of  family  news,  a  word  of  public  affairs, 
always  a  word  of  abounding  love,  often  a  word  of  tender  and 
sometimes  of  urgent  advice,  occasionally  a  delicate  word  of 
religious  suggestion  ;  but  details  were  left  to  a  pen  that  never 
failed  them.  The  boys  were  generally  in  such  a  hurry  to  get 
home  that  whichever  was  dismissed  first  on  vacation  shot 
home  like  an  arrow  from  the  bow,  without  waiting  for  the 
other.  Once  it  was  Emmons  whose  excellent  report  had 
preceded  him,  and  whose  way,  therefore,  was  unclouded.  But 
Walker's  report  had  accompanied  his  brother's,  and  Walker's 
standing  was  nothing  to  speak  of.  Dr.  Taylor,  the  head  of  the 
school,  averred  that  Walker  could  take  any  rank  he  chose,  but 
that  he  had  not  studied  at  all.  Emmons  tried  continuously 
to  soften  matters  for  Walker  before  his  arrival,  but  an  irate 
father  was  not  to  be  appeased  till  the  miserable  but  happy 
boy,  barely  inside  the  threshold,  had  promised  to  do  his  best  the 
next  term ;  and  the  storm  having  burst  in  one  minute,  in  two 
minutes  the  sun  was  shining  clear.  Stout,  tall  Emmons  was 
sitting  in  his  father's  lap  with  his  long  legs  hanging  to  the  floor, 
while  bigger  and  taller  Walker  was  sitting  close  to  his  father, 
resting  his  two  elbows  on  his  two  knees,  bending  forward  in  his 
eagerness  to  lose  no  Avord  of  his  father's  talk  with  a  group  of  men 
who  had  called  on  some  business  errand,  perfectly  content  simply 
to  be  at  home,  taking  the  liveliest  share  in  the  conversation  with 
out  uttering  a  word,  and  drinking  in  knowledge  at  every  pore  in 
spite  of  his  disgraceful  report.  Mr.  Blaine  was  never  brilliant  in 
baby-lore,  although  the  children's  story-teller  found  no  more 
interested  listener ;  but  whenever  his  children  asked  him  an  intel 
ligent  question  he  gave  them  a  full,  exhaustive  answer,  as  soon 
as  he  could  be  dragged  up  out  of  his  well  of  thought  far  enough 
to  be  aware  that  a  question  had  been  asked.  He  never  saved 


BIOGRAPHY     Ob'    JA.}fKX    (f.     ULAINK. 

himself  for  anything.  He  was  an  inexhaustible  source  of  infor 
mation  and  inspiration.  His  best  talk  was  as  free  at  his  own 
breakfast-table  as  to  a  listening  constituency.  His  best  thought 
was  at  the  service  of  his  own  family,  and  he  was  never  more 
direct,  more  rich  in  illustration,  more  earnest,  eloquent,  and 
luminous  than  when  he  was  expounding  a  policy,  or  shaping 
a  measure,  or  explaining  a  point,  or  quoting  a  precedent,  or 
verifying  a  statement  to  this  select  audience  of  the  fireside, 
which  he  believed,  and  pronounced,  and  made,  the  happiest  fire 
side  in  the  world. 

When  Ernmons'  turn  for  admonition  came,  it  was  a  more 
serious  one.  His  father,  visiting  Andover  when  Walker  gradu 
ated,  had  thought  the  mock  programme  performance  rather  silly, 
and  wondered  that  the  teachers  did  not  forbid  it.  The  next 
year  it  was  forbidden,  and  Emmoiis  was  suspended  for  being 
connected  with  his  class  in  the  distribution  of  the  prohibited 
programmes.  Emmons',  however,  was  no  case  of  suspended 
animation,  and  before  presenting  himself  to  his  father  in  the 
character  of  a  discarded  student,  he  had  secured  board  in  Newton 
in  a  good  deacon's  family,  and  the  tutorship  there  of  Mr.  Water- 
house,  who  had  been  the  remarkably  successful  high  school 
master  of  Augusta,  and  was  most  favorably  known  to  his 
father  and  mother.  It  may  be  mentioned,  however,  that  Emmons 
entered  Harvard  after  two  years  at  Newton,  much  better  pre 
pared  than  Walker,  who  had  gone  through  the  whole  prepara 
tory  course  at  Andover. 

In  all  parliamentary  and  administrative  questions,  Mr. 
Elaine's  skill  and  power  were  quickly  recognized.  The  busi 
ness  of  Congress,  in  his  view,  was  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
country  by  furthering  wise  legislation,  and  preventing  unwise 
legislation  ;  the  Speaker,  from  his  central  position,  was  especially 
empowered  to  secure  such  a  result  by  an  impartial  and  inflexible 
administration  of  parliamentary  law  —  the  highest  embodiment 
of  wisdom  from  the  experience  of  generations.  His  decisions 
were  instantaneous  and  authoritative.  Sometimes  they  made 
against  the  object  of  the  hour  and  of  the  party.  Though 
always  founded  on  principle,  and  often  fortified  by  precedent, 
he  seldom  argued  the  one  or  quoted  the  other,  but  carried  con 
viction  by  the  clearness  of  his  statement,  the  promptness  of  his 


226  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

ruling,  and  the  unwavering  definiteness  of  his  own  conviction. 
He  ruled,  but  it  was  a  rule  well-tempered  and  flexible  to  the  law 
of  right,  never  varying  in  principle,  ever  varying  in  application. 
As  he  presided  not  over  a  House  of  subjects,  but  in  a  House  of 
Peers,  and  peers  who  were  often  intensely  concerned  in  the 
theme  under  debate,  things  did  not  always  run  smoothly. 
In  the  heat  of  contest  sharp  words  were  sometimes  spoken,  and 
men  who  were  ruled  to  their  seats  when  they  were  eager  to  be 
on  the  floor  resented  the  authority  against  which  they  did  not 
rebel.  But  the  resenting  mood  was  followed  by  the  consenting 
mood  of  calmer  moments,  and  exasperation  yielded  to  reason 
or  dissolved  in  a  jest,  —  all  the  more  easily  because  the  Speaker 
did  not  arrogate  absolute  power. 

"  While  the  Chair  does  not  possibly  see  how  there  can  be  any 
difference  of  opinion,  the  Chair  does  not  desire  to  extend  abso 
lute  decision  without  the  right  of  appeal." 

"  It  would  put  the  Chair  in  an  embarrassing  position  to  say 
that  his  judgment  shall  absolutely  be  taken  without  appeal, 
although  it  is  not  possible  for  him  to  see  in  this  case  any  ground 
for  difference  of  opinion." 

"  As  gentlemen  have  expressed  some  dissatisfaction  with 
the  ruling  of  the  Chair,  he  will  only  say  that  if  the  motion  for  a 
suspension  of  the  rules  could  be  made  by  the  gentleman  from 
Arkansas,  in  order  to  permit  him  to  speak  on  this  question,  a 
suspension  of  the  rules  would  be  in  order  to  allow  the  same  privi 
lege  to  every  other  member  of  the  House." 

"  Mr.  BUTLEK.  — Why  not,  if  the  House  desires  it  ? 

"  The  SPEAKER.  —  Simply  because  the  House  does  not  wish  to 
commit  an  absurdity  after  having  seconded  the  previous  question 
and  ordered  the  main  question.  It  would  put  it  in  the  power  of 
one  man  to  detain  the  House  here  until  noon,  on  Thursday 
next  [the  end  of  the  session],  by  moving  to  suspend  the  rules 
that  each  member  of  the  House  should  have  the  right  to  speak. 
It  would,  of  course,  be  the  greatest  absurdity." 

Naturally  it  would  require  some  courage  to  take  an  appeal  in 
face  of  this  calm  confidence. 

A  member  having  quoted  the  Speaker's  past  decision  against 
his  present  one  upon  conditions  which  seemed  precisely  alike 
was  assured  that  u  the  Chair  is  really  quite  pleased  to  see  how 


1UOGRAPITY    OF   JAMES    G.    JiLAINE.  227 

accurately  he  made  the  distinction  in  that  decision.  It  is  pre 
cisely  what  he  would  reaffirm  at  this  moment.  .  .  .  The 
two  bills  were  entirely  different  in  scope  and  purpose.  .  .  . 
This  bill  may  involve  an  expenditure,  but  does  not  require  it. 
The  distinction  is  very  wide." 

"  I  withdraw  my  motion." 

"  So  the  Chair  understands." 

Wearied  with  all-night  sessions,  a  member  plaintively  asked 
that  absentees  might  be  sent  for.  Mr.  Elaine,  whose  physical 
endurance  seemed  insurmountable,  and  who  presided  after  an 
all-night  session  with  as  much  dexterity  and  decision  as  at  its 
morning  commencement,  replied  that  the  House  would  not  have 
a  particle  more  power  than  it  had  at  that  moment,  since  a 
quorum  was  already  present.  The  poor  gentleman  insisted  that 
a  call  could  be  made.  Mr.  Elaine  gently  insinuated  that  there 
should  be  some  reason  for  the  call. 

To  the  suffering  member  it  appeared  reason  enough  that 
"  when  it  is  now  a  question  of  endurance,  and  those  who  are 
here  are  suffering  all  the  inconvenience  of  attending  this  long 
session  of  the  House,  is  it  not  right  that  those  who  have  gone 
home  to  bed  should  be  brought  here  under  the  call  ? 

"  That  would  not  make  the  endurance  of  those  who  are  here 
a  particle  less." 

"The  House  has  the  right  to  send  for  absentees." 

"  If  the  gentleman  got  the  House  of  Representatives  to  en 
force  that,  it  would  never  do  anything  else." 

Although  acting  as  Speaker  of  the  House,  Mr.  Elaine  never 
forgot,  and  never  allowed  the  House  to  forget,  that  he  was  a 
member  of  Congress  from  the  Third  District  in  Maine,  and  that 
he  retained  all  his  rights  and  especially  the  right  to  discharge  all 
his  duties  as  a  Representative.  When  General  Butler,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  endeavored  to  make  a  point  that  in  shaping  a  resolution 
and  securing  its  adoption  at  a  Republican  caucus,  the  Speaker 
had  committed  an  impropriety,  Mr.  Elaine  left  the  Speaker's 
chair  and  came  down  upon  the  floor  to  dissipate  the  assumption 
with  a  series  of  rapid,  verbal,  and  logical  onsets  which  that  very 
clever  and  belligerent  man  of  genius  was  more  accustomed  to 
assay  than  to  receive. 

When  a  Congressional  District  sent  a  prize-fighter  to  Congress 


228  /*/<></ It  Aril}'     o/-'    JAMKS    (1.     /tLATNK. 

it  was  a  scandal  to  many,  not  only  that  a  prize-fighter  should  he 
sent  to  Congress,  but  that  the  Speaker  should  treat  him  like  a 
Congressman.  But  the  Speaker  answered  that  Congress  was  a 
representative  body,  and  the  right  of  representation  was  a 
sacred  right,  and  not  only  a  sacred,  but  a  safe  right ;  that  it  was 
not  his  duty,  but  would  be  a  flagrant  violation  of  duty  in  the 
Speaker  to  interpose  his  personality  between  a  member  and  his 
constituents.  More  than  this,  he  sent  for  the.  pugilist  to  the 
Speaker's  parlor,  acquainted  himself  with  the  man's  vieAvs, 
with  his  wishes,  with  his  Avays  of  thinking,  his  modes  of  action, 
with  his  fists  and  his  muscles,  acquired  his  confidence,  and 
helped  him  in  many  ways.  It  may  be  added  that  he  found  the 
ex-warrior  very  modest  in  his  legislative  ambitions,  desiring  only 
as  quiet  and  inconspicuous  positions  as  possible,  and  aiming 
to  perform  his  duties  with  decency  and  fidelity. 

When  a  member  had  fallen  under  popular  disfavor  by  reason 
of  charges  against  his  character,  the  Speaker  was  widely  re 
proached  because  on  the  reassembling  of  Congress  the  offen 
sive  member  was  reappoiiited  to  the  Chairmanship  of  an  im 
portant  committee.  But  the  Speaker  responded  that  it  was  no 
part  of  his  duty  to  visit  popular  odium  upon  a  member  of  Con 
gress.  The  gentleman  in  question  had  not  been  censured 
by  Congress,  he  had  been  elected  by  his  constituents,  and  the 
Speaker  should  strictly  regard  parliamentary  law  and  official 
duty. 

On  the  important  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  there  was 
a  serious  "  split."  The  Chairman,  Mr.  Dawes,  was  a  moderate 
Protectionist;  so  also  was  another  member,  Mr.  Roberts.  Two 
Republicans  were  high-tariff  men  ;  three  Democratic  free-traders 
and  two  low-tariff  Republicans  constituted  a  majority  and 
brought  in  a  very  low  tariff  bill,  which  the  Chairman  could 
not  support,  and  refused  to  report  to  the  House.  No  one  of 
the  majority  who  had  forced  it  knew  enough  of  tariff  details 
to  undertake  its  management  in  the  House.  The  Speaker 
was  justly  held  responsible  for  the  composition  of  the  com 
mittee,  and  was  criticised  as  having  formed  an  unwieldy 
organization.  But  he  was  unmoved.  By  the  withdrawal  of  the 
previous  Chairman,  General  Schenck,  the  head  of  the  Committee 
of  Appropriations,  Mr.  Dawes,  was  justly  entitled  to  the  pro- 


OF    JAMKS    (i.     KLAWK.  2* 

motion  which  he  received.  The  opinion  of  the  House  was 
fairly  represented  and  was  entitled  to  fair  representation  in 
the  committee.  The  result  justified  the  Speaker's  judgment. 
A  compromise  was  effected.  The  Chairman  agreed  to  report 
the  bill,  reserving  right  to  state  to  the  House  his  disagreement 
with  certain  provisions  and  to  offer  amendments.  After  the 
subject  had  been  well  knocked  about  in  the  House  for  several 
weeks,  Judge  Kelly  offered  a  very  high  tariff  bill  as  a  substitute 
for  the  committee's  bill,  and  Mr.  Dawes  offered  by  way  of 
amendment  a  moderate  bill  as  a  substitute  for  Judge  Kelly's. 
The  low-ttfriff  men  joined  the  moderates  and  voted  for  the 
Dawes  bill,  then  the  high-tariff  men  turned  about  and  joined 
them,  and  thus  the  two  moderates  had  their  way  at  last.  Their 
bill  became  the  Tariff  law  of  1872,  and  "  parliamentary  luck  " 
turned  in  the  exact  direction  that  the  Speaker  wished  and 
designed. 

During  his  first  winter  in  the  Speaker's  chair,  the  sale  of 
cadetships  was  proven  against  some  members  of  the  House,  and 
a  resolution  for  their  expulsion  being  expected,  the  House  was 
surprised  by  the  resignation  of  the  offending  member  whose 
case  was  first  reached.  Two  prominent  legislators,  one  an 
ex-Speaker,  objected  that  the  House  alone  had  the  right  to 
decide  when  one  of  its  members  ceased  to  be  a  Representative ; 
but  the  Speaker  ruled  against  them.  Leading  Republican 
newspapers,  friendly  to  Mr.  Blame,  criticised  his  action  frankly, 
and  paying  full  tribute  to  his  high  personal  character,  and  his 
devotion  to  the  public  interest,  and  to  the  dignity  of  his  office, 
yet  maintained  that  by  allowing  a  member  to  resign  and  thus 
escape  expulsion,  he  had  made  a  false  ruling,  contradictory  to 
all  English  parliamentary  law  and  to  the  law  of  common-sense, 
and  establishing  a  dangerous  precedent. 

But  the  Speaker  maintained  his  ground  both  by  precedent 
and  principle.  The  member  had  sent  his  resignation  to  the 
Governor,  the  Governor  had  formally  accepted  it,  and  a  notifi 
cation  to  this  effect  had  been  sent  to  the  Speaker  the  day  before. 
By  the  unbroken  precedent  of  the  House,  the  man  ceased  to  be 
a  member.  The  Speaker  could  not  suppress  or  withhold  the 
resignation.  But  that  the  House  might  have  opportunity  to 
give  its  judgment,  the  Speaker  privately  requested  a  Republican 


280  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

member  to  appeal  from  the  Speaker's  decision.  He  did  so, 
though  publicly  stating  at  the  same  time  that  he  agreed  with 
the  Chair.  A  Democratic  member  moved  to  lay  the  appeal  on 
the  table,  which  was  done  almost  unanimously,  and  thus  the  deci 
sion  of  the  Speaker  became  the  decision  of  the  House.  Mr. 
Blaine  maintained  that  any  other  decision  would  not  only  be 
unparliamentary,  but  would  entail  great  embarrassment  and 
might  be  productive  of  great  injustice.  Resignation  being  un 
known  directly  to  the  British  Parliament,  and  only  to  be  practi 
cally  secured  by  indirection,  that  body  could  furnish  no  analogy, 
and  he  pronounced  it  absurd  to  attempt  to  institute  a  parallel  or 
even  to  deduce  an  inference  applicable  to  the  American  Congress. 

He  steadily  maintained  and  upheld  the  rights  of  the  minority. 
When  the  transformation  of  the  minority  into  a  majority  was 
manifestly  and  rapidly  approaching,  he  refused  to  advocate  a 
legislative  change  which  would  bind  the  majority  by  new  and 
repressive  rules.  To  the  argument  that  the  Democrats  would 
work  mischief  Avithout  it  in  the  next  Congress,  he  maintained 
that  a  majority  has  the  right  to  legislate,  and  the  responsibility 
for  legislation  by  reason  of  its  numerical  existence,  irrespec 
tive  of  its  political  complexion,  and  that  no  legislation  can  be 
so  destructive  in  its  effects  as  the  forcible  assumption  or  the 
forcible  prevention  of  legislation. 

His  manner  in  the  Chair  was  entirely  without  self-conscious 
ness,  yet  utterly  self-confident.  He  had  thorough  control  of  the 
situation.  He  was  never  perplexed  or  uncertain.  If  in  some 
temporary  absence  or  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  the  House 
fell  into  confusion  and  he  was  summoned  from  the  dinner-table 
to  straighten  the  snarl,  he  appeared  upon  the  scene  radiant, 
intent,  erect,  masterful,  and  order  evolved  itself  from  chaos. 

No  better  stage  can  be  imagined  for  the  display  of  his  person 
ality.  The  vast  hall,  the  strong  men,  the  great  questions,  the 
intense  interest,  the  varying  purposes,  clashing,  combining  in 
stormy  debate,  —  among  it  all  and  above  it  all  he  stood,  an  em 
bodied  intellect,  a  regnant  spirit,  —  vibrant,  electric,  compelling. 
One  could  not  say  with  the  poet,  "  his  body  thought,"  but  his 
body  was  transfused  with  thought,  became  the  perfect  medium 
of  his  will.  Eye  and  voice  and  figure  were  instinct  with  com 
mand.  Great  as  was  the  position,  he  illustrated  it  by  the  un- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  231 

conscious  dignity  of  his  bearing,  by  the  force,  the  scope,  the 
completeness  of  his  control.  Recognizing  —  and  assuming  where 
he  did  not  recognize  —  that  all  men  were,  like  himself,  loyal  to 
the  reign  of  law  and  seeking  always  the  way  of  righteousness, 
which  is  lightness,  he  disentangled  the  law  and  developed  the 
right,  and  penetrated  the  consciousness  of  men.  Mr.  Holman  is 
reported  as  saying  that  Mr.  Blairie,  by  that  personal  quality 
which  gained  for  him  the  name  of  the  "  magnetic  "  man,  con 
vinced  his  opponents  of  the  correctness  of  his  decisions  against 
their  own  judgment.  It  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  yet  holds  a 
germ  of  truth.  "  His  winning  manner,"  u  his  irresistible  fasci 
nation,"  was  the  proffered  and  pleased  disguise  under  which 
many  a  man  confessed  to  spiritual  illumination. 

Yet  no  man  was  less  averse  to  pleasantry  upon  occasion. 
Sometimes  when  the  House  was  too  noisy  or  had  failed  to  re 
spect  his  gavel,  he  would  fling  himself  into  the  chair  with  a 
fierceness  of  patience,  with  a  desperation  of  resolution  to  wait 
for  quietness  that  was  both  effective  and  amusing.  Monday 
being  private  Bill  day  the  proceedings  had  a  tendency  to  become 
turbulent.  A  sudden  declaration  by  the  Speaker  that  no  busi 
ness  would  be  transacted  until  order  was  restored,  and  that  the 
condition  of  the  House  on  two  preceding  Mondays  was  a 
scandal  to  legislation,  had  the  effect  of  producing  better  order 
for  at  least  one  day.  As  nothing  could  exceed  the  earnest 
ness  of  members  to  get  their  Bills  through,  so  nothing  could 
be  a  greater  inducement  to  order  than  a  suspension  of  all 
business  during  disorder. 

While  General  Garfield  and  General  Butler  were  acting  as 
tellers  in  a  long  and  fatiguing  session,  the  irrepressible  boy 
in  the  two  men  enlivened  the  monotony  by  interjecting  a  quasi- 
dialogue  into  the  proceedings : 

General  BUTLER.,  —  1  want  gentlemen  to  vote  to  save  nearly 
a  million  dollars  to  the  treasury. 

General  GARFIELU.  —  I  object  to  the  gentleman  from  Massa 
chusetts  discussing  the  question  while  acting  as  a  teller. 

General  BUTLER.  —  Read  the  rule  that  forbids  it. 

The  SPEAKER,  -  -  The  rule  of  common  propriety  forbids 
it. 


232  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

After  a  pause : 

General  BUTLER.  —  Mr.  Speaker,  may  I  be  dismissed  as  a 
teller? 

The  SPEAKER.  —  Does  the  gentleman  demand  a  further 
count  ? 

General  BUTLER.  —  I  don't  want  this  question  to  be  decided 
without  a  quorum. 

The  SPEAKER.  —  That  is  what  the  Chair  is  trying  to  get. 

General  BUTLER.  —  I  do  not  like  to  see  a  great  wrong  of  this 
sort  done  at  this  time  of  the  morning. 

General  GARFIELD.  —  I  object  to  a  teller  making  remarks 
on  the  question  which  is  being  voted  upon. 

General  BUTLER.  —  I  object  to  being  interrupted  by  my 
fellow-teller. 

General  GARFIELD.  —  I  rise  to  a  perpetual  point  of  order: 
that  the  gentleman  should  behave  with  seemly  decency  in  this 
matter. 

General  BUTLER.  —  Pardon  me;  it  is  a  very  indecent  neigh 
bor  I  have  got  here  who  keeps  all  the  time  talking. 

Mr.  SPEER.  —  I  object  to  debate. 

The  SPEAKER.  -  -  The  Chair  thinks  it  fair  to  let  the  tellers 
fight  it  out 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  put  me  down  for  five  minutes ! "  called  Mr.  S. 
S.  Cox  when  a  dozen  were  clustering  around  the  Speaker 
arranging  for  the  order  of  the  day. 

"  I  wish  I  could  keep  you  down  for  one  minute,"  was  the  very 
audible  sotto  voce  of  the  Speaker. 

It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  his  authority  in  Congress 
became  almost  absolute.  His  imperiousness  was  seen  and  felt 
to  be  founded  on  understanding,  pervaded  with  good-will, 
lightened  with  good-humor,  and  justified  by  the  strength  and 
skill  with  which  he  guided  the  important  business  of  the  country 
through  the  legislative  labyrinth,  and  by  the  firmness  with 
which  he  established  himself  in  the  confidence  and  regard  of 
the  House.  Not  his  own  party  alone,  but  the  opposition  placed 
so  much  reliance  on  his  knowledge  of  the  law  and  on  the 
impartiality  with  which  he  administered  it  that  an  appeal  was 
seldom  taken  except  by  his  own  devising,  for  his  own  satisfac- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  233 

tion,  and  no  appeal  against  his  decision  was  ever  sustained  by  the 
House.  When  the  minority  subsequently  became  the  majority, 
knotty  questions  were  often  referred  to  him  privately,  and 
Democrats  who  on  the  floor  had  been  the  most  recalcitrant  to 
Mr.  Elaine's  rulings,  sometimes  took  the  precaution  of  fortifying 
themselves  for  imminent  battle  by  having  on  hand  a  parlia 
mentary  programme,  solicited  for  the  occasion  and  adapted  to 
its  probable  course  by  the  Republican  ex-Speaker.  Both  parties 
agreed  with  equal  unanimity  in  congratulations  upon  his  taking 
the  chair,  in  regrets  at  his  leaving  it,  and  in  thanks  for  the 
manner  of  his  incumbency. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  hardly  settled  in  the  speakership  before  the 
question  of  the  Senatorship  was  again  presented.  It  had  been 
agitated  tAvo  years  before,  but  while  he  had  looked  at  it  with  a 
certain  favor  and  had  carefully  observed  the  situation,  the  time 
had  not  seemed  to  him  propitious,  and  he  had  decided  not  to 
encourage  the  movement.  In  the  spring  of  1870  another  decision 
was  required.  His  friends  in  Washington,  and  even  in  the 
public  press  of  the  country,  warmly  opposed,  in  the  public  inter 
ests,  the  contemplated  change.  "  The  House  of  Representa 
tives,"  protested  the  latter,  "  needs  the  best  possible  of  Speakers 
to  keep  it  in  anything  like  order,  and  Mr.  Elaine  has  shown 
himself  on  several  occasions  well  fitted  to  hold  the  reins."  He 
fully  enjoyed  his  position,  and  as  fully  discerned  its  great  influ 
ence  and  responsibility.  He  feared  also  that  the  step  might  dis 
appoint  friends  to  whom  he  wished  to  give  only  pleasure,  and, 
being  unnecessary,  might  seem  to  them  inconsiderate.  He  there 
fore  decided  against  it,  and  replied,  "Fearing  my  candidacy 
would  tend  to  produce  discord  among  those  who  have  hitherto 
been  friends  and  might  possibly  mar  the  harmony  of  the  Re 
publican  party  in  Maine,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  say  thus  early 
that  my  name  will  not  be  presented  to  the  next  Legislature  as 
a  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate."  It  was  recog 
nized  that  this  withdrawal  secured  the  election  of  Mr.  Morrill, 
who  held  Mr.  Blaine's  confidence  and  received  his  cordial  sup 
port. 

Public  questions  of  home  and  foreign  relations  were  of  mani 
fest  vital  interest  from  the  very  opening  of  General  Grant's 
administration.  By  the  spring-  of  1870  all  the  States  were  back 


234  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

in  the  Union,  and,  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  quaint  phrase,  "  finding 
themselves  once  more  at  home  it  seemed  immaterial  to  inquire 
whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad."  Reconstruction  was 
formally  completed  during  this  first  year,  and  the  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  Amendments  became  a  part  of  the  Constitution 
with  public  proclamation  and  unutterable  thanksgiving;  but 
Congress  continued  to  be  urgent  in  enacting  laws  to  protect 
the  newly  guaranteed  rights.  Ku-Klux  Klans  were  still  odious 
to  the  North,  and  carpet-baggers  to  the  South,  but  it  remained 
that  four  years  of  war  had  abolished  slavery,  and  four  years 
of  reconstruction  had  restored  the  Union,  and  not  a  drop  of 
blood  had  been  shed  or  a  single  home  confiscated  by  way  of 
legal  penalty.  The  annexation  of  San  Domingo  was  earnestly 
desired  by  the  President,  but  he  could  not  bring  Congress  or 
the  country  to  his  way  of  thinking ;  while  Senator  Sumner 
opposed  it  with  unnecessary  heat.  The  British  Government,  in 
its  own  defence,  had  picked  up  and  proffered  the  arbitration  which 
it  had  contemptuously  thrown  down  when  offered  by  the  United 
States,  and  which  President  Grant  had  quietly  permitted  to  lie 
where  it  fell.  A  Joint  High  Commission  was  sent  over  by 
England,  —  the  gossip  of  Washington  said  in  such  a  hurry  that 
they  could  not  stop  for  their  papers,  or  their  trunks,  but  made 
sure  of  getting  here  themselves,  and  certified  their  right  to  come, 
afterwards.  Their  arrival  and  residence  in  Washington  in  the 
winter  of  1871,  together  with  the  presence  of  the  American 
commission  appointed  to  meet  them,  made  a  pleasant  social 
feature  of  the  season  with  its  veiled  note  of  American  exulta 
tion,  through  which  ran  also  its  jar  of  discord  caused  by  the 
deposition  of  Mr.  Sumner  from  his  chairmanship  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Relations.  Mr.  Sumner  had  been  among  the 
first  to  condemn  the  attitude  of  England,  and  it  seemed  only 
fitting  that  he  should  assist  at  its  change.  The  country  Avith 
regret  saw  him  set  aside  in  the  hour  of  victory,  a  regret  scarcely 
modified  by  the  feeling  that  his  own  methods  and  manners  had 
contributed  somewhat  to  the  bitter  result. 

In  the  spring  of  1871  Mr.  Elaine's  mother  died.  From  her 
earliest  days  when  she  was  at  school  at  Emmetsburg,  and  when 
even  her  girlish  letters  to  her  young  friends  closed  with  gentle 
wishes  for  their  happiness  here  and  blessedness  hereafter,  her  life 


BIOGEAPHT    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  235 

and  love  had  been  in  two  worlds.  She  was  a  Catholic  both  in  the 
ecclesiastical  and  the  etymological  sense  of  the  word.  Not  only 
her  close  alliance  to  Protestants,  but  all  the  instincts  of  her 
heart  made  her  liberal.  The  Protestant  Herrons,  of  Pittsburgh, 
were  akin  through  Alexander  Elaine,  and  the  Catholic  Tiernans, 
of  Pittsburgh,  were  akin  through  a  marriage  with  her  only  sister, 
and  when  her  eldest  boy  died  in  Pittsburgh,  while  she  was  on 
her  way  to  the  old  home  in  Brownsville,  Dr.  Francis  Herron, 
Presbyterian  minister,  and  old  Father  McGuire,  an  Irish  Cath 
olic  priest,  walked  together  at  the  head  of  the  procession  at 
the  child's  funeral. 

"  Ah,"  said  one  of  her  nieces  to  her,  "  if  all  Catholics  were 
only  like  you  !  " 

"  My  dear,"  was  the  gentle  reply,  "  that  is  the  poorest  compli 
ment  you  can  pay  me." 

%k  But,  dear  aunt,  you  are  so  charitable,  so  kind." 

"  That  is  my  religion ;  that  is  the  way  I  wish  to  recommend 
my  religion." 

But  though  suffused  with  the  religious  spirit,  she  was  not 
careless  in  observing  the  forms  of  her  own  faith.  Washington 
held  no  Catholic  church  at  the  time  of  her  removal  thereto,  and 
she  at  once  secured  the  services  of  the  Brownsville  priest  and  held 
such  public  worship  as  was  practicable  in  her  own  house.  Her 
husband  was  a  Protestant,  but  he  had  been  well  trained  to 
public  spirit,  and  by  hereditary  habit  shared  his  privileges  with 
his  neighbors.  When  his  father  came  to  Brownsville  he  found 
no  sufficient  facilities  for  the  education  of  his  children,  and 
therefore  sent  for  a  teacher  from  Philadelphia  to  his  own  house 
at  his  own  expense  ;  but  to  this  private  school-room  the  children 
of  his  neighbors  were  warmly  welcomed,  and  shared  its  advan 
tages  with  his  own  children. 

Years  after  her  death  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  It  seems 
to  me  here  and  now  that  I  would  give  worlds  could  I  have  had 
a  single  parting  word.  The  last  message  my  mother  left  in  her 
conscious  moments  was  to  me,  the  last  word  she  ever  uttered 
audibly  was  my  name,  after  her  intellect  was  clouded  with 
the  shadow  of  the  dark  valley.  She  was  the  most  loving, 
devoted,  and  affectionate  of  mothers,  and  my  love  for  her  was 
very  great." 


236  IUOGRAP1IY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

In  the  summer  of  1871  Walker  was  sent  to  Paris  for  a  year's 
study.  His  father's  P.P.C.  is  characteristic.  It  was  a  little 
manuscript  book  known  only  to  those  two,  and  found  among 
Walker's  papers  after  his  death. 

WALKER   HLAINE,    P.P.C. 

AUG.  7,  1871. 
Read  pages  a  and  b  near  end  of  book  once  a  day  during  your  voyage. 

It  contained  among  other  things  minute  directions  for  the 
trip,  written  from  memory  of  his  own,  mostly  in  pencil  and  in 
the  irregular  chirography  of  the  railroad  train. 

If  you  find  an  agreeable  travelling  companion  on  the  "Tripoli"  who 
wishes  to  land  at  Queenstown  and  proceed  overland  to  London,  the  fol 
lowing  is  a  good  route :  Delay  at  Cork  only  long  enough  to  go  out  to 
Blarney  Castle,  five  miles  out  the  valley  of  the  Lea.  Go  in  an  Irish 
jaunting-car.  Go  one  road  and  come  back  the  other.  Then  take  rail  for 
Dublin.  If  you  stop  at  all  on  the  way,  let  it  be  for  a  single  day  at  the 
Lakes  of  Killarney.  One  day  in  Dublin  will  enable  JTOU  to  see  the  public 
buildings  and  churches,  the  Phoenix  park,  the  monument  to  Daniel 
O'Connell,  etc.  From  Dublin  to  Kingstown,  mouth  of  Liftey,  nine  miles  ; 
thence  by  steamer  to  Holyhead  on  the  Island  of  Anglesea.  At  Holyhead 
buy  a  ticket  in  earty  morning  train  for  Menai  station,  thirty -two  miles, 
near  famous  bridge  over  Menai  straits ;  after  seeing  the  bridge,  drive  to 
Bangor  three  miles  farther  on ;  see  old  cathedral,  and  take  the  next  train 
to  Chester,  fifty-two  miles.  In  Chester  see  the  old  Roman  wall,  the  old 
cathedral,  and  drive  out  to  Eaton  Hall,  the  famous  seat  of  the  Marquis 
of  Westminster.  Procure  ticket  of  admission  in  the  town.  You  may  get 
back  in  season  to  go  to  Birmingham,  forty-eight  miles,  the  same  evening, 
via  Wolvesampton  and  the  «*  Black  country1';  if  not,  go  next  morning, 
At  Birmingham  there  is  nothing  to  sec  except  avast  succession  of  factories. 
From  Birmingham  go  to  Warwick,  twenty-six  miles.  Engage  a  carriage 
at  Warwick  station  to  take  you  to  Kenilworth,  and  then  back  through  to 
Stratford-upon-Avon.  Get  a  carriage  if  you  can  belonging  to  the  keeper 
of  the  little  hotel  in  Warwick.  I  think  the  Warwick  Arms  landlord  will 
probably  drive  you.  From  Warwick  go  to  Stratford  one  way  and  back 
the  other ;  see  Squire  Lucy's,  where  Shakespeare  shot  the  deer.  You  will 
get  back  to  Warwick  in  season  to  take  evening  train  for  Oxford,  forty-five 
miles.  Stay  in  Oxford  a  day  or  two  studying  it  well;  while  there  drive 
down  to  Blenheim  Castle,  the  famous  seat  of  the  Duke  of  Marl  borough  ; 
see  fair  Rosamond's  well,  etc.  From  Oxford  to  London,  fifty  miles.  In 
London  you  will  have  friends  to  advise  you  what  to  see,  and  how  to  see  it. 
If  Parliament  is  in  session  you  will,  of  course,  attend  there  several  times. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  237 

Visit  British  Museum.  Go  to  Richmond  via  the  park,  and  take  a  row  up 
the  Thames.  See  Madam  Tousseau's  wax-works.  Attend  divine  service  in 
Westminster  Abbey ;  see  Poets1  corner :  see  Bank  of  England ;  Zoological 
Garden.  Try  to  get  Director's  ticket  and  visit  Sunday  afternoon  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  the  Tower  of  London,  Crystal  Palace  on  Saturday.  During 
your  stay  in  London  you  can  run  down  one  day  and  see  the  University  of 
Cambridge ;  one  day  will  do  it.  A  very  fine  excursion  of  a  single  day 
may  be  had  thus :  Leave  London  early  in  the  morning  for  Southampton, 
there  take  a  steamer  for  Cowes,  and  along  Isle  of  Wight  by  Osborne. 
Ride,  etc.,  to  Portsmouth,  the  great  naval  station ;  thence  to  London  by 
evening  train.  In  going  to  Edinburgh,  go  up  on  east  side  of  England 
through  "Old  York/1  If  you  provide  yourself  a  lunch  before  leaving 
London  you  need  not  dine  in  York,  but  can  employ  the  time  that  other 
passengers  are  eating  in  seeing  the  famous  York  minster.  In  Edinburgh 
see  the  "  Castle,11  Holyrood  Palace,  the  famous  old  Cannongate,  the  house  of 
Regent  Murray,  house  of  Jno.  Knox,  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian,  Scott's  monu 
ment,  Arthur's  seat,  etc.  In  leaving  Edinburgh  go  to  Glasgow  by  way  of 
the  Trossacs,  first  to  Calendar  by  rail ;  thence  in  open  wagon  over  Ben 
Lomond,  and  by  boat  over  Loch  Lomond  ;  thence  in  wagon  again  to  Loch 
Katrine,  etc.,  and  finally  by  rail  into  Glasgow.  In  Glasgow  spend  one 
day,  Cathedral  crypt  of  same  ;  also  spend  one  day  in  going  to  Burns1  birth 
place,  Ayr ;  go  down  by  rail  via  Paisley,  distance  forty  miles.  Returning 
go  by  steamer  up  the  Fryth  of  Clyde,  a  splendid  sail.  See  Castle  of 
Dumbarton  as  you  go  up  the  river  Clyde.  From  Glasgow  go  to  Sheffield 
or  lake  country;  thence  to  London.  Reach  London  Saturday  night. 
.  .  .  Sunday  go  to  hear  Spurgeon  preach  in  the  morning.  Monday 
go  to  British  Museum.  Always  have  sun  in  room  in  Rome  and  Naples. 
Victoria  Hotel,  Naples. 


To  temper  the  rigor  of  a  superiority  attested  by  this  foreign 
journey,  Emmoiis  was  allowed  to  make  alone  a  tour  of  explor 
ation  and  discovery  to  Chicago  the  day  after  Walker  set  sail. 
All  went  well  until  he  should  have  telegraphed  his  arrival  in 
Chicago.  Not  hearing  from  him  there  according  to  appoint 
ment,  his  father  was  in  great  apprehension  and  telegraphed  in 
all  directions.  Twenty-four  hours  after  "  schedule  time " 
Emmons  telegraphed  cheerfully  that,  seeing  in  the  papers  that 
there  was  to  be  "  a  race  in  Buffalo  with  a  favorite  trotting  mare," 
he  had  stopped  over.  And  having  delivered  his  letters  of  intro 
duction  in  Chicago  and  investigated  the  city  to  his  heart's  con 
tent,  the  "  positively  delightful  boy  "  -  as  a  friend  wrote  to 
his  parents  —  came  leisurely  and  safely  home,  without  mistake 
or  mishap. 


238  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  April  27,  1869. 

.  .  .  Yesterday  Emmons  commenced  his  school  again  —  likewise  M . , 
the  magnificent,  hers.  Mons  came  home  at  noon  fearfully  disgusted  with 
his  arrangements.  He  had  been  put  into  Cresar,  although  he  is  perfectly 
unposted  as  to  rules  —  into  geometry,  though  he  has  never  been  in  algebra, 
and  in  arithmetic  only  to  square  root.  His  other  study,  natural  history, 
he  made  no  objection  to.  Then  he  has  that  bete  mir,  declamation,  threat 
ening  him.  Altogether  I  think  if  it  were  not  for  the  fear  of  boarding- 
school  hanging  over  him,  he  would  sit  down  in  the  ashes  and  wait  for  his 
fairy  godmother,  rather  than  try  to  help  himself;  but  with  this  dread 
harrowing  his  soul,  he  knows  that  he  must  do  or  die,  so  last  night  he 
shut  himself  into  the  parlor  until  he  had  mastered  his  geometry,  and  this 
morning  at  breakfast,  while  I  cut  steak  and  poured  coffee,  he  ate  and  read 
out  his  "  Gallia  omnis  divisa  est  in  tres  partes^  and  I  will  say  for  him 
that  he  translated  his  nine  lines  very  deftly  and  neatly.  All  your  old  books 
come  in  play  so  well  that  he  has  not  had  to  buy  a  new  one.  As  soon  as 
breakfast  is  over,  I  take  in  the  little  Blaine  girls  and  the  one  big  brother 
and  off  we  drive.  First  we  drop  M.  at  Winthrop  street,  —  she  goes  off 
bowing  her  head  and  saying,  "  Now,  Alice  Blaine,"  —  then  Emmons  throws 
out  the  reins  and  gives  a  spring  as  we  come  in  sight  of  that  dirty, 
hubbubly  High  School,  and  lastly  I  drive,  over  the  old  bridge  and  deposit 
my  saintly  Alice  among  the  saints  [Saint  Catherine's  School].  She  likes 
there  much,  and  this  is  now  the  fourth  week,  so  I  feel  some  confidence 
in  the  permanency  of  her  regard.  When  I  come  home,  father  meets  me 
with  the  salutation,  "Well,  old  lady,  the  separation  is  over.  We  have 
nothing  to  do  now  but  enjoy  each  other."  This  on  Friday,  but  on  Wednes 
day  I  find  myself  at  the  door  saying  good-by,  with  the  best  grace  I  may.  I 
give  him  now  until  Saturday  to  get  home  in.  If  he  comes  not  then,  I  have 
a  fit  of  the  blues  all  ready  to  put  on.  I  was  delighted  to  hear  from  him 
so  satisfactory  an  account  of  you.  That  your  tongue  ran,  that  you  ate  the 
oranges,  that  the  home-sickness  had  disappeared,  that  you  addressed  Aunt 
C.  as  Sir,  —  each  and  every  item  gave  satisfaction. 

To  Mr.  Blaine  from  Hon.  Elihu  Washburn : 

PARIS. 

About  home  matters,  I  read  up  pretty  well,  but  I  take  it  I  don't  get  quite 
all  there  is  going.  I  would  give  "  a  pretty"  for  an  old-fashioned  talk  of 
three  or  four  hours  with  you  touching  the  present  political  situation.  I 
may  be  deceived,  but  I  confess  I  don't  like  the  look  at  this  distance. 
If  A.  Johnson  gets  to  the  Senate,  it  must  be  regarded  as  the  joak  of  the 
century.  I  want  you  to  take  a  morning  for  it  and  give  me  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  field.  How  stands  the  administration,  and  does  the  President 
hold  all  his  popularity  ?  .  .  .  Tell  me  all  about  your  movements. 
\  am  delighted  not  to  have  seen  your  name  among  the  junketers  on  the 
Pacific  Railroad.  Keep  clear  of  all  entangling  alliances. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  *239 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

PORTLAND,  Sept.  3,  1869. 

I  write  you  with  a  sad  heart.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  same  mail 
which  delivers  you  this  note  will  bring  you  the  newspaper  announcement 
of  Senator  Fessenden's  death.  I  have  just  returned  from  his  house.  He  is 
critically  low  —  exhausted  in  body  and  wandering  in  mind.  His  attending 
physicians  give  no  hope.  He  was  taken  suddenly,  a  day  or  two  since,  and 
the  peculiar  feature  of  the  disease  seems  to  be  that  it  is  a  consummation  of 
the  National  Hotel  poison —  of  which  he  with  so  many  others  was  a  victim 
in  1857. 

I  feel  profound  sorrow  for  the  impending  blow.  Notwithstanding  I  may 
desire  his  place,  I  do  not  wish  to  get  it  in  that  way ;  nor  indeed  do  I  know 
that  his  removal  from  the  field  would  improve  my  chances.  It  may  raise 
up  other  Richmonds.  But  in  the  shadow  of  death,  I  do  not  think  of  the 
future,  only  of  the  past ;  and  in  the  past,  I  recall  a  man  of  strong  mind, 
of  many  high  points  of  character,  and  with  few  weaknesses,  who  has  been 
my  friend  for  fifteen  years,  and  with  whom  I  have  passed  through  many 
trying  scenes,  and  had  many  pleasant  days,  and  I  grieve  that,  at  sixty -three, 
he  is  to  be  removed  from  earth. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Hon.  I.  Washburn,  Jr.  : 

AUGUSTA,  Sept.  13,  1869. 

DEAR  GOVERNOR:  Yours  received.  I  thank  you  for  your  frankness. 
But  in  telling  me  that  you  are  a  candidate  for  United  State  Senator  you  do 
not  specify  which  term  you  will  run  for. 

Am  I  to  understand  that  you  are  a  candidate  for  the  short  term,  or  for 
the  long  term,  or  for  both? 

I  am  not  myself  a  candidate  for  the  short  term  —  so  in  the  one  pressing 
exigency  of  the  hour  you  may  regard  me  as  out  of  everybody's  way. 

Colonel  Smith  must  have  quite  misunderstood  what  I  said  to  him  or  what 
I  intended  to  say,  if  you  have  correctly  reported  him.  But  nothing  is 
more  common  than  for  conversations  to  be  misunderstood,  and  such 
misunderstanding  implies  no  reflection  on  any  one. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

The  depth  and  richness  of  Y/s  composition  remind  me  all  the  time  of  the 
infinitely  varying  and  always  freshly  developing  grandeur  of  Henry 
Winter  Davis1  character.  I  was  only  yesterday  glancing  over  one  of  his 
speeches  and  I  came  across  this,  which  I  well  remember  when  it  fell  from 
his  lips : 

"For  untimely  agitators  and  premature  reformers  I  have  little  sym 
pathy.  They  are  cocks  that  crow  at  midnight,  heralding  no  dawn,  and  only 
disturbing  peaceful  and  needed  rest  by  unseemly  and  unseasonable 
clamor." 


240  mOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE, 

I  do  not  quote  this  as  any  striking  exhibition  of  eloquence  or  excellence 
of  speech,  but  only  of  that  wonderful  readiness  and  facility  of  expression 
and  illustration  which  came  to  his  lips  as  with  inspired  force.  I  re 
member  the  startling  significance  of  this  particular  phrase  as  it  fell  on 
the  ear.  It  arrested  the  attention  of  the  entire  House,  and  you  have  very 
probably  heard  me  quote  it  before.  Davis  was  essentially  a  many-sided 
man.  His  culture  seemed  to  embrace  the  whole  domain  of  knowledge. 
He  was  a  profoundly  learned  lawyer.  He  was  a  most  clear-headed 
and  admirable  statesman.  He  was  a  man  of  letters.  He  was  a  match 
less  orator.  He  was  a  true  and  genial  Christian,  and  yet  a  man  of  the 
world. 

From  Mr.  Blaine : 

OCT.  3,  1869. 

As  to  that  Sorrento  expedition,  it  strikes  me  as  in  some  respects  just 
what  you  would  not  want.  Going  that  horrid  Quebec  route  in  the 
autumn  is  enough  to  chill  one  with  apprehension  at  the  very  outset. 
Seven  steamers  of  that  line  lost  in  four  years,  and  the  navigation  the 
most  hazardous  and  least  interesting  of  all  the  Atlantic  waters !  And 
still  further,  after  you  shall  have  reached  Liverpool,  seasick,  exhausted, 
despondent,  hating  the  sea  and  all  connected  therewith,  the  proposition 
is  to  coast  round  through  Gibralter  on  one  of  those  miserable  mail 
steamers  that  touch  here  and  there  on  the  barren  coast-line,  but  give  you 
no  more  glimpse  of  Europe,  than  a  trip  by  steamer  from  Boston  to  the 
Kennebec  would  give  you  of  New  England.  Your  sight  of  France  would 
be  that  of  the  sailors  whose  experience  is  embraced  in  that  charming  dis 
play  of  ballad-rhyming: 

"There  we  lay 
All  the  day 
In  the  Bay 

Of  Bisca?/,  O  !  " 

.  .  .  Wait  and  go  with  the  Blaines,  and  we  will  take  a  Cunard 
steamer  to  Queenstown  and  we'll  "do1'  Ireland  at  the  start,  and  then 
we'll  do  England  and  Scotland,  and  then  cross  over  to  Belgium  and 
Holland,  and  thence  to  the  Rhine  valley  and  the  German  States,  following 
the  Rhine  through  SAvitzerland,  and  crossing  the  Alps  via  the  Simplon, 
and  come  back  via  the  Splugen,  after  doing  Milan,  Turin,  the  Lakes 
Maggiore  and  Como,  and  then  when  on  the  North  shore  again,  doing 
Munich  and  Vienna  and  Pesth,  and  then  to  the  head  of  the  Adriatic,  over 
to  Venice,  Padua,  Modena,  Bologna,  Florence,  Rome,  Naples,  Rorrento 
(one  day),  and  thence  back  along  the  Italian  coast,  Leghorn,  Genoa,  via 
the  Cornici  road  to  Nice,  Marseilles,  Lyons,  Paris,  Home.  This  would  be 
a  trip  worth  taking.  We'll  do  it  in  '71,  so  don't  go  and  spoil  your  ap 
petite  by  imprudent  nibbling  in  advance  of  the  real  feast.  As  we  go 
along,  I  shall  gather  up  sufficient  data  to  demolish  Julius  Csesar,  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (/.     HLAINK.  ^ 

you  can  see  about  Joan  D'Arc,  and  any  other  worthy  whose  real  immor 
tality  hangs  upon  the  end  of  your  pen. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

BOSTON,  Oct.  10,  1869. 

We  have  just  returned  from  hearing  Mr.  Murray,  and  I  must  tell  you 
that,  in  spite  of  the  prejudice  his  Adirondack  book  gave  me,  —  deepened 
and  intensified  as  it  was  by  your  settled  adverse  judgment,  —  I  liked  him 
very  much  indeed.  He  preached  a  lucid,  logical,  fervent,  impressive 
sermon,  well  conceived  and  admirably  delivered.  His  text  was  very 
brief,  "  On  earth  peace  and  good-will  to  men."  The  subject,  "  Christian 
unity."  My  wife  was  even  more  taken  with  him  than  I  was,  and  she  is  a 
capital  judge  of  a  good  sermon.  .  .  .  Doubtless  in  future  if  I  hear  Mr. 
Murray  he  may  not  preach  so  well,  surely  not  if  I  go  to  hear  him  with 
you  and  have  the  aroused  sensitiveness  which  your  presence  would  inspire  ; 
but  I  always  will  maintain  against  all  comers  that  "  the  discourse" 
delivered  by  the  aforesaid  on  the  tenth  clay  of  October,  1869,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  and  his  wife,  was  a  scriptural,  Christian,  eloquent,  and  faithful  ex 
position  of  the  Word  as  it  was  delivered  to  the  saints  and  handed  down  by 
the  elders  —  a  very  saving  power  to  them  that  believe,  and  ineffectual  only 
on  such  incredulous  and  uncharitable  mortals  as  can  see  no  good  in  a  man 
who  had  the  bad  taste  once  to  tell  an  indelicate  story;  as  if  the  very 
prince  of  English  statesmen  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  not  been  in  the 
habit  of  entertaining  his  guests  at  parliamentary  dinners  with  coarse  stories, 
on  the  avowed  ground  that,  it  being  difficult  to  find  congenial  topics  for 
such  mixed  companies,  he  fell  back  on  that  "  which  everybody  enjoyed." 
Now,  I  am  not  defending  Murray's  coarseness,  nor  am  I  assailing  Sir  Robert 
Walpole.  I  am  only  showing  you  that  genius  and  vulgarity  are  not  by  any 
means  incompatible  ;  nay,  that  they  are  not  infrequently  associated  ! 

I  found  myself  nearly  laughing  aloud  as  the  preacher  hastened  in  such 
a  hand  gallop  through  the  preliminary  exercises,  apparantly  anxious  to 
get  at  the  sermon.  Just  at  that  moment  the  d— 1  put  it  into  my  head  to 
remember  Byron's  tart  letter  to  his  publisher,  when  he  was  so  impatient 
for  additional  cantos  of  "Don  Juan,"  commencing, 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Murray, 
You're  in  a  d— d  hurry." 

But  Jacob  Stan  wood's  carnage  is  at  the  door,  punctual  at  the  1  P.M. 
which  I  appointed,  and  so  I  take  leave  of  Mr.  Murray  in  a  —  hurry. 

At  three  I  went  to  Andover  and  had  three  good  hours  with  my  beloved 
boys,  and  at  seven  we  met  their  beloved  mother.  At  your  cousin's  we  had 
a  very  pleasant  time  and  a  dinner  altogether  too  .sumptuous  to  have  been 
cooked  on  the  Sabbath  day,  in  the  household  of  one  descended  of  the  Puri 
tans,  but  perhaps  he  had  his  notions  of  the  strict  observance  of  that  day 
somewhat  loosened  by  reading  a  certain  review  and  criticism  of  Gilfillan's 


242  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

Sabbath.  At  all  events,  as  I  had  the  advantage  of  the  dinner,  and  greatly 
enjoyed  it,  I  am  not  going  to  question  too  closely  the  theological  basis  on 
which  it  rested. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

WASHINGTON,  Jan.  14,  1870. 

The  way  in  which  you  analyzed  the  parliamentary  question  involved  in 
the  point  at  issue  on  Monday  last  is  worthy  of  an  old  legislative  head. 
By  the  way,  did  you  see  that  the  paper  editorially  sustained  me,  and  their 
correspondent  has  since  materially  modified  his  despatch  in  which  he 
attempted  to  place  me  in  the  wrong? 

I  write  this  while  the  roll  is  calling  on  Bingham's  amendment  to  Virginia 
Bill,  and  maybe  another  tie  is  in  reserve  for  me  with  its  trials  and  tests. 
I  close  this  letter  without  knowing,  save  that  the  vote  is  very  close. 

From  Mr.  Elaine: 

WASHINGTON,  Jan.  16,  1870. 

You  observed  how  close  a  vote  followed  the  closing  of  my  last  letter, 
98  to  95,  for  the  unconditional  admission  of  Virginia.  It  came  very  near 
precipitating  another  tie.  They  were  counting  noses  during  roll-call,  and 
thought  it  would  be  96  to  96.  I  would  really  have  been  glad  had  it  been 
so,  for  I  would  like  to  vote  on  the  admission  of  all  the  States  still  out. 

You  have  so  well  analyzed  and  so  well  understand  all  the  points  of  my 
parliamentary  disagreement  that  you  have  left  me  nothing  to  explain. 
The  editorial  was  very  good,  just,  and  true.  No  Speaker  has  voted  to 
produce  a  tie  since  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  and  he  was  very  severely 
censured  therefor.  To  produce  a  tie  and  defeat  a  motion  is  to  give  the 
Speaker's  vote  the  force  of  two  votes,  and  would  prove  highly  odious 
and  offensive.  The  Speaker  has  the  undoubted  right  to  vote  on  every 
question;  but  if  he  refrains  from  exercising  that  right  from  motives  of 
courtesy  and  conciliation,  he  ought  not  to  claim  it  at  a  time  when  its  asser 
tion  must  prove  exceedingly  offensive.  I  take  great  pleasure  and  no  little 
pride  in  telling  you  that  the  decisive  weight  of  opinion  is  now  in  my  favor. 
Indeed,  my  course  is  approved  by  all  who  have  any  right  to  give  an  opinion 
on  the  premises  or  any  knowledge  to  base  it  on. 

JAN.  20. 

I  noticed  that  your  dear  and  daily  Monitor  gave  the  Speaker  a  slight 
dig  for  his  decision  on  Monday  ;  nevertheless,  the  Speaker  was  entirely  right, 
and  the  oldest  and  best  parliamentarians  declare  that  he  was.  But  as  he 
knew  from  the  outset  that  he  was  right,  he  can  afford  to  endure  the  crit 
icisms  of  all  the  "  Respectable  Dailies  "  that  can  be  crowded  into  or  issued 
from  the  city  of  Boston,  because  "Respectable  Dailies"  in  Boston  or 
elsewhere,  have  very  slender  knowledge  of  the  Lex  Parliamentaria,  that 
bundle  of  wisdom  into  which  the  unregenerate  have  never  even  looked. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  243 

JANUARY  26. 

I  dined  with  the  prince  [Arthur]  last  eve.  He  impressed  me  as  a  young 
man  of  fair  sense  who  had  been  accustomed  to  good  society.  It  seem  to  me 
but  yesterday  when  I  saw  in  the  "  London  Illustrated  Xews  "  the  picture  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  holding  him  in  his  arms  for  baptism.  It  was  in 
1850. 

From  V. : 

WASHINGTON,  April  22,  1870. 

All  the  Shermans  were  out,  but  across  the  way  Mr.  Blaine  happened  to 
see  General  Sherman  in  his  garden  and  drove  back  to  speak  to  him.  He 
came  up  with  the  greatest  cordiality,  insisted  on  our  going  into  the 
garden,  showed  us  all  around  the  place,  which  you  may  remember  is  the 
one  formerly  given  to  General  Grant  and  afterwards  transferred  to 
Sherman.  I  wanted  to  see  his  horses,  and  we  went  into  the  stables,  saw 
the  carriages,  etc. ;  then  he  would  have  us  go  into  the  house,  showed 
me  the  maps  which  he  used  in  his  campaigns,  some  of  them  mere  pencil 
sketches  drawn  to  illustrate  a  plan,  one  which  General  McPherson  drew 
and  brought  a  few  minutes  before  his  death.  I  asked  him  if  in  that  march 
to  the  sea  he  was  following  a  designed  plan  or  making  it  simply  as  a 
necessity.  He  said  it  was  wholly  a  plan.  Did  he  have  faith  in  it? 
Entirely,  never  faltered  a  moment.  It  was  just  as  the  lightning  opens 
the  landscape  to  you  suddenly  and  shows  everything.  It  was  one  mental 
effort  and  the  thing  was  done.  From  Chattanooga  to  beyond  Atlanta,  for 
a  four-months'  march  with  one  hundred  thousand  men,  there  was  not  an 
hour  in  which  the  cannon  was  not  roaring  somewhere  along  the  line,  so 
that  when  at  last  it  did  stop,  it  seemed  strange  and  noticeable.  We  spoke 
of  the  attempt  now  making  to  reduce  the  General's  salary.  I  said  I  did 
not  care  so  much  about  the  inconvenience  to  him,  but  that  it  seemed 
mean  for  the  country,  whose  fate  had  so  hung  upon  the  strength  and 
steadfastness  of  a  few  men ;  now  having  availed  itself  of  all  their 
services  and  being  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  fruit  of  their  labors,  it  turns 
about  and  proposes  to  reduce  their  salaries.  Then  we  professed  unbounded 
gratitude ;  now  we  talk  of  paying  them  too  much,  as  if  we  did  not  owe 
to  them  the  having  anything  to  pay  for,  or  to  pay  with.  He  said  he  did 
not  care  so  much  about  himself,  he  could  live  anyway,  but  he  did  care 
about  his  family,  whose  mode  of  life  must  be  changed  by  this  proposed 
reduction.  He  is  also  opposed  to  having  the  office  of  General  cut  off  with 
his  life,  thinking  there  were  many  others  who  had  served  with  great  dis 
tinction  in  the  war,  and  who  ought  to  have  the  title  when  he  was  done  with 
it.  The  call  was  all  the  more  interesting  for  our  being  thrown  entirely 
upon  the  General.  He  is  so  simple,  so  hearty,  and  earnest,  and  intense, 
with  his  small,  sharp,  wrinkled  face,  anything  but  good-looking  in  the 
common  sense  of  the  term,  with  the  elan  of  genius  from  head  to  foot,  in 
every  tone  and  turn. 


244  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     HLAINE. 

WASHINGTON,  April  25. 

.  .  .  Later  came  Senator  and  Mrs.  Williams.  She  is  handsome, 
vivacious,  has  an  agreeable  voice  and  manner  of  speech,  a  good  deal 
of  intelligence  and  fluency.  She  talked  on  woman's  rights,  —  against 
it, —  and  advanced  such  arguments  that  1  withdrew  from  the  field  "in 
sullen  silence,11  Mr.  Elaine  said  afterwards.  Mrs.  Williams  talked  in 
earnest,  and  Mr.  Elaine  told  her,  on  leaving,  that  he  had  talked  on  three 
sides,  and  if  she  had  stayed  only  a  little  longer,  he  should  have  got  on  to 
the  fourth! 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  Anson  P.  Morrill  : 

READFIELD,  May  8,  1870. 

Your  highly  esteemed  favor  of  29th  ult.  was  duly  received.  I  have  been 
from  home  nearly  all  the  time  since  on  railroad  matters,  and  hence  my 
delay  in  answering.  Permit  me  to  say  that  nothing  could  give  me  greater 
satisfaction  than  to  be  assured  that  in  no  event  would  you  and  Lot  be  made 
opponents  and  competitors  for  political  place.  If  such  a  contest  presented 
itself,  the  ties  of  consanguinity  which  would  urge  me  to  support  a  brother 
would  be  hardly  stronger  than  the  personal  friendship  I  have  felt  for  you 
for  many  years.  I  have,  amidst  all  the  rumors,  constantly  asserted  that 
such  an  evil  day  would  be  averted.  No  word  of  an  unfriendly  character 
has  escaped  me,  and  for  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  I  shall  rejoice  and  feel 
proud  of  your  prosperity  and  success.  ...  I  defer  very  much  to  your 
judgment,  and  should  be  glad,  very,  to  act  in  harmony  with  your  views  as 
I  ever  have  done.  ...  I  shall  see  our  true  friend,  Stevens,  to-morrow 
and  will  try  to  consult  for  the  general  good. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

AUGUSTA. 

.  .  Q/s  baptism  was  very  impressive.  Mr.  McKenzie  is  marvellously 
felicitous  in  all  such  exercises.  Give  him  a  marriage  or  a  funeral  or  a 
christening,  and  he  is  the  very  soul  of  all  that  is  pious  and  eloquent  and 
touching.  M.  insisted  that  the  baby  ought  to  be  baptized  after  "  mother's 
cousin,"  the  title  by  which  she  always  designates  you. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

AUGUSTA,  August  15,  1870. 

Our  darling  little  Q.  has  been  very  ill  since  I  wrote  you.  Yesterday 
morning  we  were  really  quite  alarmed  about  him.  He  is  better  this  morn 
ing,  and  we  hope  and  trust  permanently  so.  The  weather  is  cool,  delight 
ful,  and  charming,  and  that  is  very  favorable  to  him. 

No  news  of  any  kind,  and  if  there  was,  my  anxiety  about  Q,.  has  been 
such  that  I  could  write  'nothing.  .  .  . 

I  think  your  tile  drain  need  not  be  laid  over  three  and  one-half  feet  deep. 
I  will  see  how  deep  mine  is.  N.,  1  know,  is  colder  than  Augusta,  but  by  a 
little  differential  calculus,  aided  by  a  last  year's  almanac  and  the  meteoro- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    JiLAINK.  245 

logical  tables  of  the  nineteenth  century,  you  may  calculate  how  many  inches 
deeper  you  would  require  a  drain  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Massachusetts  than 
in  the  mild  valleys  of  Maine,  to  be  secure  from  frost.  .  .  . 

I  take  another  half  foot  from  the  drain.  I  find  that  mine  is  but  three 
feet  under  ground,  and  we  have  never  heard  of  a  freeze.  You  see,  the  less 
you  sink  the  drain,  the  better.  If  you  do  not,  I  will  come  to  N.  and  illus 
trate  by  diagrams  and  drawings  on  the  ground,  fixing  my  comer  points  by 
shavings  carefully  deported  ! 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  General  Schenck,  of  Ohio : 

BURLINGTON,  OHIO,  Aug.  29,  1870. 

I  have  been  constrained  to  be  a  candidate  for  reelection  in  spite  of  me. 
I  have  just  sent  down  my  acceptance  of  the  nomination,  after  four  weeks 
of  delay  and  consideration.  Now  for  the  canvass.  T  am  going  home  to 
open  the  campaign  next  week.  It  is  going  to  be  a  tough  and  doubtful  fight. 
Two  years  ago,  in  a  vote  of  35,000  I  had  474  majority ;  335  of  that 
was  from  the  inmates  of  the  National  Soldiers'  Asylum,  now  ruled  out  by 
the  count.  I  shall  gain  about  200  by  colored  votes,  and  lose  perhaps  as 
many  from  prejudiced  Republicans  who  "  won't  vote  with  niggers."  Alto 
gether  it's  close  work ;  but  I  think  I'll  win. 

Now,  do  you  remember  your  promise  to  come  and  help  in  my  district  if 
I  should  run  ?  What  time  can  you  give  me  between  the  15th  September 
and  10th  of  October  ?  .  .  .  Mind,  it  isn't  to  come  to  Ohio,  but  /  am 
after  you  for  my  district. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

Town  of 

Pittsfield 

Somerset  County 
State  of  Maine 

United  States  of  America 

Western  Hemisphere 

Terrestrial  Globe 

Latitude  44 1  North 

Longitude  77 £  West 
from  Greenwich 
8J  East  from 
Washington 
8.25  A.M. 
Tuesday 

Sept.  Cth 

A.D.  1870 

Can  you  tell  where  and  when  by  the  above  ?     Left  home  yesterday  a 
little  after  twelve,  and  drove  here  with  my  pair  and  my  wife.     I  drove  the 


24t>  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

pair,  my  wife  rode ;  she  is  not  generally  driven,  but  in  family  arrange 
ments  she  more  commonly  drives.  Distance  from  Augusta,  forty  miles, 
directly  up  the  Kennebec  to  Winslow,  nineteen  miles ;  thence  N.E.  up  the 
valley  of  the  Sebasticook  twenty-one  miles.  Now,  1  presume  you  never 
heard  of  the  Sebasticook,  which  is  only  another  proof  of  the  deep  igno 
rance  that  prevails  in  the  country  towns  of  Massachusetts.  What  a  State  you 
live  in,  —  all  the  culture  and  intelligence  crowded  into  a  little  circle  of  three 
miles  diameter  measured  from  the  Boston  State  House,  the  remainder  of 
the  Commonwealth  left  to  black  and  blue  ignorance.  In  Maine,  culture  is 
generally  diffused,  reaching  this  country  town  in  such  profuse  abundance 
that  the  largest  church  in  the  village,  last  evening,  was  filled  with  its  in 
habitants,  able  to  follow  and  comprehend  an  abstruse  and  profound  political 
discourse,  delivered  by  a  friend  of  yours.  The  same  discourse,  an  hour 
and  a  half  in  length,  would  have  been  preached  in  vain  in  a  Massachusetts 
audience,  outside  the  favored  circle  I  have  mentioned. 

WEDNESDAY,  September  7,  tea-time. 
Town  of 

Bingham 

on  the  Kennebec  river 

70  miles  north  of  Augusta 

Directly  on  the  route  that 
Benedict  Arnold 

took  to  reach  Quebec. 

Inspired  by  this  patriotic  reminiscence,  I  addressed  a  large  audience 
this  afternoon,  and  here  I  am  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  miles  nearer 
the  north  pole  than  you  are. 

My  wife  and  I  have  just  returned  from  a  ramble  up  the  side  of  a  moun 
tain  here,  where  we  enjoyed  a  view  of  unsurpassed  grandeur. 

I  wrote  you  from  Pittsfield  yesterday  morning,  that  afternoon  I  spoke  in 
Hartland,  and  the  same  evening  in  Athens,  both  very  beautiful  villages. 
This  morning  we  drove  hither,  twenty-five  miles.  We  are  staying  at  a 
delightful  country  hotel  and  enjoying  everything  except  you.  We  leave 
to-morrow  morning  for  North  Anson,  twenty  miles  nearer  home,  where  I 
shall  mail  this  letter.  The  tea-bell  rings,  and  after  tea  we  shall  have 
country  friends  calling. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  General  Schenck: 

DAYTON,  OHIO,  Sept.  29,  1870. 

.  .  .  My  strength  and  voice  are  nearly  gone.  But  I  think  I  shall  beat 
Free  Trade,  Repudiation,  Whiskey,  Ireland,  Democracy,  Falsehood,  and 
the  Devil  generally,  and  get,  maybe,  five  hundred  majority.  The  combina 
tion,  though,  has  become  ferocious  ! 

I  am  sadly  disappointed  at  the  prospect  of  your  not  coming  at  all.  You 
could  have  given  me  just  the  help  I  wanted  and  need. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  247 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  his  mother  : 

NOVEMBER  14,  1870. 

I  had  three  days  to  spare  —  two  of  which  I  spent  in  Washington 
[Pennsylvania] ,  and  one  in  Brownsville  —  saw  all  the  friends  in  both  places 
—  none  more  delighted  to  see  me  in  Washington  than  Mrs.  Adams.  She 
flew  at  me  with  wide  arms,  and  kissed  me.  "  You're  not  Mr.  Elaine  nor 
Speaker  Blaine.  You're  just  Jim  Blaine  to  me,11  she  said.  She  sent 
showers  of  love  to  you.  The  same  with  Mrs.  Huston.  I  saw  her  in  the 
identical  old  kitchen  in  which  I  pulled  the  chair  from  under  grandpa. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  December  17,  1870. 

Mr.  Fisher,  of  Boston,  is  with  us,  and  last  evening  we  had  a  round-table 
dinner  —  the  guests,  besides  Air.  Fisher,  were  Schenck,  Banks,  Allison,  Cox, 
Potter,  Beck,  Garfield,  Schofield,  Hale,  Peters,  Kelly,  Hooper,  Ingersoll, 
and  General  Butler ;  good  company  and  a  good  dinner. 

I  had  quite  a  chat  with  Governor  Coburn  yesterday  noon  about  advanc 
ing  the  $140,000.  I  think  I  shall  induce  him  to  do  it. 

From  Walker : 

ANDOVER,  December  27. 

I  have  so  many  things  which  I  wish  to  thank  you  and  father  about,  and 
I  have  so  many  occurrences  which  I  wish  to  tell  you,  that  I  hardly  know 
how  to  make  a  beginning. 

Saturday  noon,  Emmons,  Guy  [son  of  General  Howard],  and  myself 
went  to  Boston.  We  met  father  at  the  Parker  House  at  two  o'clock,  and 
he  engaged  the  rooms  for  us  which  we  occupied  during  our  whole  stay. 
We  all  three  went  to  the  Globe  Theatre  to  see  Fechter  in  ««  Ruy  Bias." 
The  best  piece  of  acting  I  ever  saw.  In  the  evening,  father  and  Emmons 
went  to  the  Globe,  while  Guy  and  I  went  to  the  Boston  Theatre,  and  saw 
the  opera  of  the  "  Bohemian  Girl.''  The  opera  was  very  good,  though  I 
believe  you  are  not  very  much  interested  in  operas  or  theatres.  Sunday 
morning  we  all  went  to  hear  Mr.  Murray  preach.  At  two  o'clock  we  all, 
except  Guy,  who  dined  with  some  relatives,  dined  with  Mr.  Fisher.  On  the 
way  to  that  place,  father  said  that  he  wasn't  sure  whether  he  was  invited 
for  Sunday  or  Monday.  However,  we  stumbled  on,  and  found  that  there  was 
no  mistake.  Had  a  very  nice  dinner  at  two,  after  which  father  went  out  into 
the  country  with  Mr.  Fisher  to  see  his  father,  and  Mons  to  Cambridge  to  see 
N.  I  stayed  at  Mr.  Fisher's,  where  I  spent  a  most  pleasant  afternoon.  .  .  . 
Father  returning,  we  all  went  to  tea,  and  afterwards  Dr.  Gay  came  in. 
Father  retired  with  him  for  a  private  consultation  on  the  subject  of  his 
broken-down  health.  Mrs.  Fisher  and  I  went  in  to  see  Dr.  Lewis'  library. 
Dr.  Lewis  is  the  father  of  the  first  Mrs.  Fisher.  A  magnificent  library. 
Two  rooms  completely  walled  in  with  books,  while  the  doctor  himself  is  a 
real  old  antiquarian.  He  says  that  he  has  over  six  thousand  medals  and 
coins.  On  returning  to  the  house,  we  found  a  carriage  waiting,  which 


248  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

drove  us  to  the  hotel.  This  ended  Sunday  —  as  pleasant  a  Sunday  as  I  ever 
spent,  and  spent  in  the  way  which  I  like.  1  don't  think  very  much  of 
the  doctrine  of  making  you  expiate  all  the  sins  of  the  past  week  every 
Sunday  by  corporal  punishment  on  hard  benches,  and  by  mental  punish 
ment  under !  Monday  morning  we  took  breakfast  at  a  very  reasonable 

hour,  nine  o'clock,  and  then  Guy  and  I  went  out  to  see  the  picture  of 
"  Sheridan's  Ride,'1  by  T.  B.  Read,  the  author  of  the  poem.  Jenks  and 
all  the  boys  from  Andover  came  up  Monday,  and  in  the  afternoon  we 
went  to  see  Stuart  Robson  at  the  Boston  Theatre,  in  "Paul  Pry."  At  six 
o'clock  of  the  same  evening,  nine  of  us  took  dinner  together,  and  in  the 
evening  we  went  to  see  Fechter  and  Miss  LeClercque  in  "Black  and 
White,"  by  Wilkie  Collins,  as  you  would  soon  discover  if  you  saw  the 
play.  I  found,  on  returning  from  the  matinee  Saturday  afternoon,  that 
father  had  gone  out  to  Mr.  Caldwell's  (Josiah)  to  a  Christmas-tree,  and 
that  he  enjoyed  it  so  much  that  Mr.  Caldwell  had  sent  a  carriage  for 
Emmons  and  myself  to  go  out  there.  Of  course,  as  I  was  not  at  home 
Emmons  went  alone,  and  had  a  very  pleasant  time,  I  believe.  After  re 
turning  from  the  evening  performance  we  all  went  to  bed,  and  came  to 
Andover  at  seven  o'clock  this  morning.  This  closed  the  Boston  trip.  I 
have  been  to  the  theatre  thrice,  opera  once.  Have  seen  six  plays  and  one 
opera.  Have  been  out  to  dinner,  and  have,  on  the  whole,  had  one  of  the 
best  times  I  ever  had  in  my  life.  And  now  I  come  to  giving  thanks 
both  to  you  and  to  father.  To  father  for  all  three,  for  the  splendid  time  we 
had. 

From  Mr.  Elaine 

WASHINGTON,  Jan.  4,  1871. 

I  have  been  round  to  the  White  House  since  dinner  to  call  on  the  Presi 
dent.  He  sent  for  me,  and  we  had  a  frank  chat  on  San  Domingo.  I  will 
support  the  resolution  of  inquiry,  but  am  against  the  final  acquisition. 

From  a  guest : 

WASHINGTON. 

Thursday  morning  I  walked  to  the  Capitol  with  Mr.  Blaine,  and  then 
back  again  alone.  In  the  evening  we  went  to  General  Sherman's,  and  had 
a  very  bright  and  agreeable  evening.  Old  Mr.  Ewing  is  spending  the 
winter  there,  and  his  son,  General  Hugh,  late  Minister  to  the  Hague,  was 
also  there.  The  former  is  past  eighty,  tall,  handsome,  silver-haired,  areal 
gentleman  of  the  old  school,  and  he  promised  to  come  here  some  evening 
if  possible.  We  had  Mr.  Stephens,  the  new  Minister  to  Uraguay,  at 
dinner.  Mr.  Blaine  is  guiltless  of  Sumner's  deposition.  He  told  the 
President  frankly  that  the  whole  power  of  his  administration  could  not 
do  it.  If  he  was  not  right,  he  came  pretty  near  it,  for  it  is  still  a  ques 
tion  whether  the  administration  will  not  break  down  under  it.  Yet  the 
President  keeps  on  perfectly  good  terms  with  Mr.  Blaine,  though  the 
latter  is  very  outspoken  and  frank. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  249 

WASHINGTON,  March  4,  1871. 

Mr.  Elaine  has  been  exceedingly  busy  these  last  few  days,  was  up  at 
Congress  all  last  night,  and  did  not  get  home  till  near  six  this  morning, 
then  at  it  again  at  ten. 

We  have  been  to  the  House,  heard  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  Speaker 
passed  with  an  eulogistic  speech  from  S.  S.  Cox.  The  caucus  was  held 
last  night,  and  nominated  Mr.  Blaine  by  acclamation.  There  was  practi 
cally  no  opposition.  The  dissolution  and  recreation  were  extremely  inter 
esting.  At  precisely  12  M.  Mr.  Blaine  brought  down  the  gavel  and  made 
a  little  farewell  speech  ;  a  few  minutes  of  pause,  and  then  the  clerk, 
McPherson,  came  in,  called  the  roll,  and  then  elected  the  Speaker  by  the 
roll.  Mr.  Blaine  had  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  votes,  one  hundred  and 
ten  necessary  to  election.  There  were  no  scattering  votes.  Then  Mr. 
Morgan,  the  Democratic  candidate,  and  Mr.  Dawes,  the  oldest  consecutive 
member,  led  him  to  the  chair.  He  made  a  short  inaugural  speech,  and  Mr. 
Dawes  stood  in  front  of  the  desk  and  administered  the  oath.  Then  Mr. 
Blaine  swore  in  the  members.  It  was  very  impressive.  Mr.  Elaine's 
speeches  were  everything  one  could  desire  —  short,  touching,  concise, 
sufficient,  not  a  bit  of  spread  eagle.  The  House  was  as  still  as  emptiness. 
I  heard  every  word  with  perfect  distinctness. 

WASHINGTON,  March  17,  1871. 

I  suppose  you  have  seen  the  Butler-Blaine  fight  in  all  the  papers.  The 
boys  came  from  Andover  Thursday  morning.  Mr.  Blaine  said  it  would 
probably  be  lively  at  the  House  and  we  went  up.  Judge  Kelly  was 
speaking  when  we  went  in.  Presently  I  was  startled  by  Walker's  saying: 
"  I  declare,  he  is  going  for  him,''  and  1  then  saw  that  Mr.  Blaine  was 
leaving  his  Speaker's  chair  and  taking  a  place  on  the  floor.  He  did  come 
down  like  a  sledge-hammer.  Butler  was  really  cowed.  You  know  how 
impetuous  Mr.  Blaine  is,  and  it  was  lightning  and  thunder  all  together. 
Mr.  Peters,  who  sat  in  front  of  Butler,  told  Mr.  Hale  that  Butler  shook  so 
that  he  (P.)  could  feel  it  where  he  sat.  Butler  has  brow-beaten  wit 
nesses  till  all  the  world  exceedingly  feared  and  quaked,  so  that  he  has, 
in  a  certain  sense,  had  free  course ;  but  this  time  he  was  faced  down  and 
pounded  and  battered,  and  very  much  —  surprised.  I  was  surprised  too 
to  see  how  little  he  had  to  say  in  reply.  He  left  nearly  every  point  un 
touched,  throwing  out  a  few  wild  shots.  But  yesterday  he  went  up  to  the 
desk  and  chatted  with  Mr.  Blaine  just  as  if  nothing  had  happened,  and 
the  whole  gallery  of  reporters  rushed  down  to  the  front  seat  and  looked 
over  below  to  see  it  —  frightfully  disgusted,  no  doubt,  that  it  was  all  talk 
and  no  tussle. 

WASHINGTON,  March  23,  1871. 

It  is  very  warm  to-day,  and  Miss  Ripley  took  us  driving  this  morning, 
and  then  to  lunch  with  her,  and  then  H.  went  to  Nettie  Chase's  wedding. 
The  boys  are  all  to  dine  at  General  Sherman's,  and  Mr.  Blaine  and  I  are 
going  to  the  Thomas  concert.  H.  won't  go  because  she  is  sure  she  shall 


250  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

go  to  sleep.  There  is  and  has  been  a  report  around  for  several  days  that 
General  Butler  was  to  attack  Mr.  Blaine  again  to-day,  and  old  Mr.  Ewing 
sent  his  son,  General  Charles,  down  this  morning  to  see  if  it  was  so,  be 
cause  he  wanted  to  go  in  if  it  was,  and  wanted  Mr.  Blaine  to  be  loaded!  I 
meant  to  go  up  and  see  for  myself,  but  just  as  I  was  dressing  for  Miss 
Ripley's,  the  note  came  from  Mr.  Blaine  which  1  enclose  with  this. 

First  page. 

General  Butler  opened  his  fresh  attack  on  me  to-day  as  soon  as  the 
journal  was  read,  and  before  a  privileged  question,  which  Farns worth  was 
trying  to  offer,  could  be  got  fairly  before  the  House  for  consideration 

Second  page. 

by  inviting  you  and  Miss  D.  and  myself  to  accompany  the  managers  of 
the  National  Asylum  to  Fortress  Monroe  and  Norfolk  on  an  excursion 
to-morrow,  by  boat,  to  be  back  on  Monday  morning.  Will  you  go  ? 

Guy  Howard  and  a  school  friend  of  his  here  at  dinner;  also  General 
Sherman's  son  and  nephew,  Tom  Sherman  and  Tom  Ewing,  —  all  fine  boys. 
Tom  Sherman  has  a  pony  and  rides  over  to  Georgetown  to  school  every 
morning  at  eight  and  back  at  five.  Did  I  tell  you  that  Mr.  Fish  had  given 
the  boys  a  fine  billiard-table?  In  the  evening  Mr.  Hooper  came  up, 
having  seen  in  the  evening  paper  an  account  of  some  previous  transac 
tions  alleged  to  have  taken  place  between  Butler  and  Blaine,  bringing  Mr. 
Hooper  in.  He  came  to  say  that  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  there  was  no 
truth  whatever  in  it.  The  San  Domingeese  are  expected  next  week,  and 
there  is  no  prospect  of  an  immediate  adjournment.  There  was  a  confer 
ence  Wednesday  night,  Butler  being  on,  and  when  they  were  considering 
where  they  should  meet,  Mr.  Blaine  invited  them  here,  and  they  came, 
Butler  and  all.  He  came  in  and  shook  hands  as  heartily  as  you  please. 
Mr.  P.  went  on  that  Fortress  Monroe  expedition,  and  says  General  Butler 
seemed  to  be  really  disappointed  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blaine  did  not  go, 
and  had  the  steamer  wait  for  them. 

Mr.  Sumner's  speech  went  too  far  against  the  President.  The  President 
was  at  Governor  Buckingham's  in  the  evening,  and  was  much  excited  — 
for  him. 

Mr. has  a  picture  of  Mr.  Blaine  that  makes  him  look  like  a  brigand, 

and  a  biographical  sketch  of  him  makes  him  out  not  much  better.  Mr. 
Blaine  says  he  always  knew  they  would  have  their  revenge  on  him,  and 
here  it  is.  General  Garfield  was  here  at  breakfast.  The  Shermans  called 
last  evening,  and  are  coming  here  to-day  to  dinner,  and  General  Tom 
Ewing,  who  is  visiting  in  town. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  to  Walker : 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  April  15,  1871. 

I  will  not  give  you  very  many  rules  in  interest,  but  aim  merely  to  im 
press  one  useful  point  on  you,  and  so  to  explain  it  that  you  may  be  able 
readily  to  tell  qua  ratione.  Knowledge  sine  ratione  is  not  enduring. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  251 

In  business  affairs  your  most  frequent  use  of  interest  is  to  calculate  it 
for  short  periods,  months  and  days.  For  even  number  of  years  your  path 
is  easy  and  direct.  The  months  and  days  are  the  bother. 

The  most  comprehensive  rule  for  calculating  interest  at  six  per  cent,  for 
any  number  of  days  is  to  multiply  the  amount  by  the  number  of  days, 
and  divide  by  sixty.  For  example,  what  is  the  interest  on  $371.23  for 
eighty-three  days,  six  per  cent  ?  Process  : 

$371.23 

83 

1,113.69 
29,698.4 

60)30,812.09 

$5.135 

The  reason  for  this  is,  that  in  the  interest  year  there  are  360  days,  there 
fore  if  you  multiply  by  360  and  divide  by  60,  you  do  the  same  as  multiply 
ing  by  6  per  cent.  If  true  for  360  days,  it  must  be  true  for  any  other 
number  of  days,  greater  or  less. 

For  5  per  cent.,  multiply  by  the  number  of  days  and  divide  by  72, 
same  as  360  T0 

: — :  I  Z. 

5 

qpA 

Eight  per  cent.,  multiply  by  the  number  of  days  and  divide  by  45  = 

8  . 

O/?  A 

Nine  per  cent.,  multiply  by  the  number  of  days  and  divide  by  40  = 

Seven  per  cent,  does  not  give  an  even  quotient.  Your  easiest  way  is  to 
get  the  interest  at  6  per  cent.,  and  then  add  £  of  the  result. 

Seven  and  three-tenths  you  get  accurately  by  multiplying  by  number  of 
days  and  dividing  by  50.  In  this  case,  however,  we  reckon  the  year  at  the 

365       3650 
calendar  number  of  days,  365.     You  get  the  result  thus,  ^r  ==~7s~  ==  ^°' 

For  reckoning  in  months  at  6  per  cent.,  always  remember  that  each 
month  is  £  per  cent.     For  two  months  you  simply  reckon  one  per  cent. ; 
four  months  you  reckon  two  :  six  months,  three  ;  eight  months,  four,  etc. 
All  well  and  send  much  love. 

Hastily  and  very  affectionately, 

YOUR  FATHER. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

SARATOGA,  N.Y.,  August  15,  1871. 

The  day  after  you  sailed,  your  mother  went  home  and  I  came  to  this 
place,  where  we  have  been  since.  Emmons  went  same  day  to  New  York  ; 
thence  to  Niagara ;  thence  to  Cleveland ;  thence  to  Chicago :  and  then 


252  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

home  via  Pittsburgh.  He  left  Chicago  last  evening,  will  be  in  New  York 
to-morrow  morning,  and  home  Thursday  P.M.  .  .  .  Your  mother,  I 
have  no  doubt,  is  sending  you  a  letter  full  of  domestic  news  by  this  same 
mail.  ...  Be  very  careful  and  prudent  in  your  money  matters.  I 
want  you  to  have  everything  needful  for  your  comfort,  culture,  and  enjoy 
ment,  but  do  not  forget  that  my  fortune  is  not  a  large  one. 
Most  lovingly  and  tenderly, 

YOUR  FATHER. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  August  21,  1871. 

.  .  .  The  great  event  since  I  wrote  you  a  week  ago  is  your  father's 
Saratoga  serenade  speech,  which  he  made  last  Wednesday  evening.  An 
immense  crowd  assembled  to  hear  him,  and  he  has  been  overwhelmed 
with  congratulations.  I  think  myself  he  was  most  happy,  and  perhaps  I 
should  be  more  difficult  than  almost  any  one  else  to  please.  All  the  papers 
have  said  their  say  about  it,  pro  and  con.  .  .  .  Emmons  has  expected 
to  leave  for  Andover,  via  Boston,  to-morrow,  but  has  had  a  telegram  this 
afternoon  from  your  father  telling  him  not  to  leave  till  he  hears  from  him ; 
so  possibly  he  may  not  go  till  Wednesday.  I  hope  he  may  not,  for  no 
tongue  can  adequately  portray  my  loneliness  since  I  came  from  Boston  the 
day  after  you  sailed.  I  have,  to  myself,  to  lead  two  lives  entirely  distinct 
from  each  other.  The  one  when  I  am  with  your  father,  all  variety,  wide 
awake,  gay  ;  the  other  — 

From  President  Grant : 

WASHINGTON,  August  31,  1871. 

DEAR  MR.  SPEAKER:  Your  favor  of  the  28th  inst.  was  received  yes 
terday  just  before  1  started  for  Washington.  f  have  given  Mr.  Hamlin, 
and  two  other  gentlemen  who  called  with  him,  a  reply  to  the  questions 
contained  in  your  letter.  I  can  reach  Bangor  on  Tuesday  evening,  tin- 
17th  of  October,  and  can  remain  down  East,  low  down,  until  about  Friday 
morning.  T  cannot,  however,  leave  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  Some 
how  I  am  under  the  impression  that  there  is  a  statute,  or  some  provision, 
against  the  President  leaving  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  However, 
whether  there  is  or  not,  I  think  1  will  not  be  the  one  to  establish  the  prec 
edent  of  an  executive  going  beyond  the  limits  of  his  country.  I  antici 
pate  a  very  pleasant  visit  to  Maine.  It  will  be  the  second  time  only  that 
it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  get  so  far  East,  and  I  never  got  among  cleverer 
people.  When  I  was  there  before  I  had  not  yet  become  a  politician,  had 
not  arrayed  a  section  and  a  half  against  me,  and  it  was,  too,  just  at  the 
close  of  a  great  war  in  which  the  ignorant,  but  enthusiastic,  Maine  people, 
not  looking  to  the  "New  York  World11  and  other  equally  veracious  Demo 
cratic  papers  for  true  light,  supposed  I  had  taken  a  small  part.  Their 
ardor  being  cooled  by  time,  and  true  light  having  been  forced  in,  in  spite 
of  Yankee  prejudice  in  favor  of  a  united  country,  may  make  a  change  now. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  253 

I  will  trust  myself  among  them  again,  however,  Providence  permitting, 
taking  all  the  chances  of  having  very  pleasant  recollections  dashed. 

My  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Blaine  and  the  children,  who  I  hope  arc  all 
well  and  enjoying  their  vacation. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  to  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  August  28,  1871. 

Seeing  that  General  Schenck  is  on  the  Continent,  I  have  feared  that  you 
might  have  missed  the  cheerful  welcome  you  anticipated  in  London. 

I  would  not  go  to  Paris  until  you  know  that  Mr.  Washburn  is  there. 
I  shall  assume  that  you  have  made  your  hasty  run  to  Scotland  before  this 
reaches  you. 

[  should  get  to  work  on  French  as  soon  as  I  well  could ;  and  be  sure 
to  pursue  It  with  great  diligence,  but  not  to  the  detriment  of  a  great 
deal  of  out-door  exercise  and  plenty  of  observation  of  what  is  going  on 
around  you. 

I  more  and  more  incline  to  the  belief  that  Paris  is  the  best  place, 
so  suggested  to  Mr.  Washburn  in  a  note  that  goes  out  by  this  mail, 
soon  as  you  reach  Paris  call  on  Mr.  Washburn.     It  would  be  well  for 
you  to  write  him  a  line  a  few  days  before  you  leave  London,  advising  him 
of  the  day  you  will  reach  Paris. 

Your  mother  writes  a  full  budget  of  news. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  Septembers,  1871. 

Your  father  and  I  had  the  first  reading  of  your  letter  in  the 
carriage  over  Malta  Hill.  How  delighted  we  were  to  hear  from  you  I 
cannor  express.  Your  father  is  well  pleased  with  you.  Thinks  you 
outdo  him  as  a  traveller.  He  was  saying,  at  the  supper-table,  that  next 
summer  if  Emmons  wanted  to  go  over  to  meet  you,  he  should  make  no 
objection ;  whereupon  Alice  insists  that  he  told  you  over  and  over  again 
to  keep  away  from  Americans  !  "  Surely  Emmons  is  an  American  ! ' 
Your  father  expects,  Tuesday,  to  leave  for  Pennsylvania.  The  local  poli 
tics  are  becoming  very  interesting.  A  partisan  warfare  is  waged  between 
the  Journal  and  the  Standard,  and,  of  course,  your  father  is  the  mark 
for  most  of  the  shafts  and  honors.  W.,  it  is  reported,  has  gone  over  to 
the  Democrats.  .  .  .  You  cannot  think  how  high  the  partisan  spirit 
seems  to  run  this  election.  Your  father  has  just  had  sent  him  from  down 
town  a  Democrat  sheet,  which  that  party,  in  lack  of  a  daily  paper,  have 
just  issued.  Two-thirds  of  it  certainly  devoted  to  him.  .  .  .  How  glad 
1  shall  be  when  the  city  and  State  are  well  carried,  Monday  evening! 
...  I  am  immensely  interested,  for  I  feel  that  there  has  been  a 
deliberate  effort  to  break  down  your  father.  Nothing  at  the  bottom  of  it, 
I  presume,  but  envy. 

Monday  evening.     Well,   Walker,  the  election  is  over  and  wel 
Every  ward  iii  this  city  is  carried  by  Republicans  -  a  thing  which  I  think 


254  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

has  hardly  ever  been  before.  This  city  is  carried  by  239.  Other  towns 
have  thrown  very  large  votes.  Gramp  [a  venerable  neighbor]  voted 
among  the  first,  fearing  that  he  might  die  during  the  day  if  he  put  it  off. 
Every  one  congratulates  your  father  on  the  election  in  this  city  as  a  per 
sonal  compliment.  How  he  would  feel  to  have  had  it  telegraphed  all 
over  the  country,  as  it  Avas  to  be,  that  Augusta,  the  home  of  Merrill  and 
Blaine,  had  gone  Democratic  ! 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  September  12,  1871. 

We  have  had  a  great  treat  this  afternoon,  viz.,  your  first  and  second 
batch  of  London  letters,  the  last  date  of  which  was  August  30.  Father 
expected  to  go  to  Boston  to-day,  but,  as  his  stay  is  quite  a  serious  one,  two 
weeks  at  least  in  Pennsylvania,  and  as  there  were  a  great  many  telegrams 
concerning  election  to  receive  and  to  send  away,  he  concluded  to  defer  his 
departure  till  to-morrow ;  so  lie  was  here  to  read  out  your  letters.  First,  they 
were  read  in  the  "  spare  chamber"1  —  S.,  M.,  and  I  the  audience.  When 
about  half  through.  Alice  and  Q.  added  themselves  to  the  little  circle, 
the  former  very  indignant  that  we  had  not  sent  for  her  to  hear  the  begin 
ning  of  the  narrative.  Then  George  was  told  to  put  old  Prince  into  harness 
and  go  for  Aunt  C.  Of  course,  she  was  more  than  ready ;  so  at  supper 
we  had  reading  number  two,  and,  Aunt  II.  coming  in  during  the  evening, 
there  was  a  third  reading,  your  father  officiating  every  time.  We  all 
think  you  are  doing  splendidly,  seeing  a  great  deal,  and  describing  all  to 
us  with  great  accuracy  and  freshness.  But  do  not  write  any  more  on  both 
sides  of  that  paper.  Your  father  says  use  it,  if  you  wish,  but  write  only 
on  one  side.  You  have  no  idea  how  impatiently  we  want  to  read,  and  how 
slowly  we  have  to  feel  our  way.  .  .  .  The  election,  as  you  will  see  by 
the  papers  your  father  sent  you  this  morning,  has  turned  out  splendidly.  A 
grand  vindication  of  your  dearest  dad,  that  of  this  town  is.  All  the  capital 
of  the  Democratic  party  seemed  to  be  centred  in  him.  ...  He  got 
off  yesterday  noon,  started  in  his  usual  hurry.  At  the  last  moment,  there 
was  the  key  of  his  strong  box  missing  —  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  it, 
carelessly  left  on  the  clock  !  At  the  "Journal  v  office  there  wras  proof  to 
correct,  cars  meantime  in.  Then  there  was  the  bank,  and  at  every  corner 
some  one  running  to  stop  him.  However,  he  got  oft',  cheerful  and  bright,  for 
he  feels  that  he  has  conquered  gloriously  in  this  town,  and  I  have  already 
had  two  notes  from  him  —  one  sent  from  Brunswick  and  another  from  Port 
land.  .  .  .  You  are  a  dear,  good  boy,  and  your  letters  give  us  unbounded 
satisfaction.  .  .  .  And,  by  the  way,  one  of  the  things  about  your  letters 
which  pleased  your  father  especially  is  the  address.  I  often  see  him 
showing  it  and  challenging  admiration  for  it.  ...  I  greatly  miss  the 
enjoyment  of  reading  your  letters  with  him.  We  have,  since  they  began 
to  come,  read  them  together,  and  generally  alone,  and,  sympathizing  with 
you  and  with  each  other  to  the  fullest,  we  have  felt  united  over  you  to  a 
wonderful  degree.  Always  may  you  give  as  much  joy  and  satisfaction  to 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     J1LATNE.  255 

our  hearts  as  yon   have  in  the  way  you  have  improved  the  first  two  weeks 
of  your  stay  in  Europe. 

To  Walker: 

AUGUSTA,  September,  21,  1871. 

The  mail  also  brought  me  a  letter  from  your  father,  written 
Sunday  afternoon  at  Elizabeth,  when  he  was  wandering  over  coal-fields 
and  thinking  sadly  of  his  mother. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  September  24,  1871. 

.  .  .  It  is  a  week  last  Wednesday  since  your  father  went  away,  and  I 
am  beginning,  as  you  may  suppose,  to  long  for  his  good  company  once 
more.  He  left  Pittsburgh  Friday  evening,  was  in  New  York  yesterday,  and 
telegraphed  me  to  write  him  to  Parker  House  by  last  night's  mail,  so  that 
I  expect  him  home  next  Wednesday.  He  spent  his  time  in  Elizabeth 
going  over  coal-fields,  but  I  do  not  yet  know  whether  he  purchased  any 
more  of  that  kind  of  property. 

.  .  .  He  has  succeeded  in  purchasing  some  more  coal-land  —  only 
$28,000  worth,  however.  Payments  very  easy.  I  expect  him  home 
Wednesday.  .  .  .  Grauip  hopes  to  live  to  vote  for  Grant  next  Pres 
ident.  Thinks  Mr.  Elaine  will  certainly  be  the  next,  but  he  shall  not  be 
here  to  vote  for  him  ;  shall  intercede  for  him  in  heaven ,  however. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

BOSTON,  September  25,  1871. 

I  am  thus  far  on  my  return  from  Pennsylvania,  where  I  have  been  for 
ten  days  past. 

I  reached  here  at  ten  Saturday  night. 

Emmons  had  come  up  to  meet  me  in  the  afternoon,  and  spent  yesterday 
(Sunday)  with  me.  We  went  to  church  in  the  Old  South,  and  in  the  after 
noon  drove  out  to  Uncle  Jacob's.  This  morning  at  seven  Emmons 
returned  to  Andover.  He  had  received  your  letter  from  Edinburgh.  I 
think  he  is  studying  very  well  this  session,  and  seems  really  very  much  in 
terested  in  Mr.  Tilton —  is  growing  rapidly. 

I  hope  you  will  get  settled  down  to  study  in  Paris  at  once.  Be  sure  to 
get  into  a  good  family  where  you  will  hear  no  English  and  the  best  of 
French.  Mr.  Washburn  will  give  you  good  advice,  I  am  sure.  1  am 
writing  very  hastily,  relying  on  your  mother  to  give  you  all  the  details  of 
news. 

Massachusetts  is  in  a  great  ferment  over  the  Butler  nomination.  The 
convention  is  at  Worcester  on  Monday,  and  the  result  will  probably  be 
known  to  you  before  you  receive  this.  I  think  Butler  will  be  beaten,  but 
others  fear  his  nomination. 


256  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLATNE. 

From  Walker : 

SEPTEMBER  27,  1871. 

I  cannot  bear  to  think  of  missing  the  presidential  election  next  fall.  1 
want  to  be  at  home  and  stump  the  State  like  the  man  who  stumped  it  with 
Daniel  Webster  —  held  the  horse  while  the  great  Daniel  harangued  the 
audience  from  the  buggy. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  September  28,  1871. 

.  .  .  The  great  event  just  now  in  the  public  mind  is  the  defeat  of 
Butler  at  Worcester  yesterday.  You  know  the  Mr.  Washburn  who  is 
nominated  — one  of  the  best  of  men.  .  .  .  Alice  is  making  fine  prog 
ress  in  her  music. 

To  Walker: 

AUGUSTA,  September  28,  1871. 

Tuesday  evening,  just  before  eight,  I  got  a  telegram  from  your  father 
saying  that  he  was  on  the  train  due  at  that  hour,  and  would  expect  to  find 
George  at  the  depot.  .  .  .  The  night  was  stormy,  and  George  had  been 
dismissed  till  the  next  day.  Of  course  there  was  not  a  bit  of  meat  in  the 
house.  However,  it  was  everything  to  have  him  coming  home.  Marv 
flew  down  the  lane,  and  George's  father  came  to  the  rescue  and  har 
nessed.  A  good  supper  was  knocked  up  with  the  help  of  Mons,  and  at 
fifteen  minutes  past  eight  your  dear  dad  was  comfortably  housed,  sitting 
before  a  blazing  fire  in  the  back  parlor.  He  had  spent  Monday  night  at 
Hamilton  in  company  with  the  Stowes,  having,  of  course,  a  most  brilliant 
time,  Harriet  Beecher  being  in  one  of  her  most  communicative,  social 
moods.  Emmons  went  back  to  Andover  Monday  morning  early,  looking, 
your  father  says,  as  well  as  he  ever  saw  him  in  his  life,  and  appearing  like 
a  good  boy  and  a  faithful  scholar.  He  thinks  he  shall  lay  up  on  his  allow 
ance  !  One  hundred  dollars  is  due  him  already,  though,  of  course,  he  has 
not  paid  his  board. 

AUGUSTA,  Octobers,  1871. 

.  .  .  In  the  library  Mr.  Sherman  [Mr.  Blaine's  private  secre 
tary]  is  diligently  at  work,  making  an  accurate  list  of  committees,  to 
gether  with  resignations  and  new  members  and  the  outs,  —  a  very  nice 
"job1'  indeed,  —  and  I  heard  him  tell  your  father  yesterday  he  thought 
he  had  gone  over  the  names,  in  his  anxiety,  some  thirty  times.  In  the 
nursery,  Bedlam,  under  the  generalship  of  Alice,  has  evidently  broken 
loose.  There  are  gathered  J.  and  M.  and  Alice  and  Eliza,  and  as  their 
leader  stands  in  awe  of  no  one,  the  liberty  I  permit  soon  becomes  license. 
.  .  .  Your  dear  father,  I  am  happy  to  say,  has  gone  out  for  a  walk, 
and,  as  he  turned  his  face  down-townward,  I  am  in  hopes  his  admiring 
constituency  will  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  !  1  think,  perhaps, 
he  never  stood  so  high  with  them  before.  Certainly  he  never  stood 


JtTOGRAPTTY    OF    JAMKS    O.    JiLAJNE.  261 

higher.  This  morning;  I  rode  down  town  with  Q.  to  get  the  darling  some 
boots,  also  to  canvass  the  field  a  little  before  making  the  change  in  his 
clothes.  At  half-past  twelve,  just  as  we  were  turning  our  faces  home 
wards,  your  father  hailed  us  from  Mr.  Ilurder's  saloon,  to  come  over  and 
have  Q.'s  picture  taken.  His  dress  was  torn  and  his  boots  shabby,  but  I 
hope  we  got  something  that  will  at  least  remind  you  of  the  little  brother. 
Your  father  also  sat;  and  Alice,  who  came  in  on  her  way  from  school, 
wanted  to,  but  it  was  too  late.  Your  father  has  just  interrupted  me  to 
read  some  letters  about  his  recent  coal  purchases.  lie  is  immensely 
pleased.  Finds  that  the  M/s  were  after  the  very  property  he  has  pur 
chased.  .  .  .  Since  I  wrote  you  he  has  returned  from  Boston.  He  was 
there  only  one  day,  but  in  that  time  bought  blankets  and  got  my  mended 
jewelry  from  Shreve  &  Stanwood,  where  it  has  been  ever  since  you  sailed, 
and  had  business  interviews  unsatisfactory  and  satisfactory  with  Wan-en 
Fisher  and  Mr.  Hayes,  and,  to  my  great  surprise,  he  got  home  on  the 
four  o'clock  train  yesterday  afternoon,  his  beloved  Kinglake  ("Crimea") 
still  accompanying  him.  .  .  .  You  see,  Walker,  I  write  you  the  most 
trivial  details  of  our  life.  I  go  out  but  little,  and  even  if  1  went  more  my 
narrative  would  still  run  on  the  same  way.  I  wrote  just  such  letters  to 
your  father  when  he  was  away  as  you  are,  and  he  said  the  very  sight  of 
the  home  names  was  a  refreshment  to  him.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Pike  has  in 
quired  with  the  greatest  interest  for  you.  She  thinks  she  never  saw  such 
children,  meaning  you,  your  brothers  and  sisters  !  Father  has  gone  to 

,  loudly  bewailing  his  sad  fate  in  having  to  leave  his  pleasant  fireside, 

his  darling  Q.,  and  his  sweet  M.  Mr.  Sherman  is  waiting  for  this  letter, 
and  now  nothing  remains  but  for  me  to  bid  my  dearest  boy  good-by.  1 
send  you  no  advice,  for  you  know,  better  than  1  can  tell  you  in  words,  the 
youth  and  man  I  wish  you  to  be.  God  bless  and  keep  you  !  Be  sure  to 
write  about  your  financial  matters,  as  the  dada  wishes  to  know. 


From    Hon.  E.  K.  Washbnrn  : 

PARIS,  October  5,  1871. 

ELAINE:  The  great  question  which  now  agitates  all  circles  in  Paris  — 
business,  social,  political,  and  diplomatic — is,  whether  or  not  "  Blaine  is 
sorry." 

An  early  and  a  categorical  answer  "  Yes  "  or  "  Xo  "  would  lend  to  the 
quiet  of  Europe. 


To  Mr.  Blaine  from  Hon.  Horace  Greeley : 

NEW  YORK,  October  C,  1871. 

...  I  would  like  to  visit  Bangor  with  your  crowd,  but  I  am  chosen 
defendant  in  a  libel  suit  which  is  to  be  tried  the  week  of  your  festival.  As 
I  am  seldom  chosen  anything,  I  feel  obliged  to  accept. 


2f>8  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    SLAIN  E. 

To  Walker  : 

AUGUSTA,  October  8,  1871. 

.  .  .  1  get  no  line  from  you.  A  week  yesterday  morning  since  we 
heard  from  you.  Your  father  sits  in  the  parlor  toasting  his  feet  over  the 
fire,  a  suspicious  dampness  having  settled  upon  them  in  the  garden,  where 
he  and  Tom  Sherman  have  been  exercising  or  exo/xjising —  which  you  like. 
I  have  just  been  saying  to  him,  "  Am  1  not  better  to  thee  than  ten  sons?" 
"  Yes,'' he  says,  "and  if  you  were  better  than  twenty,  I  still  want  the 
sons.v  I  thought  he  was  uneasy  about  you,  but  he  says  he  is  not.  Still, 
my  dear  boy,  be  particular  to  send  oft'  a  letter,  if  of  ever  so  few  lines,  by 
frequent  mails.  .  .  .  Your  father  and  Mr.  Sherman  are  still  desper 
ately  busy  over  the  committees.  It  is  part  of  the  power  of  the  Speaker, 
and,  like  everything  else  worth  anything,  is  a  rock  of  offence  and  a  block 
of  stumbling  to  many,  though  to  others  the  chief  corner-stone.  .  . 
Friday  he  expects  to  go  to  Boston  to  participate  in  the  honors  paid  the 
President,  all  of  which  he  will  see,  and  a  part  of  which  be,  as  he  is  him 
self  the  city's  guest.  Tuesday  he  expects  simply  to  come  through  town 
with  the  President  on  his  way  to  Bangor.  The  President  stops,  I  believe, 
about  twenty  minutes  only.  He  —  your  father —  hates  it,  but  I  suppose  it 
would  not  do  for  the  President  to  come  into  Maine  and  the  Speaker  not  be 
here  to  see  him.  Mr.  Merrill  gets  rid  of  the  whole  thing  by  starting  to 
Kansas  to  see  May  to-morrow. 


From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker  : 

AUGUSTA,  October  9,  1871. 

We  are  eager  to  hear  from  you  in  Paris.  ...  I  still  cling  to  the 
belief  that  Paris  is  your  place,  but  you  must  confine  yourself  to  French 
society  and  not  allow  yourself  to  be  much  in  the  American  colony.  I  do  not 
wish  you  to  overstudy  or  too  closely  confine  yourself,  but  I  am  very 
anxious  for  you  to  acquire  French  and  study  Paris  in  all  its  moods  and 
tenses,  by  your  American  eyes. 

I  am  now  in  the  very  midst  of  the  troubles  and  perplexities  of  making  up 
my  committees,  and  a  most  vexatious  job  I  find  it.  The  resignation  of 
Burton  O.  Cooke,  of  Illinois,  and  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Washburn  for  gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts,  throw"  two  important  chairmanships  into  my  hands 
—  District  of  Columbia  and  Claims.  .  .  . 

I  close  this  just  as  Mr.  Homan  comes  sauntering  in  for  an  evening  call. 

From  General  Sherman  : 

WASHINGTON,  October  13,  1871. 

DEAR  BLAINE  :  I  am  just  back  from  St.  Louis  and  Lancaster,  and  find 
your  letter  of  the  5th,  and  the  official  invitation  to  assist  in  the  ceremonies 
of  opening  the  European  and  North  American  Railroad.  Of  course  I 
wish  I  could  come,  but  there  is  a  reason  which  you  can  better  understand 


lilOGPAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  259 

than  any  man  living,  and  yet  which  i  ought  not  to  submit  to  a  corporate 
body.  Mr.  Ewing's  life  is  now  flickering  in  its  socket,  so  that  any  moment 
the  dread  notice  may  come.  I  took  Ellen  out  last  week,  and  he  seemed  so 
utterly  feeble  that  she  could  not  venture  with  me  to  the  St.  Louis  fair,  and  I 
left  her  at  Lancaster.  On  my  return  there  on  Tuesday  last  he  was  better,  and 
we  came  home  yesterday,  leaving  him  in  this  uncertain  condition.  Just  as 
we  started  we  learned  that  his  old  faithful  physician,  Dr.  Roustler,  had 
fallen  dead,  and  we  dared  hardly  reveal  the  whole  truth,  though  he  read 
it  in  our  acts.  I  beg  you  will,  then,  aid  me  in  explaining  to  the  good  people 
of  Bangor  that,  however  anxious  I  may  be  to  be  present  on  the  17th,  I  am 
restrained  by  private  reasons  that  are  overwhelming.  Of  course  I  will 
answer  the  president  of  the  company  in  general  terms. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  October  14,  1871. 

.  .  Your  father  goes  to  Boston  to-day  at  twelve  M.  to  meet  the 
President.  He  stops  at  the  St.  James,  and  has  written  Emmons  to  meet 
him  there  this  evening.  T  have  had  a  letter  from  him  this  morning  full 
of  the  Chicago  calamity.  He  was  so  full  of  Chicago  he  would  think  of 
nothing  else. 

M.  and  Q.  are  playing  on  the  sofa.  The  latter  has  been  trying  all  the 
morning  for  a  cat.  I  heard  him  before  breakfast  on  the  porch  calling  to 
George  to  go  out  and  find  him  a  cat.  There  are  so  many  on  the  premises 
that  they  go  out  very  much  as  one  would  hunt  an  elephant  in  Africa.  Sure 
enough,  he  came  in  a  few  minutes  ago  hugging  up  a  very  fair  specimen 
of  the  feline  race.  This  is  a  specimen  of  M.'s  manoeuvring  to  get  the  kit 
ten  :  "  Oh,  Q.,  you  be  the  mother,  and  play  that  you  are  out  shopping  to 
buy  something  for  the  baby's  birthday,  a  little  gold  chain  or  something. 
Til  be  the  nurse  and  stay  at  home  and  take  care  of  the  baby.  Here,  darling, 
come  to  nursey,"  and  Q.,  overpowered  by  the  argument,  surrenders,  and 
M.  sits  on  the  sofa,  fondling  and  enjoying  to  her  heart's  content. 

I  do  not  know  how  much  you  may  have  seen  of  the  Chicago  fire.  All  the 
prominent  newspaper  accounts,  doubtless.  There  never  was,  and  God 
grant  there  never  may  be,  anything  like  it.  Perhaps  you  know  that  your 
father  has  been  very  much  urged  to  buy  in  Chicago  lands,  and  when  he 
was  in  Boston  to  see  you  off,  a  gentleman  from  C.,  engaged  in  real-estate 
business  in  that  city,  was  at  the  Parker  House,  pushing  the  matter  very 
hard.  I  supposed  that  your  father  had  invested  a  good  many  thousands, 
but  it  seems  his  lucky  star  is  still  in  the  ascendant,  for  when  in  Pennsylva 
nia  lately  he  decided  to  use  all  his  money  in  coal-lands,  and  sent  back  there 
all  the  papers,  bonds,  etc.,  connected  with  this  business.  .  .  . 

Think  of  the  winter  which  is  before  those  crowds  of  people!  Any 
quantity  of  work,  but  no  shelter.  In  five  years,  your  father  thinks  less, 
Chicago  will  be  rebuilt.  ...  I  suppose  Mons  and  he  are  to-day  at 
the  St.  James.  Sunday  the  President  comes  to  Bangor,  stops  here  about 
twenty  minutes.  I  shall  go  to  the  depot  and  get  a  passing  word  with 


200  BJOGRAPHY    OF   JAJlfES    G.    fiLAINE. 

your  dear  daddy,  who  is  to  keep  with  the  President  till  Friday  .... 
I  have  heard  from  your  father  this  afternoon.  He  reached  Boston 
at  8.30  Saturday  evening.  Found  Emmons  and  an  alderman  waiting  for  him. 
Saw  the  President,  the  P.M.,  Mrs.  Grant  and  Nellie,  and  the  boy.  Break 
fasted  with  them.  Then  went  to  Dr.  Putnam's  church,  Roxbury.  Emmons 
and  the  Grant  boy  went  with  Collector  Russell,  to  attend  service  on  the 
school-ship.  .  .  .  To-morrow  they  come  to  Maine.  I  expect  to  go  to 
the  depot  to  see  your  father,  but  he  has  to  keep  on  to  Bangor,  not 
returning  till  Friday.  .  .  .  Aunt  C.  is  down  spending  the  evening. 
She  has  copied  nearly  all  your  letters  into  a  book.  Alice  thinks  it  will  be 
so  interesting  to  Walker's  children  and  children's  children  to  read  them. 
.  .  .  Emmons  is  in  distress  for  your  Greek  lexicon.  He  is  so  economi 
cal  now  that  he  hates  to  buy  a  new  one. 

OCTOBER  19. 

.  .  .  Father  is  in  Bangor,  accompanying  the  President.  I  took  M. 
and  Q.  and  rode  as  near  the  depot  as  I  dared  Tuesday  afternoon.  There 
was  a  great  crowd.  I  did  not  see  him,  as  I  sat  high  up  the  hill  in  the 
carriage ;  neither  did  I  see  the  other  dignitaries  who  were  present,  but  I 
saw,  best  of  all,  your  father,  who,  as  soon  as  he  had  introduced  the  Pres 
ident  to  Mayor  Evelyth,  hunted  us  up  and  spent  a  delightful  quarter 
of  an  hour  at  the  carriage.  ...  I  think,  from  the  newspaper 
accounts,  that  the  whole  celebration  at  Bangor  must  be  a  great  success. 
Tour  father  told  me  that  he  dined  at  Mr.  Hooper's  Sunday  evening  with 
Agassi/,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Lowell,  and  other  savans.  Enjoyed  it  ex 
tremely.  .  .  .  We  were  fearfully  disappointed  not  to  receive  a  letter 
from  you.  Your  father  could  not  believe  that  I  had  none  for  him. 
You  cannot  tell  how  anxious  it  makes  me  not  to  hear. 

OCTOBER  23. 

.  .  .  Yrour  father  sits  here  at  the  table  toiling  away  over  his  com 
mittees.  Hard,  hard  work.  As  fast  as  he  gets  them  arranged,  just  so 
fast  some  after-consideration  comes  up  which  disarranges  not  one,  but 
many,  and  over  topples  the  whole  row  of  bricks.  It  is  a  matter  in  which 
no  one  can  help  him.  .  .  .  The  door-bell  has  been  ringing  the  whole 
morning,  your  father  seeing  not  one  in  twenty  who  call.  Yesterday 
Newman  Smyth  preached  for  us.  I  went  out  with  your  father  and  Alice  in 
th<;  morning,  your  father  also  in  the  evening.  In  the  afternoon  he  took 
the  three  home  children  and  went  up  on  the  knoll.  .  .  .  Saturday  was 
made  memorable  by  the  arrival  of  your  first  Paris  letter.  You  cannot 
think  how  anxious  we  were  to  hear.  As  I  told  you  in  my  last,  your  father 
could  not  believe  that  I  had  not  a  letter  for  him  when  1  met  him  Tuesday. 
Still  he  would  not  permit  me  to  express  the  least  anxiety,  but  when  he 
came  Friday  afternoon,  and  still  no  letter,  he  could  not  quite  conceal  his 
own  anxiety.  Of  course,  we  calculated  for  the  despatch  bag,  and  should 
have  allowed  for  one  day  more  before  quite  giving  up,  but  when  I  came 
out  of  my  room  at  the  ringing  of  the  breakfast-bell  Saturday  morning,  I 


BIOGKAPIIY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  2G1 

was  greeted  by  the  joyful  words,  "A  letter  of  the  longest  kind  from 
Walker."  Down  we  sat  at  the  table,  and  while  I  poured  coffee  and  tea 
and  otherwise  waited  on  the  children,  your  father  read.  Then  when  he 
had  read  about  half,  I  took  the  manuscript  and  read  out  while  lie  ate  his 
breakfast.  With  thankful  hearts,  we  read  of  your  getting  to  Paris  and 
among  friends.  Xow  I  shall  feel  entirely  different  from  what  I  have 
while  you  were  in  London,  isolated.  We  like  your  arrangement  about 
school  very  much.  Of  course,  it  is  an  experiment,  but  I  hope  it  will  work 
satisfactorily.  At  any  rate,  you  will  not  fail  to  master  French.  Friday 
morning  I  had  a  telegram  from  your  father,  saying  that  he  would  not  be 
at  home  till  afternoon.  He  had  left  Bangor  the  night  before  witli  the  Presi 
dent,  and  gone  through  to  Portland.  Then,  after  a  wearisome  barouche 
procession,  at  one  o'clock  he  took  leave  of  His  Excellency  and  set  his  face 
homewards,  and  here  he  now  is,  and  here  he  expects  to  stay  for  at  least  a 
week.  I  suppose  there  never  was  anything  like  the  time  they  had  in 
Bangor.  The  speeches  were  good  as  they  could  be.  Underlying  the 
speeches  was  the  best  of  feeling.  Hospitality  flowed  like  a  river,  and 
not  an  untoward  circumstance  marred  the  perfect  whole.  Your  father 
stopped  with  Mr.  Hamlin,  and  was  obliged  to  borrow  his  host's  dress  coat 
to  wear  to  the  dinner  and  reception.  Don't  you  think  he  must  have  looked 
funny?  As  Hannibal  never  wears  coats  of  any  other  cut,  of  course  he 
had  one  in  reserve  for  himself. 

.  .  .  Your  father  is  waiting  to  take  my  letter  to  the  post-oilice,  so  I 
must  say  good-night  to  my  dear  boy.  T  long  to  set;  you.  No  words  can 
express  how  much.  I  have  every  confidence  that  you  will  not  abuse  your 
father's  indulgence,  and  if  you  make  any  mistakes,  lie  sure  to  write  me  or 
him  all  about  it.  Do  not  be  afraid,  under  any  circumstances,  of  giving  us 
vour  fullest  confidence.  When  your  father  was  in  Bangor  he  saw  a  great 
deal  of  Rear- Admiral  Alden.  He  sails  veiy  soon  for  Europe.  Takes  out 
General  Sherman.  His  ship  is  the  "  Wabash,"  the  flagship  of  the  European 
squadron.  He  has  invited  you  to  go  with  him,  but  your  father  felt  obliged 
to  decline,  because  he  wants  you  to  improve  your  stay  in  Paris  by  the 
acquisition  of  French. 

From  Mr.  Blame  to  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  October  24,  1871. 

Your  mother  and  I  observed  with  much  concern  and  -no  little  pain  that 
after  you  returned  to  London  your  letters  seemed  a  little  low-spirited. 
You  did  not  go  anywhere  and  seemed  all  tired  of  London.  .  .  .  There 
seemed  a  perfect  cessation  of  interest.  ...  I  shall,  of  course,  expect 
the  most  absolute  frankness  from  you,  with  a  very  full  explanation  of  the 
cause  of  your  low  spirits  after  you  return.  .  .  . 

And  here  let  me  caution  you  in  regard  to  loaning  money.  You  must  not 
do  it.  Your  letter  of  credit  is  to  supply  your  own  wants,  not  to  enable 
you  to  loan  money  to  others.1  .  .  .  But  don't  let  it  prey  on  your 

1  Mr.  Blame's  conjecture  was  right.  Walker  bad  loaned  a  large  Bum,  but  It  waa  to  a  friend 
aud  was  duly  returned. 


262  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

spirits.  Be  cheerful,  enjoy  yourself,  and  acquire  French  as  rapidly  as  you 
can ;  and,  above  all,  do  not  in  any  event  suffer  yourself  to  be  led  astray. 
Do  not  permit  yourself  to  do  anything  which  you  would  blush  to  confess 
to  your  mother  or  to  me. 

I  do  not  wish  you  to  feel  if  you  have  loaned  money  that  I  blame  you 
too  harshly.  You  will  understand  that  I  write  in  the  deepest  and  tenderest 
affection  for  you.  You  are  the  very  apple  of  my  eye,  and  anything  wrong 
with  you  goes  to  the  very  core  of  my  heart. 

Now,  if  you  have  had  any  sort  of  mishap  or  trouble  that  you  do  not 
wish  to  write  about  in  your  home  letters,  write  me  a  private  note  to  the 
Parker  House,  Boston,  marking,  "To  be  called  for."  As  I  shall  be  in 
Boston  every  few  days  in  November  (D.V.),  I  shall  easily  get  it  without 
observation. 

Your  frankness  towards  me  must  be  equal  to  my  affection  for  you. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  October  26,  1871. 

.  .  .  So  long  as  there  is  perfect  and  absolute  frankness  between  us, 
I  feel  at  ease  in  regard  to  you ;  but  where  concealment  begins,  trouble  be 
gins.  .  .  .  We  stripped  the  house  yesterday  of  every  spare  piece  of 
clothing  for  the  Wisconsin  and  Michigan  sufferers,  so  while  you  are  en 
joying  yourself  in  Paris  this  winter,  your  pleasure  will  not  be  decreased 
by  knowing  that  your  former  clothing  is  warming  the  backs  of  some 
destitute  lads  on  the  shores  of  the  North-western  Lakes. 


From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker  : 

AUGUSTA,  October  30,  1871. 

We  are  about  to  have  postal  cars  now  through  here  all  the  way  to  St. 
John,  and  as  soon  as  the  European  and  North  American  road  is  finished  to 
Halifax  (May,  1872),  they  expect  to  send  the  foreign  mails  that  way,  ex 
pecting  to  gain  fully  thirty-six  to  forty-eight  hours  in  the  regular  trans 
mission  of  letters  between  Boston  and  London,  and  at  least  twenty-four 
between  New  York  and  London.  Boston  letters  have  now  all  to  go  to 
New  York.  The  gain  from  here  would  be  still  greater. 

.  .  .  I  was  busy  all  day  yesterday  with  a  special  agent  of  the  Post- 
Office  Department,  and  with  the  railroad  authorities,  in  arranging  postal 
cars  from  Boston  to  St.  John,  to  begin  November  13.  ...  You 
must  not  get  the  impression  that  my  resources  are  very  large.  They  are 
not.  I  have  all  the  time  to  plan,  to  calculate,  and  to  provide  for  my  large 
expenditures,  and  while  I  wish  my  children  to  enjoy  themselves  and  not 
feel  pinched,  I  wish  them  at  the  same  time  to  be  prudent  and  careful,  and 
in  any  and  every  event  to  be  free  and  unreserved  with  me  in  all  their  acts 
and  deeds. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  263 

(Enclosing  photograph.)       AUGUSTA,  November  7,  1871. 

This  is  Q. — just  as  he  was  caught  upon  the  street  about  four  weeks 
since.  He  is  a  great  driver.  To-day  I  was  out  exercising  in  the  back 
yard,  and,  looking  up  on  the  top  of  the  portico,  found  the  rogue  quietly  sit 
ting  there.  He  had  crawled  out  from  the  gallery,  and  did  not  seem  to 
know  that  he  was  out  of  place  at  all.  Alice  is  having  her  face  taken,  and 
will  send  you  soon.  I  enclose  a  letter  to  you  which  she  was  busy  writing 
a  few  days  ago. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  November  12,  1871. 

.  .  .  Father  left  for  New  York  Wednesday.  I  could  hardly  let  him 
go.  I  needed  his  reviving  society  so  much.  But  he  had  wool  and  cotton 
manufacturers  to  meet  in  Boston,  dinners,  breakfasts,  and  lunches,  all  or 
some,  to  give  and  take  in  New  York,  and,  over  and  above  all,  pressures,  to 
resist  or  permit,  of  Congressional  committees.  lie  had  to  go,  but  felt  that 
my  desire  to  keep  him  was  all  right  and  natural ;  so,  with  a  man's  appre 
ciation  of  a  woman's  nature,  he  promised  to  buy  silk  dresses  for  M.  and 
Alice,  to  say  nothing  of  half  a  dozen  for  myself.  When  I  look  at  the  bed 
and  the  little  heap  of  flannel  on  it,  laces,  silks,  feathers,  and  gew-gaws  of 
every  description  resolve  themselves  into  preposterousness ;  but  your 
father  is  strong  of  will,  and  I  am  weak,  and  he  is  determined  that  I  shall 
be  in  society  this  winter,  and  I  know  I  shall.  .  .  .  Since  he  left,  I 
have  heard  from  him  several  times.  Every  one  pleasant  and  pleased  to 
see  him,  but  he  says,  after  his  own  bright  fireside,  inexpressibly  dull  to 
him. 

.  Your  father  will  be  delighted  to  find  that  you  are  getting  under 
headway  in  French.  Let  nothing  keep  you  from  earnest  application.  Oh, 
how  fond  I  was  of  study  when  I  was  your  age !  I  never  had  any  gift  at 
writing.  In  this  deficiency  I  am  sorry  to  see  that  Emmons  is  my  own 
child.  He  writes  me  little  —  short,  unsatisfactory  letters  usually,  mostly 
taken  up  in  acknowledging  the  arrival  of  my  own,  and  ending  always  one 
way.  According  to  his  own  story  he  is  a  perfect  Mussulman  for  pra}Ters 
—  the  evening  bell  invariably  calling  him  away  from  his  letter.  .  .  . 
Greatly  to  your  father's  discomfort,  I  cannot  go  on  till  after  the  holidays. 
On  this  I  take  my  stand,  and  he  has  to  submit.  He  will  sleep  in  the  house, 
have  a  servant  or  two,  and  take  his  meals  at  Wormley's,  and  the  manage 
will  open  with  the  New  Year. 

Have  just  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  two  letters  from  your  father,  one 
written  yesterday  afternoon,  the  other  in  the  evening.  ...  He  had 
been  to  see  "Lord  Dundreary1'  by  the  same  actor  you  saw  in  London. 
Said  it  seemed  to  bring  you  very  near.  Was  exceedingly  anxious  to  get 
your  letter.  I  sent  it  to  him  by  the  early  mail  of  the  morning.  The  chil 
dren  have  been  out  all  the  afternoon  making  a  snowman.  For  anything 
of  this  kind  Alice  is  really  artistic,  and  this  afternoon  she.  has  surpassed 
herself. 


-64  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAIXE. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  November  18,  1871. 

I  returned  from  New  York  yesterday  after  a  week's  absence.  I  came 
from  Boston  via  Andover,  and  having  telegraphed  Emmons  he  met  me  at 
Wilmington  Junction  and  rode  to  Lawrence;  distance,  nine  miles;  time, 
twenty  minutes.  He  is  well  and  seems  to  be  studying  well.  .  .  . 

Russell  Jones,  our  Minister  at  Brussells,  I  know  very  well.  He  is  a  very 
clever  gentleman.  But  I  would  rather  have  yon  adhere  closely  to  your 
studies  than  to  do  any  writing  just  now. 

Do  not  study  German  to  the  neglect  of  French.  \  would  far  rather 
have  you  push  the  latter  with  all  energy,  so  that  you  can  speedily  begin  to 
read  history,  geography,  etc.  I  do  not,  however,  object  to  German  if  your 
teacher  thinks  it  will  not  interfere  with  your  French.  Study  six  hours  a 
day  faithfully,  take  plenty  of  exercise,  and  enjoy  yourself  in  every  reason 
able  and  proper  way. 

I  am  glad  you  are  so  much  at  Mr.  Washburn's,  but  do  not  go  more  than 
seems  to  you  proper.  In  other  words,  do  not  wear  out  your  welcome.  I 
must  trust  to  your  discretion,  of  course,  in  this  as  in  most  other  things. 

From  Mr.  Washburn  : 

PARIS,  November  21,  1871. 

DEAR  BLAINE:  Mr.  Elliot  C.  O'owden,  of  New  York,  but  who  lives  here 
more  than  half  the  time,  a  most  excellent,  intelligent,  agreeable,  hos 
pitable  man,  and  one  of  my  most  highly  esteemed  friends,  leaves  to-mor 
row  for  home.  He  knows  all  about  Walker,  and  can  tell  you  what  a  nice 
boy  he  is  and  how  well  he  is  getting  along.  He  will  visit  Washington,  and 
I  want  you  to  go  with  him  and  see  the  President,  as  he  can  tell  him,  as 
well  as  yourself,  all  about  us.  .  .  .  Among  other  things,  please  in 
troduce  him  to  Butler,  as  I  want  him  to  find  out  Butler's  authority  for  de 
claring  that  "  Blaine  was  sorry." 

To  Walker  : 

AUGUSTA,  November  26,  1871. 

.  .  .  Down-stairs  Mr.  Sherman  is  trying  to  put  some  final  (ouches  to 
the  copying  of  the  committees.  Alas  !  If  final  touches  are  not  soon  put 
to  them,  I  am  afraid  your  father  will  give  out  entirely.  .  .  .  To-mor 
row  he  leaves  for  Washington,  getting  there  Thursday  or  Friday.  Ho 
made  his  usual  preparation  last  night  by  having  up  a  barber  at  the  house. 
The  door-bell  was  ringing  continuously,  and  people  calling  on  him  all  the 
time,  so  after  the  tonsorial  professor  had  been  introduced  to  my  room,  and 
a  large  linen  spread  down  for  the  protection  of  the  carpet,  Emmons  sat 
down.  His  hair  had  been  cut  quite  lately  in  Boston,  but  it  certainly  needed 
clipping,  and  then  Mons  was  not  averse  to  saving  one  fee  !  When  he  was 
through,  we  put  Q.  into  his  high  chair.  The  pretty  little  fellow  would 
not  permit  himself  even  to  wink.  When  his  head  was  cropped,  we  had 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  265 

up  father.  It  is  a  work  of  art  now  to  cut  his  hair  and  leave  at  the  same 
time  enough  on  the  head.  Happily,  however,  this  desirable  end  was 
achieved  and  at  ten  Monsieur  took  his  leave.  .  .  .  Emmons'  report 
came  by  the  morning's  mail,  and  is,  I  believe,  quite  satisfactory.  What 
did  not  come,  and  what  your  father,  Alice,  Emmons,  and  I  were  all  watch- 
in  o-  for  at  the  window  a  full  half  hour  before  Harry  Brown  came  along, 
was  a  blue  enveloped  letter  from  you.  Your  father  would  allow  no  one 
to  go  to  the  door  for  it  but  himself ;  but  alas !  though  there  was  a  very 
bright  letter  from  G.,  a  racy  one  from  Horace  White,  and  a  gossipy  one 
from  Joe  Manley,  who  had  ridden  over  a  Western  railroad  with  Coif  ax 
and  had  interviewed  him,  there  was  nothing  from  across  the  water.  The 
detention  by  the  despatch  bag  is  sometimes  very  much  longer  than  it  should 
be.  Your  father  is  particularly  anxious  for  this  letter,  as  he  thinks  it 
must  answer  his. 


To  Walker  : 

AUGUSTA,  November  29,  1871. 

This  morning,  to  my  great  delight,  —  for  I  had  given  up  expecting  any 
thing  from  the  "  Scotia,"  —  your  two  letters  in  reply  to  your  father's  turned 
up.  I  at  once  telegraphed  him  to  the  Parker  House.  His  anxiety  I  knew 
was  great,  and  he  could  not  get  your  letter  till  he  reached  Washington. 
He  will  be  so  pleased  at  his  own  shrewd  guessing  that  he  will  not  be  very 
severe  on  you.  Your  letters  were  admirable.  I  never  had  a  fear  that  you 
had  done  anything  wrong.  You  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  writing 
about  it. 

.  .  I  have  had  three  letters  from  your  father  to-day,  all  of  course 
written  yesterday  — in  the  afternoon,  after  tea,  and  at  bed-time.  ...  I 
am  sorry  to  say  that  Mr.  Fisher  seems  to  be  fast  losing  in  the  esteem  of  all 
"•ood  men.  Every  new  discovery  your  father  makes  only  seems  to  show 
a  baseness  still  deeper.  Will  he  ever  reach  the  bottom  of  his  treachery 
towards  him?  .  .  .  Emmons  has  been  skating  all  day.  Fun  for  him, 
but  hard  for  the  horse,  as  he  rides  to  his  pleasure  ground,  blankets  poor 
old  Prince,  and  comes  home  only  when  he  is  hungry.  I  expect  he  takes 
girls,  as  he  has  the  best  carriage.  He  is  so  kind  and  pleasant,  so  bright 
and  gay,  I  can  refuse  him  nothing.  I  make  a  very  poor  mother. 


To  Mr.  Blaine  from  Walker : 

PARIS,  November  17,  1871. 

I  am  sorry  that,  in  the  very  first  of  the  whole  matter,  I  did  not 
write  you  fully  and  openly.  I  did  intend  and  wish  to  have  the  most  per 
fect  frankness.  I  am  studying  very  hard  now,  much  harder  and  better  than 
I  have  ever  done  before,  and  were  it  not  that  I  fear  you  may  be  a  little 
displeased  with  me,  should  be  in  every  way  perfectly  happy.  1  trust  that 
1  have  <nveu  full  explanation  of  everything  in  my  former  letter. 


266  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker  : 

WASHINGTON,  December  8,  1871. 

.  .  .  You  will  have  seen  before  this  all  about  my  committees  in  the 
New  York  papers. 

I  am  keeping  bachelor's  hall  —  none  of  the  family  being  with  me. 
.  .  .  They  will  come  on  after  the  holidays.  It  seems  lonely  to  be  here 
by  myself  after  such  pleasant  and  lively  times  as  I  have  had  for  the  past 
two  winters.  We  expect,  however,  to  take  a  recess  on  the  21st  till  after 
New  Year's,  and  you  may  depend  I  will  promptly  report  in  Augusta. 

Your  expressions  of  confidence  and  affection  are  very  grateful 
to  me.  A  child  can  scarcely  know  or  appreciate  the  deep  love  and  solici 
tude  of  a  parent.  Your  welfare  and  success  in  life  are  objects  of  daily 
care,  and  I  trust  of  daily  prayer,  with  me.  You  are  my  pride  and  my  hope, 
and  if  anything  should  go  wrong  with  you  I  think  it  would  kill  me.  But 
I  have  the  greatest  confidence  in  you.  My  sending  you  to  Europe  was 
surely  a  great  proof  of  this  at  your  tender  age  —  trusting  you  all  alone. 
There  are  few  boys  at  sixteen  whom  I  would  so  trust.  .  . 


To  Mr.  Blaine : 

AUGUSTA,  December  11,  1871. 

.  .  .  Professor  Barbour  has  been  down  to  see  me  this  afternoon, 
really  overflowing  with  congratulations  on  your  most  happy  selection  of 
committees.  Says  he  shall  tell  you  to  cut  off  the  tail  of  a  dog.  When 
Alcibiades  did  so  many  fine  things  that  he  was  afraid  of  being  forced  into 
some  great  office,  he  cut  off  the  tail  of  a  dog  to  show  that  he  could  do  a 
foolish  deed. 


Mr.  Blaine  to  Walker  : 

WASHINGTON,  December  11,  1871. 

.  .  .  I  fully  understand  and  appreciate  your  desire  to  remain  at  your 
studies  during  the  winter,  and  not  go  off  travelling.  As  I  said  before,  I 
leave  this  wholly  to  your  own  judgment,  though  at  your  age  I,  of  course, 
consider  the  acquisition  of  the  languages  the  most  important.  Rome  and 
all  Italy  **  will  keep  for  a  future  tour,"  but  your  golden  opportunity  to 
acquire  French  may  never  again  recur  with  such  favoring  auspices  and 
circumstances.  I  do  not  wish  you  in  any  way  to  stint  yourself  in  attending 
the  innocent  amusements  of  Paris  —  theatres,  operas,  etc.,  leaving  you  to 
be  the  judge  of  what  is  proper  to  expend  of  time  and  money  in  that 
direction. 

They  are  improving  Washington  very  rapidly  and  very  greatly,  —  and 
I  think  extravagantly,  —  expending  $4,000,000  on  the  streets  and  squares, 
raising  the  money  by  sale  of  city  bonds,  and  heaping  up  taxes  for  the 
future. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  267 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker  : 

DECEMBER  15,  1871. 

I  have  by  same  mail  with  yours  a  letter  from  Madame  Ileidler, 
speaking  in  very  kind  and  flattering  terms  of  your  progress  and  your  be 
havior.  This  is,  of  course,  very  gratifying  to  me,  and  will  be  so  to  your 
mother  when  she  receives  it. 


To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  December  28,  1871. 

After  getting  off  your  letter  Monday  evening,  I  turned  my  attention  to 
your  father's  toilet.  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  I  wrote  you  that  we 
were  invited  to  the  golden  wedding  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fuller,  and  that  just 
at  the  time  when  I  was  rejoicing  in  the  thought  of  wearing  some  of  my 
finery  in  Augusta,  it  came  out  that  your  father  had  no  clothes  at  home, 
excepting  those  in  which  he  was  then  standing,  a  roughish  suit  a  year  old. 
What  Chicago  had  not  swallowed  up  had  gone  to  Washington.  We  were 
both  full  of  chagrin,  as  you  may  believe.  The  father  took  a  candle  and 
made  search  in  the  trunk-room,  but  nothing  came  of  it  but  two  gaiters,  and 
even  those  were  not  alike.  To  match  the  gaiters,  I  myself  went  west 
ward  and  returned  triumphant,  bringing  on  my  arm  a  pair  of  black 
trousers  not  too  much  the  worse  for  wear,  a  swallow-tail  coat,  very  much 
of  a  swallow  too,  made  in  Paris  when  your  father  was  in  Europe,  — 
lavender  gloves,  almost  new,  turned  up  in  the  pockets ;  in  short,  every 
essential  of  a  first-class  society  dress  was  drummed  up  from  one  quarter 
or  another,  with  the  single  exception  of  a  white  cravat,  and  at  nine  o'clock 
behold  us  in  the  narrow  sleigh,  with  George  for  postilion,  en  route.  You 
never  saw  any  one  so  pleased  as  was  your  father  with  his  dress.  When  I 
went  down  into  the  parlor,  on  my  way  to  the  sleigh,  I  found  all  the  burners 
lighted,  while  he  turned  himself  about  and  about,  admiring  old  clothes  as 

O  O 

good  as  new.  As  good  ?  A  thousand  times  better  in  hio  eyes  !  Of  the 
wedding,  there  was  a  table  loaded  with  presents,  a  handsome  supper,  a 
poem  by  Madame  Dillingham,  read  by  Mr.  Beach,  and  sung  to  the  tune  of 
"  Auld  lang  syne,'1  the  house  trimmed  with  Christmas  greens,  the  whole 
Williams  clan,  and,  last,  a  dance,  the  chorus  jig,  led  off  by  Mrs.  Fuller 
and  Arthur  Edwards1  grandfather.  Emmons  was  invited,  but  preferred 
to  spend  his  evening  with  the  W.  girls ;  he  told  George  he  might  stay  in 
the  kitchen  and  he  would  drive  over  for  us.  When  he  rang  the  bell  Aunt 
H.  came  to  the  door,  so,  of  course,  Mons  had  to  go  in  .  .  .  .  Emmons 
got  off  Sunday  noon.  We  have  not  heard  from  him  since  his  arrival  at 
Andover,  for  Emmons,  though  a  very  good  talker,  holds  a  more  cramped 
pen  than  even  I  do.  Father  wrote  to  Mr.  Tilton,  telling  him  that  he, 
and  he  alone,  was  to  blame  for  the  delay  in  Mons1  return. 


2<38  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 


XII. 

CREDIT   MOBILIER. 

A  s  the  presidential  election  of  1872  drew  on,  discontent 
with  the  administration  became,  if  not  very  deep,  very 
demonstrative.  Early  in  the  year  a,  group  of  the  leading  mal 
contents  came  to  Washington  and  held  conference  with  Mr. 
Elaine  regarding  the  situation.  At  a  dinner  in  his  house  there 
was  a  full,  frank,  and  confidential  consultation.  They  desired 
and  proposed  to  organize  a  movement  antagonistic  to  the  Presi 
dent,  with  Mr.  Elaine  — tentatively  — at  its  head  as  candidate 
for  the  succession. 

He   had  disagreed    often   enough  with   the    President   to  ho 
supposed  ready  for  organized  opposition. 

In  the  ensuing  campaign  it  was  publicly  reported,  to  offset 
liis  advocacy  of  President  Grant,  that  he  had  said,  "  The  only 
way  to  have  a  good,  square  talk  Avith  the  President  was  to  get 
him  behind  a  pair  of  horses  that  he  liked  to  drive,"  and  that  on 
another  occasion,  leaving  the  President  after  a  long  interview, 
he  had  exclaimed  that  Grant  had  no  more  sense  than  a  horse. 
It  is  true  that  he  Avas  often  impatient  Avith  the  President's  vieAvs, 
or  lack  of  vieAvs,  and  occasionally  intolerant  of  his  methods,  as 
might  well  be  with  a  President  who  had  served  his  administra 
tive  apprenticeship  at  the  head  of  the  army ;  but  Mr.  Elaine 
held  steadfastly  an  underlying  respect  for  his  character,  for  his 
patriotism,  for  his  achievements,  and  for  his  standing  with  the 
people.  Occasional  disapproval  or  disagreement  is  "a  far  step 
from  declaration  of  war.  He  not  only  declined  to  join  the 
movement,  but  tried  to  convince  its  advocates  of  its  undesirable- 
ness  and  its  futility  —  in  vain.  They  left  him  regretfully,  as 
suring  him  that  they  left  him  behind,  and  that  he  had  made  the 
mistake  of  his  life  in  rejecting  the  opportunity  for  reform  and 
promotion. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  269 

Reform  was  the  watchword,  investigation  the  weapon  of  the 
new  party.  Every  leader  in  every  governmental  department 
seemed  to  be  set  aright  for  his  honor.  A  dozen  investigations 
were  dragging  their  slow  and  sometimes  slimy  length  across 
the  boards  at  the  same  time.  The  Democratic  party,  despairing 
of  success  on  a  question  of  principle,  was  only  too  glad  to  join 
the  Reform  party  —  or  the  Liberal  Republican  party,  as  it  other 
wise  called  itself  —  on  a  question  of  personal  character.  The 
Japanese  embassy  under  Iwakura  came  over  to  meet  Aririori 
Mori  and  to  study  the  institutions  of  the  Republic,  and  was 
received  with  welcome  and  much  rejoicing.  The  arbitration 
of  the  Alabama  claims,  a  distinct  advance  in  the  world's  prog 
ress,  had  gone  so  far  as  to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Washington 
May  8,  1871,  to  ratify  it  June  11,  and  to  proclaim  it  July  4. 
Every  intelligent  American  citizen  and  Christian  was  watching 
the  outcome.  The  Chinese  Commission  was  here  to  inspect 
our  educational  systems,  the  young  Prince  of  Russia,  supposed 
to  be  on  pleasure  bent,  was  struggling  tlu-ough  the  country 
as  best  he  could  under  the  weight  of  Catacazy,  and  Gilmore  was 
singing  his  international  love-songs  in  the  Boston  Coliseum 
against  all  the  winds  of  Heaven  and  the  breezes  of  criticism. 

O 

The  American  people  looked  and  listened,  but  the  Juggernaut 
of  investigation  went  steadily  on. 

The  Southern  Rebel  saw  the  Northern  Abolitionist  open 
ing  for  him  the  path  of  preferment  through  the  gateway  of 
scandal,  and  the  old  foes  became  firm  allies.  It  was  Grant, 
they  proclaimed,  who  was  blocking  the  wheels  of  Reform,  and 
Grant  must  be  gotten  rid  of.  A  feeble  blast  Avas  blown  on 
the  fct  one  term "  bugle,  but  it  had  small  summoning  power. 
"  One  term "  had  never  been  an  urgent  question,  and  the 
people  could  not  be  made  to  bring  it  to  an  issue  on  the 
man  who  had  been  most  conspicuous  in  saving  the  nation 
from  destruction.  General  Banks  attempted  to  bring  for 
ward  a  term  of  six  years.  Mr.  Elaine,  if  there  was  to  be  a 
change,  favored  a  term  of  two  years,  to  diminish  rather  than 
by  a  longer  term  to  increase,  the  strain  of  presidential  election ; 
but  there  was  no  vitality  in  the  question,  and  it  was  never 
fairly  launched.  Mr.  Simmer,  not  without  reason  for  his  re 
sentments,  forgot  his  Civil  Rights  Bill,  for  which  he  had  persist- 


270  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

ently  and  heroically  labored,  and  publicly  and  formally  joined 
hands  with  the  men  who  had  secured  ite  defeat.  Mr.  Elaine 
at  once  wrote  him  a  public  letter  of  remonstrance : 

JULY  31,  1872. 

Your  letter  of  July  29  has  created  profound  pain  among  your  former 
political  friends  throughout  New  England.  Your  po\ver  to  injure  President 
Grant  was  exhausted  in  your  remarkable  speech  in  the  Senate.  Your  power 
to  injure  yourself  was  not  fully  exercised  until  you  announced  an  open 
alliance  on  your  part  with  the  Southern  secessionists  in  their  effort  to 
destroy  the  Republican  party. 

I  have  but  recently  read  with  much  interest  the  circumstantial  and  mi 
nute  account  given  by  you  in  the  fourth  volume  of  your  works,  of  the 
manner  in  which  you  were  struck  down  in  the  Senate  Chamber  in  1856,  for 
defending  the  rights  of  the  negro.  The  Democratic  party  throughout  the 
South  and,  according  to  your  own  showing,  to  some  extent  in  the  North 
also,  approved  the  assault  upon  you.  Mr.  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  openly 
announced  his  approval  of  it  in  the  Senate  ;  and  Jefferson  Davis,  four  months 
after  its  occurrence,  wrote  a  letter  to  South  Carolina  in  fulsome  eulogy  of 
Mr.  Brooks  for  having  so  nearly  taken  your  life.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
every  man  in  the  South  who  rejoiced  over  the  attempt  to  murder  you  was 
afterwards  found  in  the  Rebel  conspiracy  to  murder  the  nation.  It  is  still 
safer  to  say  that  every  one  of  them  who  survives  is  to-day  your  fellow-laborer 
in  support  of  Horace  Grecley.  He  would  have  been  a  rash  prophet  who  in 
that  day  would  have  predicted  your  fast  alliance  sixteen  years  after 
with  Messrs.  Toombs  and  Davis  in  their  efforts  to  reinstate  their  party  in 
power.  In  all  the  strange  mutations  of  American  politics,  nothing  so  mar 
vellous  has  ever  occurred  as  the  fellowship  of  Robert  Toombs,  Jefferson 
Davis,  and  Charles  Simmer,  in  a  joint  effort  to  drive  the  Republican,  party 
from  power,  and  hand  over  the  Government  to  the  political  control  of  those 
who  so  recently  sought  to  destroy  it. 

It  is  of  no  avail  for  you  to  take  refuge  behind  the  Republican  record  of 
Horace  Greeley.  Conceding  for  the  sake  of  argument  (as  I  do  not  in  fact 
believe)  that  Horace  Greeley  would  remain  firm  in  his  Republican  princi 
ples,  he  would  be  powerless  against  the  Congress  that  would  come  into 
power  with  him  in  case  of  his  election.  We  have  had  a  recent  and  striking 
illustration,  in  the  case  of  Andrew  Johnson,  of  the  inability  of  the  President 
to  enforce  a  policy  or  even  a  measure  against  the  will  of  Congress.  What 
more  power  would  there  be  in  Horace  Greeley  to  enforce  a  Republican 
policy  against  a  Democratic  Congress  than  there  was  in  Andrew  Johnson 
to  enforce  a  Democratic  policy  against  a  Republican  Congress.  And  besides, 
Horace  Greeley  has  already  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  taken  ground  practi 
cally  against  the  Republican  doctrine  so  often  enforced  by  yourself  of 
the  duty  of  the  National  Government  to  secure  the  rights  of  every  citizen 
to  protection  of  life,  person,  and  property.  In  Mr.  Greeley's  letter,  accept 
ing  the  Cincinnati  nomination,  he  pleases  every  Ku-Ivlux  villain  in  the  South 


A  PHY    OF   JAMEti    G.    KLAINE.  271 

by  his  slogan  about  "  local  self-government,"  and  his  inveighing,  in  Rebel 
parlance,  against  "  centralization." 

You  cannot  forget,  Mr.  Simmer,  how  often,  during  the  late  session  of 
Congress,  you  conferred  with  me  in  regard  to  the  possibility  of  having 
your  Civil  Rights  Bill  passed  by  the  House.  It  was  introduced  by  your 
personal  friend,  Mr.  Hooper,  and  nothing  prevented  its  passage  by  the 
House,  except  the  rancorous  and  factious  hostility  of  the  Democratic  mem 
bers.  If  I  have  correctly  examined  the  Globe,  the  Democratic  members 
on  seventeen  different  occasions  resisted  the  passage  of  the  Civil  Rights 
Bill,  by  the  parliamentary  process  known  as  iilibustering.  They  would 
not  even  allow  it  to  come  to  a  vote. 

Two  intelligent  colored  members  from  South  Carolina,  Elliott  and 
Rainey,  begged  of  the  Democratic  side  of  the  House  merely  to  allow  the 
Civil  Rights  Bill  to  be  voted  on,  and  they  were  answered  with  a  denial  so 
absolute  that  it  amounted  to  a  scornful  jeer  at  the  rights  of  the  colored 
man.  And  now  you  lend  your  voice  and  inliuence  to  the  reelection  of 
these  Democratic  members  who  are  cooperating  with  you  in  the  support 
of  Mr.  Greeley.  Do  you  not  know,  and  will  you  not,  as  a  candid  man, 
acknowledge  that  with  these  men  in  power  in  Congress  the  rights  of  the 
colored  man  are  absolutely  sacrificed,  so  far  as  these  rights  depend  on 
federal  legislation? 

Still  further,  the  rights  of  the  colored  men  in  this  country  are  secured, 
if  secured  at  all,  by  the  three  great  constitutional  amendments,  the  Thir 
teenth,  Fourteenth,  and  Fifteenth.  To  give  these  amendments  scope  and 
effect  legislation  by  Congress  is  imperatively  required,  as  you  have  so 
often  and  so  eloquently  demonstrated.  But  the  Democratic  party  are  on 
record  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  against  any  legislation  on  the 
subject.  It  was  only  in  the  month  of  February  last  that  my  colleague,  Mr. 
Peters,  offered  a  resolution  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  affirming  the 
"'  validity  of  the  Constitutional  Amendments,  and  of  such  reasonable  legis 
lation  of  Congress  as  may  be  necessary  to  make  them  in  their  letter  and 
spirit  most  effectual.'1  This  resolution,  very  mild  and  guarded  as  you  will 
see,  was  adopted  by  124  yeas  to  58  nays.  Only  eight  of  the  yeas  were 
Democrats.  All  the  nays  were  Democrats.  .  .  . 

It  is  idle  to  affirm,  as  some  Democrats  did,  in  a  resolution  offered  by  Mr. 
Brooks,  of  New  York,  that  "  these  amendments  are  valid  parts  of  the  Con 
stitution,"  so  long  as  the  same  men  on  the  same  day  vote  that  these 
provisions  of  those  amendments  should  not  be  enforced  by  Congressional 
legislation.  The  amendments  are  but  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbals 
to  the  colored  man,  until  Congress  makes  them  effective  and  practical. 
Nay,  more  ;  if  the  rights  of  the  colored  man  are  to  be  left  to  the  legislation 
of  the  Southern  States,  without  Congressional  intervention,  he  would, 
under  a  Democratic  administration,  be  deprived  of  the  right  of  suffrage  in 
less  than  two  years,  and  he  would  be  veiy  lucky  if  he  escaped  some  form 
of  chattel  slavery  or  peonage.  And  in  proof  of  this  adage  I  might  quote 
volumes  of  reasons  and  wisdom  from  the  speeches  of  Charles  Sumner. 

Your  argument  that   Horace  Greeley  docs   not  become  a  Democrat  by 


272  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINK. 

receiving  Democratic  votes,  proving  it  by  the  analogy  of  your  own  elec 
tion  to  the  Senate,  is  hardly  candid.  The  point  is  not  what  Mr.  Greeley 
will  become,  but  what  will  be  the  complexion  of  the  great  legislative 
branch  of  the  Government,  with  all  its  vast  and  controlling  power? 
You  know  very  well,  Mr.  Sumner,  that  if  Mr.  Greeley  is  elected  Presi 
dent,  Congress  is  handed  over  to  the  control  of  the  men  who  have 
persistently  denied  the  rights  of  the  black  man.  What  course  you  will 
personally  pursue  toward  the  colored  man  is  of  small  consequence,  after 
you  have  transferred  the  power  of  the  government  to  his  enemy. 

The  colored  men  of  this  country  are  not  as  a  class  enlightened,  but  they 
luivc  wonderful  instincts,  and  when  they  read  your  letter  they  will  know 
that  at  a  crisis  in  their  fate,  you  deserted  them.  Charles  Sunnier,  coop 
erating  with  Jefferson  Davis,  is  not  the  same  Charles  Sumner  they  have 
hitherto  idolized,  any  more  than  Horace  Greeley,  cheered  to  the  echo  in 
Tammany  Hall,  is  the  same  Horace  Greeley  whom  the  Republicans  have 
hitherto  trusted.  The  black  men  of  the  country  will  never  be  ungrateful 
for  what  you  have  done  for  them  in  the  past,  nor  in  the  bitterness  of  their 
hearts  will  they  ever  forget  that,  heated  and  blinded  by  personal  hatred 
of  one  man,  you  turned  your  back  on  the  rights  of  the  millions  to  whom  in 
past  years  you  have  stood  as  a  shield. 

Mr.  Sunnier  replied,  defending  his  course  in  the  interests 
of  harmony  and  reconciliation.  But  Horace  Greeley,  Apostle  of 
Freedom,  Tribune  of  the  People,  found  Mr.  Elaine's  letter  "pre 
tentious  "  and  worse ;  marvelled  that  this  "  superserviceahle 
henchman"  should  "rush in  unbidden  "  to  the  presence  of  Sena 
tor  Sumner ;  thought  it  kind  in  Mr.  Sumner  "  to  take  any  notice 
of  his  small  antagonist,"  and  avowed  that  "  if  Mr.  Speaker  Elaine 
is  not  fairly  extinguished  by  Senator  Sumner's  rejoinder  we  de 
spair  of  ever  seeing  this  pertinacious  young  man  put  down." 

The  presidential  conventions  began  in  May.  Mr.  Greeley  de 
clined  to  attend  the  Republican  convention  at  Philadelphia 
because  he  found  no  trustworthy  assurances  of  Reform,  and  he 
signed  a  call  for  an  earlier  convention  at  Cincinnati  of  Reunion 
and  Reform  Associations,  by  which  convention  he  was  himself 
nominated  for  the  presidency.  The  Republican  convention 
was  warned  that  there  was  nothing  for  it  to  do  at  Philadelphia 
but  throw  Grant  overboard,  yet  the  Republican  convention  in 
June  nominated  Grant  without  opposition,  almost  without 
effort;  after  which  the  country  was  told  that  the  biggest  thing 
before  it  was  The  Honest  Men  against  The  Thieves,  and 
"  Republican  venality  and  rapacity  "  became  a  battle-cry  with 
men  who  had  fought  bravely  in  the  fore-front  of  the  Republican 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    a.    BLAINR.  273 

ranks.  The  Democratic  convention  met  at  Baltimore  on  the 
ninth  of  July  and  accepted  and  strove  to  assimilate  both  Reform 
platform  and  candidate.  I  believe  there  was  also  a  u  Straight " 
Democratic  convention  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  which  nominated 
John  Quincy  Adams  for  the  presidency ;  and  a  Labor  Reform 
party,  with  its  convention  and  candidate  at  Columbus,  Ohio. 

Then  union  and  harmony  shrieked  from  every  raucous  throat. 
"  The  New  York  Tribune,"  powerful  with  Horace  Greeley's  good 
ness  and  genius,  proclaimed  that  party  lines  were  everywhere 
rapidly  disappearing;  that  the  Republican  party  was  rent 
asunder.  Sumner  and  Greeley  and  Chase  on  one  side,  Wendell 
Phillips  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison  on  the  other,  seemed  to 
justify  the  statement.  The  colored  people,  bewildered  by  the 
tight  of  the  giants  who  had  been  their  leaders,  besought 
Whittier's  counsel.  The  gentle  Quaker,  pained  to  the  heart  by 
strife  between  friends  equally  dear,  bade  his  questioners  to  fol 
low  logic  and  conscience,  but  not  prejudice  or  passion.  He  saw 
no  reason,  he  told  them,  why  they  should  not  vote  for  Grant, 
but  they  need  not  on  that  account  condemn  Sumner  who  had 
valiantly  upheld  their  cause.  They  might  vote  for  Greeley,  but 
might  not  on  that  account  strike  down  Phillips  and  Garrison, 
their  fiiends. 

As  early  as  July  Mr.  Blaine  marked  out  an  honorable  course 
towards  Mr.  Greeley.  In  a  speech  at  the  Lincoln  County,  Maine, 
Republican  Convention  he  said:  "The  Republicans  will  make 
no  attack  on  the  personal  character  of  Mr.  Greeley,  for  they 
know  nothing  against  him.  He  enjoyed  Republican  confidence 
and  admiration  in  an  extraordinary  degree  until  lie  showed 
a  willingness  to  become  identified  with  a  party  which,  according 
to  his  own  repeated  declarations,  has  made  an  unpatriotic  and 
mischievous  record  since  1860,  and  is  unworthy  to  be  trusted 
on  a  single  question  of  interest  and  importance  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  Let  it  be  the  only  indictment  against  Mr. 
Greeley  that  he  lias  consented  to  stand  as  the  candidate  and 
representative  of  that  party." 

P>ut  from  the  beginning  the  Greeley  party  not  only  recognized 
in  Mr.  Blaine  a  formidable  foe,  but  seemed  to  regard  him  with  the 
bitterness  due  to  a  recusant,  and  directed  against  him  its  fiercest 
fire,  which  was  too  often  a  foul  fire.  The  "  Tribune  "  carried  the 


274  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (/.    KLAINE. 

war  into  Maine  and  depicted  Mr.  Blaine  as  no  powerful  oppo 
nent,  but  one  hard  pressed  to  save  himself  from  defeat.  Its 
columns  harbored  the  prediction  that  he  would  not  have  his 
usual  elegant  leisure  to  do  general  missionary  work  as  hereto 
fore.  Maine  was  "  in  a  state  of  general  uprising  against  him." 
There  was  to  be  a  "  continuation  of  the  history  whose  first 
pages  were  written  in  the  Conkling-Fry  conflict."  The 
prophets  of  evil  admitted,  in  the  very  act  of  crushing  him,  that 
he  was  a  "  brilliant  politician."  "  No  man  can  better  wield  the 
elements.  He  is  bold,  aggressive,  dangerous." 

As  time  went  on,  Mr.  Elaine's  prospects  grew,  in  the  estima 
tion  of  the  Reform  candidate,  more  and  more  desperate.  His 
affairs  assumed  a  very  threatening  aspect.  It  would  not  be  strange 
if  he  should  be  defeated  for  Congress  by  a  decided  majority.  Mr. 
Greeley  bore  his  own  standard  into  the  enemy's  camp,  and  was 
received  at  Augusta  with  great  enthusiasm  —  and  some  of  his 
advocates  were  entertained  at  Mr.  Blaine's  house !  Sanguine 
Reformers  avowed  that  Mr.  Blaine's  friends  were  moving  heaven 
and  earth  to  save  him.  They  were  paying  a  hundred  dollars  a 
vote,  but  he  would  have  a  large  majority  against  him  outside  of 
his  own  county.  Then  the  majority  began  to  topple  against  him 
in  his  own  county,  and  even  while  voting  for  him  in  his  district 
they  hated  him  for  his  despotic  rule.  It  was  impossible  he 
should  have  more  than  1,300  majority,  all  bought  or  frightened 
into  his  support.  It  was  comfortably  and  "  generally  conceded  that 
this  is  Blaine's  last  race,  whatever  may  happen."  Certainly,  as 
the  "  Tribune  "  solaced  itself  withal,  the  situation  was  "  looking 
bad  for  Blaine." 

At  the  same  time,  and  without  any  apparent  perception  of  in 
consistency,  the  same  authority  declared  that  Mr.  Blaine 
"  owned  "  his  district.  As  the  day  of  election  drew  near  he 
"owned  the  State,  and  was  more  powerful  than  Hamlin  and 
Morrill  rolled  into  one."  He  had  not  only  a  general  corruption 
fund,  but  was  "himself  a  millionaire,  "though  he  had  come  into 
the  State  a  carpet-bagger  and  an  adventurer  a  few  years  ago, 
and  had  borrowed  the  money  to  make  his  first  trip  to  Congress." 
The  Reform  party  admitted  that  it  had  had  in  Maine  "  magnifi 
cent  opportunity  for  a  generalship  wliicli  was  not  forthcoming" 
while  Blaine's  forces  were  "  admirably  organized  with  battalions 


lUOURAPIIY    OF    JAMES    (?.     ELAINE.  275 

of  speakers  and  tons  of  documents,"  as  well  as  "  unlimited 
money."  "  By  an  organized  plan  and  an  especial  fund  they 
brought  home  every  voter.  Incoming  trains  brought  heavy 
freights  from  all  quarters,  and  they  will  get  out  the  last  man." 

With  the  sweeping  charge  of  corruption  and  terrorizatioii  it  is 
strange  that  even  the  writers  should  not  have  observed  that  their 
specifications  were  of  not  only  innocent  but  highly  praiseworthy 
and  patriotic  expenditures. 

As  early  as  July  ti  Mr.  Elaine's  opinion  was  asked  by  the  im 
partial  news-gatherer.  He  answered  quietly  that  he  thought 
Maine  would  give  its  customary  majority  for  Governor  Perham ! 

Blame  men,  on  the  eve  of  election,  projected  a  majority  of 
14,000,  but  the  Greeley  men  pronounced  their  data  worthless. 
Yet,  although  the  latter  had  early  protested  that  Mr.  Blame's 
defeat  would  not  only  be  a  great  relief  to  the  subjugated  voters 
of  his  district,  but  a  greater  relief  to  the  country,  the  Blaine 
tide  was  coming  in  so  deep  and  strong  that  towards  the  end  of 
the  contest  they  "  would  not  be  surprised  if  our  enemies  get 
not  only  all  the  doubtful  votes,  but  many  which  are  not  now 
supposed  to  be  doubtful. " 

At  the  Lincoln  County  Convention  in  July  27,  Mr.  Blaine  had 
made  a  statement  and  a  prophecy  :  "  The  opponents  of  President 
Grant  adopt  the  most  unwise  of  policies  when  they  seek  to 
make  personal  warfare  upon  him,  to  cast  opprobrium  upon  him, 
to  throw  calumny  and  suspicion  upon  his  good  name.  The 
strength  of  the  President  before  the  people  is  due  not  alone 
to  his  brilliant  military  achievements,  but  to  that  vigor  and 
directness  of  character,  that  rugged  personal  integrity,  which  in 
every  relation  of  life  have  distinguished  him. 

fct  The  result  of  the  election  will  show  that  thousands  of  people 
in  eveiy  loyal  State,  who  perhaps  differ  from  General  Grant  in 
certain  views  of  public  questions,  will  resent  the  imputations 
upon  his  character  as  a  personal  affront  to  themselves.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  feel  profound  gratitude  to  the  Pres 
ident  for  his  illustrious  services  to  the  Union  during  the  war, 
and  they  will  not  hear  him  maligned  and  insulted  .  .  . 
without  hot  resentment  of  the  wrong." 

As  soon  as  the  election  returns  were  in  Mr.  Blaine  telegraphed 
the  result : 


276  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    <7.     BLATNK. 

To  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  Long  Branch,  New  Jersey: 
We  have  carried  tho  State  for  Governor  Perham  by  more  than  fifteen 
thousand  majority,  a  net  gain  of  five  thousand  on  last  year's  vote.  We 
have  carried  every  county  in  Maine,  something  we  have  achieved  but  once 
before.  We  have  carried  all  the  Congress  districts,  the  closest  by  well- 
nigh  two  thousand  majority.  We  have  elected  every  Senator  and  chosen 
more  than  four-fifths  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Our  victory  is  com 
plete  and  overwhelming  at  all  points,  and  insures  you  more  than  t \venty- 
iive  thousand  majority  in  November. 

Mr.  Blame  himself  had  a  majority  in  everyone  of  the  twenty- 
seven  towns  of  his  county,  six  of  which  were  usually  Demo 
cratic.  His  majority  in  his  district  was  three  thousand  five 
hundred. 

And  the  campaign  poet  gayly  sang : 

"  Greeleyism  is  from  this  time  ilead  : 
Maine  has  knocked  it  on  the  head." 

While  the  presidential  contest  was  yet  in  its  acute  stages,  the 
"  Credit  Mobilier"  question  was  taken  up  by  the  Reform  candi 
date  and  pushed  to  the  front. 

The  Speaker  and  other  leading  members  of  Congress  were 
charged  with  having  accepted  stocks  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Road  as  bribes  from  Hon.  Cakes  Ames,  also  a  member  of 
Congress. 

After  the  great  victory  of  the  Maine  election,  a  month  before 
the  national  election,  Mr.  Greeley's  paper  declared  roundly 
and  definitely,  "The  Speaker  is  proved  to  have  received  thirty- 
two  thousand  live  hundred  shares  of  assessable  stock  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad,  and  two  thousand  uimssessable  shares 
of  the  same  stock. 

'Speaker  Elaine  is  proved  to  have  received  allotments  valued 
at  11,625,000,  and  unassessed  allotments  valued  at  $295,000, 
and  two  thousand  shares  more  allotted  but  unassessed.  The 
two  latter  lots  were  secured  by  Blaine  for  himself,  while  the 
thirty-two  thousand  live  hundred  shares  were  supposed  to  be 
for  distribution  among  his  supporters  in  helping  to  procure  the 
passage  of  the  bill."  The  question  was  repeatedly  discussed  in 
the  editorial  columns,  "how  he  became  a  millionaire  on  a 
Congressman's  pay."  The  "  New  York  Tribune,"  founded  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  277 

edited  by  Horace  Greeley,  lowered  to  the  level  of  declaring  that 
"  Blaine  had  no  other  business  than  his  Congressional  duties,  " 
and  that  he  had  apparently  "  lived  up  to  his  salary  as  a  Con 
gressman." 

When  this  charge  appeared  definitely,  Mr.  Blaine  was  em 
ploying  the  elegant  leisure  which  had  been  prohibited  him  by 
prophecy  in  doing  the  general  missionary  work  which  the 
Reformers  had  promised  themselves  would  be  impossible,  owing 
to  their  own  hard  pressure  against  him.  Before  a  great  public 
assembly  which  he  was  addressing  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  he  made 
answer  to  the  charge  : 

"  In  1862,  when  the  act  passed,  T  had  not  taken  my  seat  in 
Congress,  T  had  not  been  elected  to  Congress,  indeed  T  had  not 
been  even  nominated  for  Congress.  When  the  act  to  which 
the  '  Tribune  '  refers  became  a  law,  T  was  member  of  the  Maine 
Legislature  and  Speaker  of  the  Lower  House.  T  had  no  more  to 
do  with  Congressional  legislation  than  the  fish-wardens  and 
tide-waiters  on  the  Kennebec  river,  and  yet  the  'Tribune' 
asserts  and  repeats  that  for  my  services  and  influence  in 
Congress  at  the  time  T  was  a  member  of  the  Maine  Legislature, 
T  received  nearly  $'2,000,000  in  stock  of  a  great  Erie  road  cor 
poration. 

"And  now,  gentlemen,  if  T  were  to  stop  here  after  demonstrat 
ing  the  utter  absurdity  of  this  charge,  the  'Tribune'  would  come 
out  coolly  and  say  that  Speaker  Blaine  had  not  denied  it. 

"  Let  me,  then,  deny  it  in  the  presence  of  this  vast  assemblage, 
and  deny  it  in  the  most  emphatic  manner.  Neither  in  1802,  nor 
in  any  subsequent  year,  did  I  ever  receive  or  own,  directly  or 
indirectly,  a  single  dollar  of  stock  in  the  Eastern  Division  of 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  or  any  other  division  of 
the  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  Nor  did  T  ever  receive  a  dollar, 
directly  or  indirectly,  from  the  sale  of  any  stock  of  that  com 
pany.  In  short,  gentlemen,  I  stamp  the  whole  story  as  not 
only  false  on  its  face,  but  absurd  and  ridiculous.  But  I  do  not 
expect  to  make  a  denial  that  will  satisfy  the  'Tribune.'  A 
few  weeks  since,  when  the  story  was  started,  I  published  a  card 
on  the  eve  of  the  Maine  election,  saying  T  had  never  owned, 
directly  or  indirectly,  through  myself  or  through  another,  a 
single  dollar  of  stock  in  the  '  Credit  Mobilier/  The  '  New 


278  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     KLAINE. 

York  Tribune '  pronounced  this  denial  evasive  and  unsatis 
factory,  and  said  I  did  not  deny  that  I  had  received  dividends 
or  profits  therefrom.  Any  candid  man,  I  think,  could  see  that 
my  card  was  intended  to  be  exhaustive  and  to  exclude  all  sup 
positions  of  ownership.  Let  me  say  now,  however,  that  not 
only  did  I  never  own  a  share  in  the  '  Credit  Mobilier,'  but  I 
never  received,  directly  or  indirectly,  a  single  penny  therefrom, 
in  any  manner  or  shape  whatever. 

"But  this  mania  for  bearing  false  witness  against  your  neigh 
bor  has  seized  Mr.  Greeley  personally,  as  well  as  the  4  New 
York  Tribune,'  for  I  observe  that  in  a  recent  speech  in  Penn 
sylvania  he  states  that  more  than  $100,000  had  been  expended 
by  the  Republicans  of  Maine  in  the  purchase  of  votes  at  the 
recent  election.  Now,  in  the  very  nature  of  things  it  would  be 
impossible  for  Mr.  Greeley  to  know  that  this  was  true,  but  I 
know  it  is  absolutely  untrue.  I  am  Chairman  of  the  State 
Committee,  and  on  my  order  every  dollar  of  the  funds  of 
that  committee  was  disbursed,  and  from  first  to  last  we  had 
in  all,  control  of  but  little  more  than  $12,000,  and  I  fur 
ther  assert  that  every  dollar  of  this  amount  was  expended 
either  in  payment  of  speakers,  distribution  of  documents  and 
papers,  or  the  bringing  home  of  absent  voters.  These  accounts 
of  the  State  committees  are  kept  with  rigid  exactness,  and  the 
entire  committee  of  sixteen  men  will  testify  to  the  truth  of 
what  I  state." 

Mr.  Elaine  was  right  in  presuming  that  Mr.  Greeley  would 
not  consider  his  denial  satisfactory.  With  evil  ingenuity,  he 
argued  that  Mr.  Elaine  "  might  very  well  contrive  to  say  of 
moneys  received  from  Oakes  Ames,  that  he  never  received  them 
from  the  '  Credit  Mobilier,'  "  and  he  "  only  provokes  contempt 
by  the  effort  to  produce  the  impression  that  the  administration 
only  spent  $12,000  in  the  Maine  canvass.  There  is  hardly 
a  politician  in  the  State  who  will  not  regard  this  as  a  pre 
posterous  and  grotesque  caricature  of  the  known  admitted 
truth." 

And  he  continued  to  iterate  and  reiterate  the  story  of 
"  Elaine's  Credit  Mobilier  Funds,"  of  "  the  men  who  bought  up 
Elaine,"  and  of  "  Mr.  Elaine  as  a  poor  man  in  1862,  and  in  1872 
reckoned  by  kis  friends  and  neighbors  in  Augusta  as  a  million- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  279 

aire,    on    his   salary  as    a     Congressman,"    and  he    even   fore 
shadowed  his   conviction  and  expulsion  from  Congress. 

On  the  1st  of  October  Mr.  Elaine  wrote  to  General  Thomas 
Ewing  from  Cleveland,  Ohio  : 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO,  October  1,  1872. 

I  send  you  herewith  copies  of  the  "  New  York  Tribune''  of  September 
28th  and  30th,  containing  the  remarkable  statement  that  I  received  nearly 
$2,000,000  of  stock  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  Eastern  Division,  as  a 
bribe  to  myself  and  other  members  of  Congress  for  our  aid  in  procuring 
the  passage  of  the  original  act  of  incorporation  in  1862.  The  charge  is 
based,  as  vou  will  see,  on  a  certain  paper  made  out  in  May,  1863,  contain 
ing  a  list  of  contracts  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  Col.  J.  C.  Stone  and 
yourself,  as  agents  of  the  Leavenworth,  Pawnee,  &  Western  Railroad 
Company  —  afterwards  changed  into  Union  Pacific,  P^astern  Division.  You 
and  Colonel  Stone  are  thus  made  sponsors  of  the  charge  preferred  against 
me  by  the  "New  York  Tribune." 

The  whole  accusation  is  so  entirely  groundless,  and  withal  so  extraor 
dinary,  that  it  excites  my  curiosity  rather  than  my  indignation.  As  I 
never  in  my  life  even  so  much  as  saw  a  certificate  of  stock  in  the  railroad 
company  referred  to,  and  never  had  a  dollar's  interest  therein,  I  cannot 
imagine  the  origin  of  the  story.  Hence  I  write  to  you  for  some  solution 
of  the  mystery.  Colonel  Stone  I  do  not  know  personally,  and  do  not  think 
I  ever  saw.  As  I  was  not  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  time  the  act 
referred  to  was  passed,  and  had  not  even  been  nominated  for  Congress, 
the  "Tribune'1  charge  is,  of  course,  absurd,  but  I  should  be  glad  to  hear 
from  you  if  there  be  any  possible  explanation  of  it. 

The  political  line  that  separates  us  will  not,  I  am  sure,  prevent  your 
recognizing  the  claim  I  have  upon  your  friendly  candor,  nor  will  it  forbid 
my  making  public  use  of  your  reply  should  I  deem  it  needful.  .  .  . 

LANCASTER,  OHIO,  October  7,  1872. 
HON.  JAMES  G.  ELAINE,  Speaker  House  Representatives : 

MY  DEAR  Sir:  Your  letter  of  the  1st  inst.,  from  Cleveland,  was  re 
ceived  by  me  yesterday  on  returning  home  after  an  absence  of  ten  days. 
I  had  previously  seen  the  "  New  York  Tribunes'"  of  28th  and  30th  Septem 
ber,  in  which  is  published,  with  editorial  comments,  what  purports  to  be 
a  list  (made  by  Gen.  J.  C.  Stone,  of  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  dated  May, 
1863)  of  contracts  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  him  and  myself  jointly 
as  officers  of  the  Leavenworth,  Pawnee,  &  Western  Railroad  Company 
(afterwards  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  Eastern  Division,  and  now  the 
Kansas  Pacific)  to  procure  the  passage  of  the  original  Pacific  Railroad  law 
of  1862. 

On  this  list  your  name  is  said  to  appear,  first  as  the  recipient  of  $1,920,000 
of  the  stock  of  that  company,  and  a  second  time  as  the  recipient  of  $10,000 
of  the  stock.  And  on  the  faith  of  these  entries  you  are  accused  of  having 


280  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

taken  a  bribe  to  aid  in  procuring  the  passage  of  the  law  of  1862,  and  also 
of  having  acted  as  agent  of  the  company  in  using  a  large  part  of  its  stock 
to  corrupt  other  members  of  Congress. 

So  far  as  the  charge  imputes  to  you  personal  corruption  in  office,  it  is 
conclusively  disproved  by  public  records  accessible  to  all,  which  show  that 
you  did  not  enter  Congress  for  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  law  re 
ferred  to  was  passed.  And  as  to  the  other  branch  of  the  charge,  my 
general  knowledge  of  the  business  of  the  company,  and  especially  my 
intimacy  with  you,  make  it  certain  that  you  could  not  have  had  any  con 
tract  with  the  company  without  my  knowing  the  fact ;  and  I  unhesitatingly 
declare  that  you  were  not  in  any  manner,  or  at  any  time,  directly  or  in 
directly,  employed  by  the  company,  or  in  any  way  interested  in  its  affairs 
as  stockholder,  agent,  or  otherwise,  in  any  capacity  whatever. 

Your  brother,  J.  E.  Blaine,  at  that  time  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  at 
Leaven  worth,  and  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Kansas,  was  the  owner  of 
$10,000  of  the  stock  of  the  Leavenworth,  Pawnee,  &  Western  Railroad 
Company,  which,  indeed,  was  held  very  generally  among  influential  men 
of  all  parties  along  the  line  of  the  road  in  Kansas.  But  that  was  in  1861 
or  1862  —  and  a  considerable  period  before  you  were  even  nominated  for 
your  first  term  in  Congress.  Beyond  that,  there  never  was  at  an}*  time 
the  remotest  interest  in  the  company  held  by  any  of  your  family.  The 
entry  of  $1,020,000  of  stock  opposite  the  name  of  "  Blaine1'  was  therefore 
wholly  a  fiction  or  a  blunder,  and  the  grave  imputations  on  your  character 
and  on  that  of  the  officers  of  the  company  are  utterly  groundless  and  with 
out  a  shadow  of  justification. 

I  know  nothing  whatever  of  the  list  alleged  to  have  been  furnished  by 
General  Stone.  It  purports  to  have  been  prepared  nearly  a  year  after  the 
act  had  been  passed,  long  after  I  had  entered  the  military  service,  and  more 
than  six  months  before  you  first  took  your  seat  in  Congress.  1  am  in 
formed  that  General  Stone  is  now  in  Europe.  He  will  doubtless  take 
occasion,  when  he  learns  of  these  charges,  to  speak  for  himself  about  them. 
So  far  as  my  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  the  company  goes,  J  deliberately 
assert  that  it  never,  by  any  of  its  officers,  agents,  or  attorneys,  made  any 
contract,  the  proceeds  of  which  there  was  good  reason  to  believe  were  to 
be  in  any  manner  participated  in  by  any  member  of  Congress  or  other 
public  officer. 

Very  truly  yours, 

THOMAS  EWING,  JR. 


The  "  Tribune  "  strove  to  disguise  its  defeat  under  "  A  case 
of  brothers."  But  it  was  not  a  case  of  brothers.  It  was  no 
case  at  all.  Neither  Speaker  Blaine  nor  his  brother  J.  E.  Blaine 
had  done  what  the  "  Tribune  "  alleged  that  Speaker  Blaine  was 
proved  to  have  done  ;  but  the  "  Tribune  "  did  admit  that  Gen 
eral  Ewing's  explanation  seemed  entirely  satisfactory  arid  trust- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  281 

worthy.  It  took  u  pleasure,  therefore,  in  withdrawing  in  the 
promptest  and  fullest  manner  the  imputations  upon  Mr.  Blaine," 
regarding  his  immense  wealth  from  that  source,  but  not  those 
u  equally  damaging  imputations  put  upon  him  by  Oakes  Ames 
and  Colonel  McComb.'" 

The  heaviest  gun  having  thus  been  spiked,  the  Credit  Mobilier 
cannonade  against  Mr.  Blaine  ceased,  except  when  a  few 
days  before  the  election,  in  sullen  response  to  Mr.  Elaine's 
"•  repeating  for  the  thirtieth  or  fortieth  time  old  jokes  about 
Dundreary,"  the  equally  old  story  of  Mr.  Blame's  "  having  no 
other  occupation  and  living  up  to  his  salary  "  was  repeated. 

One  can  imagine  how  effectively  Mr.  Blaine  would  apply 
before  great  popular  gatherings  the  Dundreary  farce,  '*  If  you 
had  a  brother  would  he  like  cheese  ?  " 

The  national  election  came  and  brought  to  Mr.  Greeley  over 
whelming  defeat,  to  President  Grant  triumphant  reelection. 
For  the  twenty-rive  thousand  majority  which  Mr.  Blaine  prom 
ised,  Maine  gave  the  President  thirty  thousand.  New  York,  his 
own  State,  went  heavily  against  Mr.  Greeley.  On  November  5 
the  Tribune  admitted  that  there  was  "scarcely  a  parallel  to 
the  completeness  of  the  rout  and  the  triumph."  Every  Northern 
State  and  several  Southern  States  were  in  the  Republican 
column. 

Before  the  month  of  the  election  closed  Mr.  Greeley  died. 
Mis  friends  and  his  opponents,  many  of  whom  were  his 
warmest  admirers,  the  men  who  had  maligned  him  arid  the 
men  whom  he  had  maligned,  stood  shocked,  sorrowful,  silent, 
above  his  tragic  grave.  His  successful  rival,  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  grieved  and  hurt  beyond  words  by  the 
attacks  of  the  campaign,  paid  the  tribute  of  national  respect 
at  his  funeral.  The  beloved  poet  Whittier,  anguished  by  the 
dissensions  which  had  shadowed  the  last  days  of  the  great 
editor,  and  now  doubly  anguished  by  his  premature  death, 
could  rejoice  only,  but  more  significantly  perhaps  than  he 
meant,  that  he  had  himself  "  been  preserved  from  saying  one 
word  through  partisan  zeal  or  difference  of  opinion  which 
could  add  bitterness  to  his  life." 

By  his  message,  completed  probably  before  Mr.  Greeley's 
death,  though  read  in  Congress  afterwards  but  before  his 


282  BIOGRAPHY    OF  JAMES    £.    ELAINE. 

burial,  the  President  showed  how  deeply  the  iron  had 
entered  his  soul.  Against  the  habit  of  his  life  he  spoke  of 
himself  as  the  subject  of  "abuse  and  slander  scarcely  ever 
equalled  in  political  history." 

The  "  Tribune,"  loyal  to  its  dead  founder,  suggested  that 
"  it  would  have  been  a  most  graceful  act  in  the  victor  in  that 
contest  to  have  forgotten  for  a  moment  his  petty  griefs  and  laid 
on  the  grave  of  his  dead  rival  a  wreath  of  pleasant  memories." 

But  to  the  soldier  words  were  serious  things.  He  could  not 
comprehend  the  newspaper  use  of  them  as  graceful  gestures,  or 
campaign  methods,  or  even  funereal  wreaths.  Neither  could 
the  newspaper  understand  that  an  honest  man  who  uses  words 
seriously  cannot  find  himself  branded  as  a  thief  without  ex 
periencing  a  grief  that  is  in  no  sense  petty.  It  was  his  victory 
which  Demonstrated  that  the  President's  grief  was  not  petty,— 
not  vexation  over  disappointment,  but  a  moral  and  righteous 
resentment  which  no  success  could  quench,  —  only  forgiveness 
upon  repentance. 

The  beauty  and  beneficence  of  his  life  is  Mr.  Greeley's  noble 
legacy  to  his  country ;  but  the  evil  that  men  do,  no  less  than 
the  good,  lives  after  them,  however  gladly  we  would  close  our 
eyes  to  the  bitter  harvest.  Let  it  be  remembered  only  that 
we  may  rise  011  stepping-stones  of  our  dead  selves  to  higher 
things. 

The  accused  men  had  agreed  to  demand  an  investigation,  and 
upon  the  reassembling  of  Congress,  the  Speaker  called  a  Dem 
ocrat  to  the  chair,  and,  on  the  fioor  of  the  House,  moved  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Committee  of  Investigation  by  the  Democratic 
Chairman  pro  tern.,  upon  the  "  Credit  Mobilier  "  charges.  The 
investigation  developed  that  Mr.  Blaine  held  none  of  the  stock. 
He  took  care,  however,  to  receive  no  false  advantage  from  the 
exemption.  While  testifying  that  Mr.  Ames  had  offered  him 
the  stock,  and  that  he  had  declined  it,  he  was  explicit  and  em 
phatic  in  affirming  also  that  he  attributed  no  wrong  to  Mr. 
Ames  in  offering  it,  no  credit  to  himself  in  refusing  it,  and,  by 
implication,  no  fault  to  those  who  had  accepted  it. 

'"  I  beg  to  say,"  he  testified,  "in  justice  to  Mr.  Ames,  but  more 
especially  in  justice  to  myself,  that  it  never  once  occurred  to  me 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  283 

that  he  was  trying  to  bribe  me  or  in  any  way  influence  my  vote 
or  action  as  a  representative.  I  understood  him  to  say  that  he 
was  the  owner  of  more  of  the  stock  than  he  wished  to  carry, 
and  was  offering  some  of  it  to  friends  at  cost  and  interest  to 
him,  a  slight  advance  over  par  value.  The  amount  offered 
me  was  very  small  and  made  little  impression  on  my  mind, 
indeed  was  well-nigh  forgotten  until  recalled  by  the  incidents 
which  led  to  this  investigation."  Mr.  Ames  testified  to  the 
same  effect,  that  Mr.  Elaine  never  held  any  stock,  or  got  any 
advantage  from  "  Credit  Mobilier,"  "  except  abuse  on  its 
account." 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1873,  the  "  Tribune  "  made  its  final 
recession,  and  though  cause  and  consequence,  accident  and  de 
sign,  are  rather  jumbled,  the  recession  is  sufficiently  explicit: 

"We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  record  of  the 
Speaker  in  connection  with  this  affair  seems  to  be  absolutely 
clear,  and  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  us  to  be  able  to  say  it 
-  the  greater  since,  from  the  accidental  fact  of  his  name  head 
ing  McComb's  list,  he  has  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  general 
attack  upon  the  whole  business." 

One  of  those  men  whose  role  in  politics  is,  "  Follow  my 
leader,"  thought  he  saw  a  way  to  success  where  the  "  Tribune  " 
had  achieved  a  failure,  and  introduced  a  resolution  for  another 
investigation  on  a  different  line  of  road,  in  Iowa,  and  appeared 
before  the  Investigating  Committee  as  prosecuting  witness. 

Mr.  Blain e  also  appeared  promptly  before  the  Investigating 
Committee,  and  remarking  that  he  saw  Mr.  Stevenson,  who  had 
introduced  the  resolution,  present  he  would  like  Mr.  Stevenson 
to  state  the  facts  on  which  he  based  his  resolution. 

"  The  resolution  alleges  so  and  so.  I  want  something  to  speak 
to,  and  therefore  request  that  Mr.  Stevenson  be  sworn." 

Mr.  Stevenson  was  sworn,  and  affirmed  that  Mr.  Oakes  Ames 
informed  him  that  certain  members  of  the  House,  including  Mr. 
Allison,  Mr.  Elaine,  and  others,  were  interested  in  this  railroad. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Did  you  ever  say  to  any  one  that  you 
thought  you  had  caught  the  Speaker? 

Mr.  STEVENSON.  —  I  don't  remember. 

Speaker  ELAINE.  —  Did  you  have  such  a  conversation  with 
Senator  Stevenson,  of  Kentucky  ? 


284  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Mr.  STEVENSON.  —  I  don't  remember.  I  had  a  conversation 
with  him  on  the  subject. 

Speaker  ELAINE.  —  And  you  said,  "  I  have  caught  the 
Speaker?" 

Mr.  STEVENSON,  —  Not  in  that  rough  way.  I  may  have 
mentioned  that  I  had  something  that  would  implicate  the 
Speaker  in  land  grants. 

Speaker  BLATNE. — Do  you  think  your  controlling  motive 
was  the  public  good,  or  to  catch  the  Speaker? 

Mr.  STEVENSON.  —  My  object  was  to  catch  the  Speaker,  if  he 
was  involved  in  this  road,  and  I  said  further,  that  if  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  was  engaged  in  such  transactions,  it  was  equal  to 
dealing  in  "  Credit  Mobilier  "  stock. 

Naturally,  with  the  accused  investigating  and  cross-examining 
the  accuser,  the  investigation  developed  into  a  farce,  and  the 
crowded  committee-room  became  the  scene  of  almost  tumultu 
ous  amusement.  Mr.  Blaine  at  length  gave  the  true  and  unim 
portant  story  of  his  connection  with  the  road,  though  protesting 
that  he  was  not  under  the  smallest  obligation  to  do  so. 

"  The  Iowa  Falls  and  Sioux  City  Road  never  received  an  acre 
of  land  by  a  direct  act  of  Congress.  The  State  of  Iowa  gave  to 
the  company  the  remnant  of  the  old  land  grant  to  the  State  in 
1856.  The  road  was  built  by  a  contracting  company  entirely 
for  cash.  In  this  contracting  company  my  particular  and  highly 
valued  friends,  Messrs.  A.  &  P.  Coburn,  the  wealthiest  men  in 
Maine,  and  as  good  men  as  ever  lived,  took  $200,000  of  stock, 
and  paid  their  assessments  in  hard  cash.  .  .  .  The  road 
was  finished  to  the  last  rail  and  spike,  by  the  payment  of  cash 
down.  ...  In  January  last,  just  a  year  ago,  in  settling  up 
some  business  with  the  Messrs.  Coburn,  I  took  from  them  a 
quantity  of  the  stock  of  this  road,  for  which  I  paid  about  sixty 
in  cash.  That  was  the  first  of  my  ownership  in  the  road.  I 
hold  the  stock  in  my  own  name,  and  the  transaction  is  one 
which  Congress,  in  my  judgment,  is  no  more  called  on  to  in 
vestigate  than  it  would  be  to  inquire  into  the  weekly  expenses 
of  my  household.  But  at  the  same  time  I  Avish  the  committee 
to  understand  that  I  make  this  explanation  without  the  slight 
est  reluctance." 

Mr.  Stevenson,  apparently  loath  to  be  convinced  —  if  one  may 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAME$    G.    ELAINE.  285 

use  Mr.  Lincoln's  phrase  —  that  his  rat-hole  was  not  worth 
watching,  asked  the  Speaker  as  to  the  nature  of  his  transactions 
with  the  Messrs.  Coburn. 

"  Do  you  mean  in  regard  to  this  matter,  or  timber  land  in 
Maine,  or  coal  land  in  Pennsylvania  ?  If  you  would  like  an 
interest  in  this  railroad,  Mr.  Stevenson,  I  will  sell  it  to  you  at  a 
slight  advance." 

As  Mr.  Blaine  had  previously  declared  that  ever  since  he  had 
bought  the  sha'res  he  had  be^n  living  in  hope  that  they  would 
draw  a  dividend,  but  up  to  this  time  in  vain,  the  proffer  was 
doubly  provocative  of  laughter.  Mr.  Stevenson  preferred  to 
wait  till  he  was  out  of  Congress,  and  Mr.  Blaine  agreed  then 
and  there  to  "take  it  all  off  your  hands  when  you  are  re- 
elected." 

Mr.  Oakes  Ames  testified  that  he  told  Mr.  Stevenson  he  had 
got  hold  of  the  wrong  road  —  that  he  thought  he  had  sold  some 
bonds  of  the  Sioux  road  to  Mr.  Blaine  —  thought  he  had  sold 
him  $ 5,000,  but  could  not  remember. 

"  Ask  me,  Mr.  Stevenson,"  prompted  Mr.  Blaine,  "  I  can  tell 
you.  I  bought  $6,000  of  bonds  from  Mr.  Ames  and  paid  him 
eighty  cents  on  the  dollar.  At  another  time,  in  Boston,  $15,000 
at  eighty  cents  on  the  dollar.  I  turned  them  in  to  the  Messrs. 
Coburn,  partly  at  one  price,  partly  another  —  eighty-five  per 
cent.,  ninety  per  cent.  My  business  with  the  Messrs.  Coburn  is 
very  large." 

"  Is  there  anything  else  you  want  to  know  ?  "  inquired  Mr. 
Ames,  after  having  mentioned  his  various  railroads. 

"  I  have  no  personal  interest,"  replied  the  badgered  prosecu 
tor.  "  The  committee  required  me  to  come  here."  -  "  But," 
rejoined  Mr.  Ames,  "  the  committee  did  not  require  you  to  go 
into  all  these  things  outside  of  the  resolution.  I  never  knew 
that  it  Avas  a  crime  to  build  a  railroad  until  this  investigation 
commenced,  and  I  am  not  satisfied  of  it  now." 

The  investigation  brought  great  distress  to  worthy  members, 
great  anxiety  and  anguish  to  their  wives  and  families.  Mr. 
Blaine  was  indefatigable  in  defending  and  advising  those  who 
were  the  objects  of  attack  —  an  attack  made  with  so  much 
vigor  and  with  such  assumption  of  guilt,  that  even  the  elect 
who  were  not  business  adepts  were  deceived  for  a  moment 


286  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

into  believing  themselves  to  have  committed  sin  without  know 
ing  it,  and  men  faltered  before  the  thought  who  had  not  faltered 
before  the  cannon's  mouth  when  their  country  was  endangered, 
while  men  who  were  familiar  with  business  never  quickened 
step  or  shortened  breath.  "  Sam  Hooper,"  of  Boston,  it  used 
to  be  said,  walked  daily  back  and  forth  before  the  Speaker's 
chair,  with  his  pockets  stuffed  full  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  a 
single  dividend  bringing  $100,000,  not  only  unharmed,  but 
unassailed  and  undisturbed  ;  and  Bingham,  of  Ohio,  when  asked 
if  he  had  any,  shouted,  "  Yes,  and  only  wished  he  had  ten  times 
more,"  —  and  him,  too,  the  bullets  carefully  passed  by  on  the 
other  side ;  but  gentle  and  scholarly  men,  in  the  natural  timidity 
of  their  unwontedness,  suffered  many  a  pang,  and  the  door-bell 
sometimes  rang  Mr.  Blaine  from  his  bed  at  midnight  to  counsel 
and  console.  I  have  seldom  seen  a  more  pathetic  sight  than  that 
of  Oakes  Ames,  —  a  man  of  honored  ancestry  and  stainless  name, 
the  modest  hero  of  the  great  Pacific  Railroad,  the  man  whose 
energy  had  wrenched  it  from  failure  when  to  a  less  patriotic 
insight  the  nation  itself  seemed  a  failure,  and  had  made  its 
final  link  a  guaranty  of  national  peace  and  union,  —  sitting 
silent,  stunned  into  immobility  before  Mr.  Blaine's  library  fire 
with  his  head  bowed  on  his  breast,  while  the  younger  man, 
alert  and  intent,  applied  himself  indefatigably  in  and  out  of  the 
house,  arranging  for  his  defence  and  for  that  of  the  other  men 
who  were  implicated  with  him  and  who  were  equally  guiltless 
of  bribery.  Let  it  be  repeated  and  remembered  that  the  man 
who  bent  his  hoary  head  to  calumny  and  contumely  was  the 
man  whose  faith  in  the  continuance  of  the  Union,  whose 
unfaltering  courage  and  whose  imperial  resources  were  proved 
by  his  assumption  of  the  struggling,  failing  road  in  the  depth 
of  the  war,  and  by  his  simple,  dogged,  glorious  persistency  till 
the  last  golden  spike  was  driven,  and  the  world  beheld  the  mar 
riage  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  shores  of  the  Great  Republic 
amid  shoutings  of  "  Grace,  grace  unto  it !  " 

How  futile  it  all  seemed  to  the  people  after  the  panic  was  over 
appears  in  the  fact  that  the  member  of  Congress  who,  by  reason 
of  his  conspicuousness  and  his  sensitiveness,  perhaps,  suffered 
most,  received  afterwards  a  prompt  reelection  by  the  people  of 
his  own  district  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  triumphant 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  287 

election  by  the  people  of  his  State  to  the  Senate,  and  by  the 
people  of  the  whole  Nation  to  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States. 

How  superficial  was  the  morality,  how  valueless  was  the 
judgment  that  condemned  these  men,  a  single  incident  shows. 
Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  investigation,  and  the  censure  of 
Mr.  Ames  and  Mr.  Brooks  before  the  bar  of  the  House,  the 
leading  religious  newspaper  of  Mr.  Ames'  own  State  found 
"  original  sin  in  the  thing  itself,  let  alone  all  the  wickedness 
which  it  drew  after  it.  ... 

"  We  see  not  how  any  healthy  soul  could  fail  at  once  to  de 
tect  the  intention  of  bribery  in  Mr.  Ames  and  the  consent  to 
be  bribed  on  the  part  of  those  who  became  the  recipients  of  its 
stock.  .  .  .  On  the  whole,  then,  it  would  seem  that  the  re 
port  is  well  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  .  .  .  obviously  stops  short 
of  exhausting  the  matter ;  that  Messrs.  Brooks  and  Ames 
deserve  the  ignominy  which  is  advised  for  them;  and  that 
the  whole  subject  needs  deeper  ploughing  than  it  has  yet 
received." 

A  few  weeks  afterwards  Mr.  Ames  returned  to  his  home  in 
North  Easton,  and  the  friends  and  neighbors  among  whom  he 
had  spent  his  honored  and  useful  life  ministered  unto  him  a 
triumphant  entrance  ;  and  then  the  columns  of  the  same  religious 
journal  found  "nothing  that  anybody  ought  to  object  to,  or  that 
was  in  any  sense  improper  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  itself,  or  in 
any  of  his  [Mr.  Ames']  actions  in  regard  to  it.  We  think 
Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  in  his  excel 
lent  speech  the  other  day  in  Salem,  where  he  introduced  Mr. 
Ames  into  a  long  list  of  the  most  eminent  and  useful  sons 
of  Massachusetts  —  with  Hancock,  Franklin,  Morse,  Field, 
and  Peabody,  warmly  ascribing  all  honor  to  his  name,  to 
whose  indomitable  energy  and  perseverance  we  are  indebted 
more  than  to  any  other  man  for  opening  up  across  this  con 
tinent  a  great  highway  for  nations  in  all  coming  time." 

On  the  8th  of  May  Oakes  Ames  died,  and  his  sons  bore 
him  to  his  burial,  and  all  the  community  lamented  over  him. 

Mr.  James  Brooks  had  already  preceded  him  to  the  unheard 
and  unseen  world,  and  the  saddest  chapter  of  the  "  Credit 
Mobilier "  was  closed  —  closed  with  the  death  of  three  men, 


288  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    HLAINK 

accuser  and  accused,  while  the  man  chiefly  aimed  at  was  not 
even  hit. 

If  there  is  a  moral  to  the  story  it  has  yet  to  be  told.  We  only 
know  it  is  the  way  of  God  in  the  evolution  of  man. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  moral  is  hinted  in  The  "  Tribune  " 
two  years  afterwards : 

"  There  were  laid  before  us  yesterday  certain  startling  docu 
ments  gravely  affecting  high  officials.  The  publication  of 
them  seems  to  us  a  clear  duty ;  but  we  are  unwilling  to  permit 
our  columns  to  be  used  in  promulgating  papers  that  must  bring 
such  discredit  upon  the  American  name,  while  there  is  the  re 
motest  possibility  of  our  being  able  to  establish  their  lack  of 
authenticity.  We  have,  therefore,  set  on  foot  a  thorough  in 
vestigation  "...  which  established  the  lack  of  authenticity, 
and  the  papers  remained  unpublished. 

When  issues  are  vital,  great  men  forge  to  the  front  by  natu 
ral  fitness,  smaller  men  are  exalted  to  their  noblest  moods, 
and  the  nation  is  fused  to  one  bent  and  purpose.  The  crisis 
passes,  and  men  relapse  into  self-seeking.  Fault-finding  seems 
a  higher  work  than  well-doing.  Men  who  are  near  the  head 
see  no  reason  why  they  are  not  at  the  head,  except  the  art 
fulness  and  arrogance  of  their  leaders;  and,  unable  to  rise 
farther,  they  seek  to  achieve  the  desired  primacy  by  pulling  the 
primates  down.  Hence  the  scandal  and  scum  of  political  life 
in  its  sluggish  phases,  the  small  questions  agitated  as  if  they 
were  great,  the  sucking  doves  essaying  to  roar  like  raging  lions, 
the  placid  pool  of  ordinary  life  lashed  into  a  foaming  sea  of 
corruption.  But  when  real  issues  are  again  in  question,  human 
nature  rises  again  to  meet  them,  casts  off  its  inhumanities,  and 
exalts  itself  anew  in  a  glorious,  if  transient,  transformation. 
Therefore  we  live. 

While  excitement  was  still  at  fever  heat,  Mr.  Blame  found 
occasion  to  take  the  floor  to  secure  a  pension  for  a  widow. 
General  Sherman  told  the  story  years  before  Mr.  Elaine's  death : 

u  T  was  seated  in  my  office  at  the  old  War  Department,  now 
destroyed  and  replaced  by  a  better  one,  when  my  orderly  pro 
duced  the  card  of  c  Mrs.  Wood,'  widow  of  the  late  Assistant 
Surgeon-General,  U.S.A.  Of  course  I  instructed  him  to  show 
the  lady  in.  She  was  deeply  veiled,  and  without  unveiling 


tilOGitAPHY    OF   JAMES'  G.    liLAINE.  289 

handed  me  a  letter  in  the  familiar  handwriting  of  the  venerable 
Gen.  David  Hunter,  asking  me  to  befriend  '  the  bearer.'  Cast 
ing  my  eyes  over  it  I  exclaimed,  k  What !  are  you  the  widow  of 
my  old  Surgeon-General  Wood  and  the  daughter  of  Gen. 
Zachary  Taylor  ? '  -  — 4  Yes,'  she  answered,  raised  her  veil,  and 
revealed  her  features,  then  of  an  old  lady,  but  beyond  question 
the  daughter  of  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor.  4  Dear  Mrs.  Wood,  what 
does  this  mean  ?  What  can  I  do  for  you  ?  '  She  replied,  4 1  do 
not  know,  but  General  Hunter,  our  steadfast  friend,  has  sent 
me  to  you,'  and  she  went  on  to  explain  :  '  When  my  husband 
died  in  1869  I  supposed  I  had  estate  enough  to  satisfy  my 
moderate  wants.  I  went  to  Louisiana,  took  possession  of  the 
old  sugar  plantation,  collected  a  few  of  the  old  slaves  with 
promises  of  wages  or  shares,  tried  to  make  a  living,  but  every 
thing  was  out  of  joint.  I  then  tried  a  lease  with  no  better 
success.  Now  my  daughter  writes  me  from  Austria  that  she  is 
very  sick,  and  begs  me  to  come  to  her.  General  Sherman,  I 
must  go  to  my  daughter,  and  I  have  not  a  cent.  My  old  friends 
are  ail  dead,  and  I  know  not  what  to  do.'  I  naturally  inquired 
how  much  money  was  necessary.  She  said  a  thousand  dollars. 
I  had  not  the  money.  General  Hunter  had  not  the  money. 
'  How  about  your  pension  ? '  -  —  '  When  my  husband  died,  after 
forty-four  years  of  faithful  service  in  the  Florida  war,  in  the 
Mexican  war,  and  the  great  civil  war,  I  thought  I  could  take 
care  of  myself,  and  never  asked  for  a  pension,  but  now  my  child 
calls  to  me  from  abroad.'  —  '  Mrs.  Wood,  I  am  sure  we  can  easily 
make  up  a  case  under  the  General  Pension  Law,  which  will 
give  you  f 30  a  month,  but  it  can  only  date  from  the  time  of 
your  formal  application.'  —  c  What  good  will  that  do  me  ?  '  she 
exclaimed,  '  my  daughter  is  calling  for  me  now  !  My  passage 
across  the  ocean  will  cost  $120,  and  the  incidental  expenses 
afterward  will  run  up  to  a  full  thousand.'  After  a  few  moments' 
thought,  I  said,  4  Mrs.  Wood,  we  must  get  a  special  bill,  put 
ting  your  name  on  the  same  list  with  that  of  Mrs.  General 
Worth,  Mrs.  General  Sumner,  and  others,  and  have  this  special 
pension  to  date  back  to  your  husband's  death,  viz.,  March  28, 
1869.  This  will  require  an  Act  of  Congress.  What  member 
of  that  body  do  you  know  from  Louisiana  ?  '  —  '  Alas,  none.'  — 
4  What  member  from  Kentucky  ?  ' — '  Not  one.' — 4  Do  you  know 


290  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

anybody  in  Congress  ? '  — k  Not  a  single  member.'  —  '  Don't  you 
know  Mr.  Blaine?  He  is  Speaker  of  the  House,  a  fellow  of 
infinite  wit  and  of  unbounded  generosity  ?  '  No,  she  had  never 
met  Mr.  Blaine.  '  Now,  my  dear  Mrs.  Wood,  can  you  meet  me 
this  afternoon  at  the  Speaker's  room,  say  at  four  P.M.,  punct 
ually?'-—  ' I  will  do  anything,'  she  answered,  'that  you  advise.' 
— 4  Then  meet  me  at  the  Speaker's  room,  south  wing  of  the 
Capitol,  at  four  o'clock  this  evening.'  Of  course  she  did. 

"  I  was  there  ahead  of  time,  sent  my  card  to  Mr.  Speaker 
Blaine,  who  was  in  his  chair  presiding  over  a  noisy  House,  but 
who,  as  always,  responded  quickly  to  my  call.  In  a  few  words 
I  explained  the  whole  case,  and  we  went  together  to  the 
Speaker's  room  across  the  hall,  behind  the  '  chair,'  where  sat 
the  lady,  closely  veiled.  No  courtier  since  the  days  of  -Charle 
magne  ever  approached  a  lady  with  more  delicacy  and  grace 
than  did  Mr.  Speaker  Blaine  the  afflicted  wonian.  After  a  few 
words  of  inquiry  and  explanation,  Blaine  continued :  "  Your 
father  was  the  first  man  I  ever  shouted  for  as  President,  and  for 
you,  his  daughter,  I  will  do  all  a  man  can  in  this  complicated 
Government.  I  will  make  your  case  my  own.  Don't  leave 
this  city  till  you  hear  from  me.'  Finding  I  had  touched  the 
proper  chord  of  his  generous  nature,  I  advised  Mrs.  Wood  to 
return  to  General  Hunter's  and  await  the  result.  Blaine 
escorted  her  to  the  stairway  with  many  friendly  expressions, 
and  returned  to  the  Speaker's  chair. 

"  I  did  not  remain,  but  learned  from  a  friend  afterwards  the 
sequel.  Blaine  sat  in  his  chair  about  an  hour,  giving  attention 
to  the  business  of  the  House,  occasionally  scribbling  on  a  bit  of 
paper,  and  when  a  lull  occurred  he  called  some  member  to  take 
his  place,  and  walked  straight  to  Mr.  Holman,  the  4  Universal 
Objector,'  saying :  4  Holman,  I  have  a  little  matter  of  great 
interest  which  I  want  to  rush  through ;  please  don't  "  object." ' 
'What  is  it?'-  — 4  A  special  pension  for  the  widow  of  Surgeon 
Wood,  the  daughter  of  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor.'  — 4  Is  it  all 
right  ?  '  •  — c  Of  course  it  is  all  right,  and  every  American  should 
blush  that  this  thing  could  be.'  — *•  Well,'  said  Holman,  'go 
ahead ;  I  will  be  out  of  the  way,  in  the  cloak-room.'  Watching 
his  opportunity,  James  G.  Blaine,  as  a  member  of  Congress  for 
Maine,  got  the  eye  and  ear  of  the  acting  Speaker,  made  one  of 


mOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  291 

his  most  eloquent  and  beautiful  speeches,  introduced  his  little 
bill  for  the  pension  of  Mrs.  Wood  for  $50  a  month,  to  date  back 
to  the  time  of  Surgeon  Wood's  death  (about  four  years),  which 
would  give  her  about  $2,400  arrears  and  §600  a  year  for  life.  It 
was  rushed  through  the  House  by  unanimous  consent,  and 
Elaine  followed  it  through  to  the  Senate  and  to  the  President, 
where  it  became  a  law,  and  this  most  deserving  lady  was  en 
abled  to  go  to  Austria  to  be  with  her  daughter  in  her  illness. 
I  understand  that  both  are  now  dead,  and  that  the  overflowing 
Treasury  of  the  United  States  is  no  longer  taxed  by  this  pen 
sion,  but  I  must  rescue  from  oblivion  the  memory  of  this  pure 
act  of  unrecorded  benevolence." 

General  Sherman's  mode  of  justifying  himself  for  printing 
the  story  without  Mr.  Elaine's  permission,  and  Mr.  Elaine's 
mode  of  presenting  the  case  to  Congress,  are  equally  character 
istic.  "  Pensions,"  said  the  straightforward  splendid  old  soldier, 
"  pensions  are  not  always  matters  of  legal  contract,  but  of 
charity,  which  blesses  him  who  gives  as  well  as  receives ;  and 
I,  of  all  men,  fully  recognize  the  difficulty  of  making  pen 
sions  subject  to  the  tender  feelings  of  an  executive  officer ;  but 
when  I  discover  an  instance  illustrating  the  genuine  feeling 
no  one  should  object  to  my  recording  it,  and  printing  it  if 
need  be." 

Mr.  Elaine's  speech,  to  which  General  Sherman  referred, 
was  brief:  UA  few  moments  since  I  had  an  interview  in 
my  parlor  which  deeply  touched  me.  It  was  with  the 
widow  of  the  late  Robert  C.  Wood,  late  Assistant  Surgeon 
General  in  the  Army  of  the  United  States.  This  lady  is 
the  daughter  of  the  late  Major-General  Zachary  Taylor,  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States.  She  presented  a  petition,  which  I 
will  not  have  even  read  or  placed  on  the  files  of  the  House,  be 
cause  it  discloses  a  fact  which  ought  not  to  exist — that  the 
daughter  of  Zachary  Taylor  needs  aid  in  any  form.  I  ventured 
to  assure  her  when  she  put  her  petition  in  my  hands,  and  asked 
me  to  take  charge  of  it,  that  I  did  not  believe  there  would  be  a 
dissenting  voice  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  upon  a 
proposition  to  grant  her  a  pension  suitable  to  her  rank,  and 
to  the  memory  of  her  great  and  honored  father.  I  ask  unani 
mous  consent  to  introduce  for  consideration  at  this  time  a  bill 


292  BIOGEAPIIY  or  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 

for  her  relief."  Needless  to  say,  unanimous  consent  was 
given,  the  bill  was  received,  read  a  first  and  second  time,  en 
grossed,  read  a  third  time,  and  passed  unanimously  and  im 
mediately. 

Another  bill,  which  made  a  stir  quite  out  of  proportion  to 
its  importance  or  its  iniquity  was  ignominiously  dubbed  the 
"  Salary  Grab  Bill."  The  objectionable  point  was  that  Congress 
men  not  only  raised  their  own  salaries,  but  made  the  increase 
go  back  and  cover  the  whole  term  of  the  Congress  then  near 
closing.  Mr.  Elaine,  as  soon  as  the  measure  was  proposed,  dis 
cerned  its  weakness,  and  opposed  the  bill.  When  he  saw  that  it 
was  about  to  be  passed,  he  simply  withdrew  himself  from  its 
operation  by  placing  the  Speaker  alongside  the  Vice-President 
and  the  Cabinet,  upon  whose  salaries  the  bill  was  not  to  take 
effect  until  after  the  Fourth  of  March,  and  asked  unanimous 
consent  to  put  in  "  the  word  c  hereafter,'  to  follow  the  words 
4  shall  receive.'  This  will  affect  whoever  shall  be  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  hereafter,  and  does  not  affect  the 
Speaker  of  this  House,  but  leaves  him  upon  the  same  plane 
with  the  Vice-President  and  Cabinet  officers,  upon  the  salary 
as  before  adjusted." 

It  can  hardly  be  said  that  unanimous  consent  was  given,  for 
the  Speaker  pushed  his  matter  through  so  swiftly  that  members 
hardly  knew  what  he  was  doing  till  too  late  for  effective  dissent. 
One  man  was  quick  enough  to  object  and  another  sprang  to  his 
feet,  but  by  high-handed  usurpation  of  authority,  Mi1.  Elaine 
took  his  pen  and  wrote  the  "  hereafter  "  into  the  text  of  the  bill 
before  him  and  declared  the  amendment  adopted ! 

Mr.  Hale,  of  Maine,  speaking  afterwards  of  the  great  unpopu 
larity  of  the  bill,  illustrated  it  with  humorous  solemnity:  "I 
swear,  if  I  travelled  by  the  railroad  as  far  as  it  would  take  me, 
and  then  had  to  take  the  stage-coach,  and  then  go  horse-back, 
and  then  walk,  and  then  follow  a  squirrel-track  in  the  woods, 
and  at  the  end  of  that  came  on  a  man  chopping  a  log  —  what 
ever  he  did  not  know  he  would  know  all  about  the  salary-grab 
and  be  the  maddest  man  of  all !  " 

When,  near  the  close  of  a  long  session,  the  Speaker  wished 
the  pages  to  have  a  full  month's  pay  for  little  more  than  a  half 
month's  work,  thinking  their  unwearied  fidelity  through  day 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  293 

and  night  service  had  richly  earned  it,  he  put  and  carried  the 
motion,  as  one  member  expressed  it,  "  heels  over  head," 
and  uThe  Chair  hears  no  objection,"  by  giving  no  time  to 
hear  it. 

When  a  vote  was  to  be  counted,  he  would  stand  erect,  hold 
ing  the  gavel  by  its  head  and  pointing  the  handle  at  each 
standing  member  before  him,  turning  from  the  extreme  right 
to  the  extreme  left  as  he  counted,  and  the  motion  of  the  gavel 
was  like  chain-lightning.  If  challenged  to  explain  his  dynamics 
consistently  with  his  mathematics,  he  would  reply,  laughing, 
"  The  Speaker  knows  how  to  count." 

He  never  made  a  point  of  small  things.  No  such  honesty  as 
dividing  his  official  from  his  personal  correspondence  ever  com 
plicated  his  use  of  the  frank.  Making  a  rapid  mental  calcula 
tion,  he  placed  the  franking  privilege  as  a  matter  of  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year  to  each  member  and  held  that  it  was  not 
worth  talking  about  one  way  or  the  other.  If  suspicion  or 
odium  clung  to  it,  and  the  people  wanted  it  abolished,  abolish 
it,  —  it  was  not  worth  defence  or  delay ;  but  until  it  Avas 
abolished,  he  used  it  freely,  franking  his  own  letters  and  letters 
of  friends  who  happened  to  be  under  his  roof,  or  under  whose 
roof  he  happened  to  be,  as  has  been  from  the  foundation  of  the 
frank,  and  just  as  freely  as  he  used  his  purchased  postage  stamps 
after  the  frank  was  abolished. 

In  the  spring  of  1873  Mr.  Elaine  made  a  journey  to  Cali 
fornia.  Waiting  in  Washington  for  the  Maine  snows  to  be  re 
duced  to  two  feet  deep  on  a  level,  according  to  his  own  account, 
he  was  not  able  to  leave  Augusta  till  the  ninth  of  May,  which  gave 
too  little  time  for  the  most  desirable  tour.  He  wished  Emmons 
to  join  the  customary  "  town-meeting,"  and  consulted  with  his 
tutor,  Mr.  Waterhouse,  who  replied  : 


I  do  not  think  he  is  overworked.  He  is  studying  assiduously,  to  be 
sure.  He  must  do  that  to  enter  Harvard  well,  and  nothing  short  of  enter 
ing  well  would  satisfy  his  desire.  During  his  stay  in  Newton,  Emmons 
has,  in  attention  to  study,  and  in  conduct  generally,  done  his  duty,  and  done 
it  in  a  manner  that  deserves  high  praise.  I  find  no  better  boys  anywhere 
than  'ie  is.  I  do  not  indeed  regard  him  as  belonging  to  that  class  of  boys 
eulogized  in  the  Sunday-school  books,  who  attain  sanctification  in  early 
youth.  He  is  not  a  religious  phenomenon.  But  his  morale,  like  his 


294  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

physique,  is  emphatically  healthy.  He  is  sound  in  the  nobler  parts.  I 
would  trust  him  a  good  deal  farther  than  I  would  most  of  the  youthful 
saints.  Emmons  has  in  him  the  elements  of  first-rate  scholarship  and  a 
fund  of  practical  sense  quite  remarkable  in  one  so  young.  To  worst  him 
by  an  examination  paper,  or  to  fool  him  into  selling  a  pony  for  a  gross  of 
green  spectacles,  would  be  rather  a  difficult  matter.  I  expect  great  things 
of  him.  And,  though  the  state  of  his  health  may  not  demand  it,  I  am 
strongly  in  favor  of  his  taking  the  California  trip. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  earnestly  solicited  to  extend  his  visit  to  Ore 
gon  with  the  promise  to  "  .  .  .  put  you  on  the  top  shelf  of 
comfort,  consideration,  and  attention  while  you  are  in  Oregon 
and  on  the  Sound. 

.  .  .  "  You  should  also  see  the  wonderful  timber  of  the 
Puget  Sound  Basin,  compared  with  which  the  forests  of  Maine 
are  but  nurseries  of  telegraph  poles." 

But  he  had  already  passed  the  time  limits  and  was  obliged  to 
leave  Oregon  for  another  day,  which  never  came.  But  the 
warmth  of  his  reception  in  California  and  the  pleasures  of  the 
journey  and  the  visit  remained  \vith  him  a  grateful  memory. 

To  Walker: 

WASHINGTON,  January  8,  1872. 

.  .  .  To  my  great  surprise,  we  found  ourselves,  our  children,  and  our 
bundles,  at  the  Worcester  depot  in  ample  season.  For  help,  Emmons  was 
a  host  in  himself.  His  father,  good  as  he  is,  is  not  better.  He  wanted 
dreadfully  to  go  to  Washington,  but  at  the  sleeping-car  we  separated  — 
he  to  return  to  Andover.  .  .  .  For  the  afternoon  Judge  Kelly  brought 
himself  into  the  midst  of  our  squalor,  a  huge  brown  paper  parcel  in 
his  hand,  inquiring,  in  his  magnificent  voice,  if  we  were  Pennsylvanians 
enough  to  love  doughnuts.  ...  At  five  we  reached  Washington,  were 
quite  fortunate  in  regard  to  company,  only  a  few  gentlemen  finding  us 
out. 

From  Walker : 

PARIS,  January  30,  1872. 

.  .  .  Went  to  a  little  American  restaurant.  Everything  was  very 
small,  but  very  clean,  and  they  brought  up  such  nice  buckwheat  cakes,  that  I 
thought  I  would  taste  them.  Ended  by  eating  nine,  and  a  large  plate  of 
pumpkin  pie ;  at  which  I  was  very  much  rejoiced,  as  proving  that  I  have 
not  entirely  forgotten  how  to  eat,  notwithstanding  my  long  course  on  French 
cookery. 

.  .  .  This  morning  have  finished  in  German  the  book  which  I.  was 
learning  by  heart,  and  begin  to  feel  now  that  I  really  know  something 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  295 

about  German.  Shall  study  very  hard  on  it  for  the  next  two  months.  In 
French  lam  quite  well  up.  Don't  find  myself  at  all  embarrassed  in  con 
versation,  and  can  write  almost  without  fault,  though  not,  of  course,  like  a 
Frenchman,  which  I  never  shall  do.  .  .  .  Father's  forty-second  birth 
day  was  Wednesday.  I  trust  that  I  may  live  to  see  the  double,  the  eighty- 
fourth.  Whenever  I  think  of  you,  it  always  seems  as  though  I  had  a  very 
young  father,  for  I  see  many  men  of  forty,  and  they  always  seem  like  very 
young  men  to  me.  Then  again,  not  having  yet  got  to  my  majority,  I  feel 
very  young  still  myself.  When  I  am  twenty-one  and  through  college,  if 
(D.V.)  that  ever  happens,  I  suppose  I  shall  feel  so  old,  that  lather  will 
seem  like  a  patriarch. 

Well,  I  long  very  much  to  get  home  next  year  to  go  into  college,  for 
until  I  am  through  I  seem  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  working,  studying 
zero,  perhaps  useful,  like  zero,  in  making  up  a  sum,  but  nothing  by  and  of 
myself. 

.  .  .  Ever  since  I  have  been  in  Paris  Mrs.  Washburn  has  made  her 
house  like  a  home ;  that  is,  as  much  like  a  home  as  any  stranger's  house 
could  be,  and  for  it  I  feel  very  much  indebted  to  one  of  the  kindest- 
hearted  women  I  have  ever  seen. 

PARIS,  February,  1872. 

.  .  .  I  was  exceedingly  worried,  in  reading  the  papers,  to  find  that 
father  was  absent  from  Congress  two  or  three  days  on  account  of  the 
illness  of  Q.  I  have  still  a  great  deal  of  anxiety.  My  only  solace  is  that 
if  the  worst  had  happened,  you  would  probably  have  telegraphed  to  me. 

To  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  February  18,  1872. 

Here  the  door-bell  rings.  Douglass,  who  would,  to  quote 
Charles  Lamb,  cast  a  damper  over  a  funeral,  answers  it.  Some  one  to  see 
the  Speaker.  Douglass  discreetly  answers  that  indeed  he  does  not  know 
whether  Mr.  Elaine  is  home  or  not  —  if  the  gentleman  will  walk  into  the 
parlor,  he  will  see.  Enter  gentleman,  and  up-stairs  Douglass.  Returning, 
he  announces  that  Mr.  Elaine  has  gone  up  to  General  Sherman's.  A  fib 
with  a  circumstance,  and  Douglass,  coming  through  the  library  where  Mr. 
Sherman  and  I  are  writing  says  he  shall  never  get  to  heaven  in  this 
world,  and  vanishes  looking  exceedingly  pleased  (for  him)  at  the  prospect. 
Whereupon  Mr.  Sherman  says  to  me  in  an  aside,  that  he  does  not  see  what 
his  idea  of  heaven  in  this  world  can  be.  The  day  is  quite  pleasant.  Father, 
C.,M.,  and  I  have  been  to  our  own  church.  Had  an  exceedingly  earnest 
and  interesting  sermon  on  missions  in  Turkey, —  as  interesting  as  a  book 
of  travels.  .  .  .  Friday  we  had  our  presidential  dinner.  Father  wanted 
to  defer  it  till  Emmons  came,  but  I  could  not  let  it  overhang  so  long. 
The  President  talked  incessantly  about  himself.  I  have  a  certain  sympathy 
with  him,  for  I  think  him  an  honest  man,  and  no  doubt  he  feels  dread 
fully  assailed.  .  .  .  After  the  dinner  was  over  and  the  guests  had 
departed,  father,  Miss  D.,  and  myself  went  to  the  Arlington  to  attend  the 


296  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

reception  of  the  Japanese  Minister.  I  went  out  to  supper  with  the  Minis 
ter  himself,  a  lively  little  Jap,  rather  taller  than  the  average  of  his  coun 
trymen,  speaking  English  perfectly  well.  They,  the  Japs,  seem  to  be 
perfectly  delighted  at  seeing  so  many  ladies.  Mrs.  Schurz  said  when  she 
left  M.  Mori  was  standing  motionless,  his  arm  tight  round  a  young  lady's 
waist.  Imagine  it!  In  the  morning  I  was  at  the  Capitol.  I  heard  Mr. 
Beck  reply  to  Mr.  Brownlow,  a  personal  explanation,  interesting  to  me 
because  of  the  perfectly  impartial  ruling  of  your  father,  though  to  do  it, 
he  had  to  decide  against  Mr.  Stevenson,  Mr.  Hale,  and  Mr.  Garfield. 
.  .  .  Q.  is  fast  getting  well.  He  hears  now  almost  as  well  as  ever. 
It  is  very  interesting  to  see  the  past  come  back  to  him.  Sometimes  things 
rush  in  on  him,  and  he  is  so  eager',  he  cannot  make  himself  understood. 
Yesterday  morning,  I  heard  him  say  to  Annie  who  was  dressing  him, 
"Oh,  Annie,  you  mustn't  say  naughty  words,  you'll  go  to  jail,  sir,  if  you 
say  bad  words,  W.  F.  says  *  it's  a  fraud.1 "  —  "  A  fraud,"  says  Annie,  "  what's 
a  fraud  ?  "  —  "  Why,  you  know,  *  &frod  a-would  a-wooing  go.' "  When  we 
were  coming  on,  A.  T.  was  in  the  car,  and  was  lamenting  that  W.  F.  was  so 
addicted  to  slang  —  everything  with  him  was  "  it's  a  fraud."  Q.  heard  him 
and  was  very  much  impressed  at  the  time.  The  phrase  was  so  suggestive 
of  Emmons.  When  Annie  said  "  dreadl'ul,"  he  felt  like  upbraiding  her,  and 
as  soon  as  he  commenced,  the  whole  reprehensible  conduct  of  W.  F.  came 
back,  and  then  I  discovered  the  queer  association  of  ideas.  I  shall  leave 
your  father  to  write  you  about  Hanover.  I  am  not  really  competent  to 
advise.  Whatever  he  and  you  decide  on  will  be  right.  Only  I  want  you 
to  make  the  acquisition  of  French,  and  I  want  you  at  home.  The  Presi 
dent  tells  me  that  his  son,  who  is  at  Harvard,  intends  going  to  Germany  to 
spend  his  third  year.  It  seems  they  allow  the  third  year  to  be  passed  in 
Germany,  the  student  to  retain  his  class  rank  on  his  return,  provided  he 
can  pass  the  requisite  examination,  and  meanwhile  the  boy  picks  up  Ger 
man.  .  .  .  We  get  down  to  breakfast  soon  after  nine.  Father  sits 
down  in  his  seat  and  at  once  proceeds  to  bury  himself  in  newspapers. 
Douglass,  the  slow,  gradually  works  round  among  the  mutton  chops,  the 
grits,  the  butter,  the  apples,  the  ham,  and  the  drinkables,  and  by  the 
time  everything  is  as  cold  as  a  stone,  eating  begins.  Father  does  not  even 
offer  the  steak.  As  we  take  three  morning  papers  and  the  mail  is  always 
large,  you  can  imagine  how  social  we  are.  I  dare  not  abandon  the  chil 
dren,  so  while  C.  and  the  paler  satisfy  their  hungry  minds,  I  look  out  for 
the  hungry  little  folks,  —  and  when  I  and  they  are  through  the  readers 
wake  up  and  are  ready  to  be  waited  on.  Just  as  we  were  getting  through 
this  morning,  somebody  or  other  remembered  our  dinner  party  of  to-day, 
and  then  it  was  discovered  that  no  orders  had  been  given  for  the  dinner, 
that  the  bill  of  fare  had  not  even  been  made  out.  Such  an  explosion  as  at 
once  followed  !  However,  everything  is  all  straightened  out  now. 

MARCH  3,  1872. 

.     .     .     To-morrow,  at  twelve,  I  go  to  the  White  House  to  assist  in  the 
formal  reception  of  the  Japanese.     Mrs.  Fish  has  been  in  twice  about  it 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  297 

to-day  already,  Mr.  Fish  once.  The  most  punctilious  arrangements  are 
made  for  the  ceremony.  As  it  is  the  lirst  ambassador  this  country  has 
ever  received,  it  behooves  us  to  be  particular.  Your  father  puts  some  one 
in  the  chair  and  then  hastens  down  himself  to  assist  in  the  ceremonies. 
All  the  ladies  are  in  full  dress  morning  costumes,  no  bonnets.  In  the 
evening  I  go  to  the  opera  to  hear  Parepa  in  •'  Figaro."  Sunday  evening  I 
go  to  Masonic  Temple  to  assist  in  another  reception  of  the  flaps.  Mrs.  Fish, 
wife  of  Secretary  of  State ;  Mrs.  Coif  ax,  wife  of  President  of  Senate ;  Mrs. 
Blaine,  wife  of  Speaker  of  the  House  ;  and  Mrs.  Banks,  wife  of  Chairman 
of  Committee  of  Foreign  Aft'airs,  are  the  ladies  to  receive.  Wednesday  I 
have  a  reception  and  in  the  evening  go  to  the  opera  again  to  hear  Parepa. 
Thursday  we  are  engaged  at  the  Bristows,  and  Saturday  afternoon  father 
to  the  matinee.  .  .  .  Thursday  afternoon  —  I  am  just  up  from  down 
town,  where  I  have  been  buying  a  little  frippery  for  to-night.  I  went  to 
the  White  House  yesterday,  as  I  anticipated.  The  ceremonies  were  all 
gone  through  with,  according  to  programme.  The  President  and  Cabinet 
and  a  few  officers  received  the  chief  of  the  Japanese  dignitaries,  and  then 
they  were  brought  into  the  blue  room  and  presented  to  Mrs.  Grant  and  her 
ladies.  Mrs.  Grant  had  Mrs.  Colfax  on  her  right,  myself  on  the  left.  I 
was  quite  unprepared  for  the  womanliness  and  cordiality  and  thoroughly 
unaffected  kindliness  of  Mrs.  Grant's  reception  of  them.  I  could  not  have 
done  half  so  well.  Fortunately  I  knew  Mr.  Mori,  so  that  I  could  break 
the  dead  spell  a  little.  Another  thing  also  helped  me  personally  very  much. 
The  chief  interpreter  turned  out  to  be  a  young  Mr.  Rice,  son  of  Elisha, 
and  nephew  of  Judge  Rice,  who  went  from  Augusta  to  Japan  at  the  age  of 
ten.  Of  course  he  got  introduced  to  me,  and  we  had  a  great  deal  to  talk 
about,  to  the  evident  admiration  of  our  Asiatic  friends,  who  looked  on  with 
longing  eyes.  In  the  evening,  took  a  carriage  and  went  to  Parepa's  opera. 
The  singing  and  acting  were  superb.  .  .  .  Father  opened  the  door  to 
us  at  our  first  summons.  The  poor  man  had  lost  Parepa  and  had  nothing 
to  compensate.  Over  one  hundred  twenty-five  guests  sat  down  to  the 
dinner,  in  a  room  built  over  a  stable.  Mr.  Robeson  seated  between 
two  Japanese  dignitaries,  neither  of  whom,  of  course,  could  speak  one 
English  word.  The  dinner,  father  said,  seemed  to  be  served  by  the  acre, 
and  after  standing  it  as  long  as  he  could,  he  concluded  to  slip  out.  As 
soon  as  they  saw  your  father  start,  Mr.  Voorhees  and  Mr.  Beck  also  rose, 
and  I  should  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  quite  a  stampede  then  com 
menced,  but,  afraid  of  the  consequences,  our  father  beat  a  hasty  retreat 
home.  ...  I  assisted  at  the  reception  last  night.  Mrs.  Colfax,  I,  Mrs. 
Fish,  and  Mrs.  Banks.  When  supper  was  announced,  Iwakura  went  first, 
having  on  his  right  arm  Mrs.  Colfax,  the  Vice-President  on  his  left. 
Then  came  Minister  Mori,  Mrs.  Fish  and  your  father  on  either  arm.  Then 
the  second  ambassador,  I  on  his  right  arm,  Secretary  Fish  on  his  left. 
Who  came  after  I  know  not,  every  faculty  of  mine  being  absorbed  in 
analyzing  my  feelings  —  so  curious.  Not  one  word  could  my  poor  Asiatic 
understand  of  my  language,  and  Mr.  Fish,  having  the  whole  diplomatique 
corps  to  keep  straight,  was  continually  looking  back  and  calling  out  to 


298  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

some  greater  or  lesser  dignitary  to  fall  into  line.  When  we  had  marched 
back  from  the  supper-room  into  the  hall,  all  our  formal  duties  were  over. 
We  got  home  about  twelve.  This  morning  we  have  been  up  to  the  House 
to  see  them  received  by  your  father.  Tremendous  crowd  there,  and  as 
your  father  insisted  upon  Q.  going,  and  M.  was  to  go  anyhow,  I  feel  as 
though  I  have  been  out  pleasuring  with  my  nursery. 

From  V. : 

MARCH  4,  1872. 

Mr.  Yonge,  who  has  lately  returned  from  Paris,  brought  a  letter  from 
Walker,  of  whom  he  speaks  in  the  highest  terms.  Yesterday  Secretary 
and  Mrs.  Fish  came  around  to  arrange  about  the  Japanese.  Mrs.  Fish 
came  on  from  New  York  on  purpose,  and  the  storm  of  Saturday  kept  her 
in,  and,  as  the  ceremonies  begin  to-day,  it  seemed  to  be  a  work  of  necessity. 
Secretary  Fish  had  the  programme  all  arranged  and  a  diagram  where  all 
were  to  stand,  and  instructions  for  the  Japanese  and  all,  even  to  the  dress 
of  our  people. 

Later.  Everything  went  off  well,  only  one  of  the  Japanese's  hats  came 
off  when  he  bowed.  They  wear  their  hats  as  a  matter  of  etiquette.  The 
President  received  them  in  the  big  east  room,  and  then  he  gave  his  arm  to 
the  head  ambassador,  and  the  Cabinet  and  the  rest  came  in  order  and  were 
presented  to  Mrs.  Grant.  She  appeared  beautifully,  told  them  how  glad 
she  was  to  see  them,  congratulated  them  on  their  arrival  after  so  severe  a 
journey,  and  hoped  the  young  ladies  would  come  and  see  her  at  the  White 
House.  II.  spoke  of  it  to  the  President  afterwards.  He  said  yes,  she  did 
better  than  he,  for  his  knees  trembled  under  him.  "  What!  "  said  II.,  "  a 
brave  man  like  you  ! "  Yes,  he  said,  his  knees  shook  as  they  never  shook 
before,  and  he  had  his  words  all  written  out  beforehand,  too,  like  all  the 
rest. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  to  Walker: 

WASHINGTON,  March  6,  1872. 

Tell  Mr.  Washburn  not  to  be  disturbed  by  the  apparent  bick 
ering  and  quarrelling  in  political  circles.  General  Grant  will  be  nomi 
nated  at  Philadelphia  by  acclammation.  Electoral  vote,  357;  Grant,  191; 
opposition,  122;  doubtful,  44. 

The  tendency  is  for  a  better  result  than  this.  Indiana  will  pretty  surely 
go  with  us,  so  will  Nevada  and  Oregon,  while  our  chance  for  New  York 
is  worth  counting. 

To  Walker: 

MARCH  12,  1872. 

Please  date  your  letters  more  accurately.  Your  pater  blows  a  blast 
which  might  reach  across  the  Atlantic,  when  he  sees  one  of  your  missives 
commencing  with  a  Friday  morning,  or  a  Tuesday,  or  a  Monday,  or  so  on. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  299 

We  heard  from  you  Sunday  morning,  and  I  yesterday  sent  the  letter  to 
Augusta.  Enmioiis  was  coming  away  from  Andover,  so  I  did  not  detain  it 
for  him.  It  will  be  happiness  enough  for  him  to  be  with  us.  I  had  the 
game  dinner  he  wriies  for  all  ordered,  but  about  an  hour  ago  came  a 
telegram  from  New  York  saying  that  he  had  lost  the  connection  and  could 
not  be  home  till  ten.  M.  is  at  school.  I  do  not  know  how  she  will  bear 
the  disappointment.  She  was  expecting  to  be  dressed  in  white  with  blue 
on  skirt,  to  meet  him.  «•  I  do  want,1'  said  she  this  morning,  when  she  was 
deciding  on  her  toilet,  "  to  hear  Emmons  say,  *  How  nobby  you  look  ! "  Her 
education  might  have  for  its  motto  "festina  lente."  She  gets  to  school  some 
where  about  ten,  and  is  often  at  home  before  her  father  gets  started  for  the 
Capitol.  .  .  .  Saturday  father,  C.,  your  sister  M.  went  to  matinee. 

.  .  .  The  pater  came  home  as  slangy  as  W.  F.,  saying  and  rcsaying 
"  It's  a  fraud."  Every  part  was  shorn  and  clipped,  and  the  voice  of  the 
prompter  was  audible  enough  to  mar  all  the  effect.  At  six  your  father 
dined  with  the  territorial  delegates.  .  .  . 

In  the  evening  we  all  went  to  the  billiard-room  for  amusement,  C.  and 
father  played,  and  such  wild  strikes  never  were  seen  before.  .  .  . 

Wednesday  morning.  Emmons  got  here  at  half-past  ten  last  evening.  He 
missed  the  train  yesterday  morning,  simply  because  he  had  not  been  par 
ticular  about  the  time-table.  I  need  not  say  that  we  have  all  been  alive 
this  morning.  Your  big  brother  first  went  all  over  the  house  in  his  night 
gown.  Next  he  put  on  his  coat  over  it,  and  again  perambulated,  and 
lastly  he  dressed  himself  en  regie  and  came  down  to  breakfast.  All  we 
wanted  was  to  have  you  here.  Mary  Wilson  got  every  dish  for  Em 
mons  she  could  think  of,  and  to  one  and  all  he  did  full  justice.  .  .  . 
After  Mons  had  had  his  supper,  he  and  your  father  went  up  for  a  game  of 
billiards.  Of  course,  Mons  distanced  his  partner  a  long  way.  .  .  . 
Your  father  seems  very  much  opposed  to  your  leaving  Paris.  He  is 
anxious  for  you  to  be  sure  of  French.  At  the  same  time,  ne  likes  to  have 
you  do  anything  you  want  to.  If  you  would  like  it  he  would  prefer  your 
staying  another  year  in  Europe,  but  I  do  not  think  I  could  give  my  consent. 
At  any  rate,  I  should  come  over  with  Emmons  and  travel  for  the  summer. 
Q.  is  getting  well  very  fast.  He  looks  like  a  snow-drop.  Is  wonderfully 
interesting. 


Postscript  of  a  letter  from  Hon.  Elihu  Washburn  to  Mr. 
Elaine,  Paris,  April,  1872  : 

Private. 

How  is  it  going  on  at  home  ?  Can't  we  "  smash  'em  "  handsomely, 
all  the  soreheads  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding  ?  Write  me  just  as  fully 
as  you  have  time  as  to  the  real  situation. 

Walker  is  getting  along  splendidly.  He  is  all  that  the  fondest  parent 
could  wish,  and  we  have  come  to  feel  in  him  almost  the  same  interest  we 
have  in  our  own  children.  If  he  were  my  boy  I  should  have  him  remain 


300  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

here  an  additional  year.  He  would  then  be  perfect  master  of  the  German 
and  French  and  would  keep  up  with  his  other  studies  besides.  He  can 
learn  the  languages  a  great  deal  faster  now  than  he  would  after  coming 
back  here  after  graduating. 

From  Walker : 

.  .  .  As  this  letter  will  reach  you  about  the  time  that  Mons  is  at  home 
for  his  vacation,  tell  him  to  study  his  Latin  and  Greek  as  he  never  studied 
them  before.  I  thought  that  they  were  not  worth  much,  but  my  little 
knowledge  has  lightened  up  the  French  language  in  a  most  amazing  man 
ner.  If  one  knows  Greek  and  Latin,  or  only  the  latter  and  English 
thoroughly,  the  French  language  is  but  a  mere  child's  play.  The  differ 
ence  is  amazing  when  you  attempt  to  learn  French  through  reasoning  and 
taking  the  derivations,  and  by  mere  force  of  memory,  as  we  learn  Eng 
lish.  .  .  .  The  person  who  knows  Latin  well,  and  cannot  learn  the 
French  language  in  two  months,  provided  he  speaks  it  all  the  time,  and 
reasons  it  out,  is  a  dunce.  ...  I  see  that  Gratiot  Washburn  has 
been  nominated  by  the  President  as  Second  Secretary  to  the  Legation  in 
Paris,  and  I  do  not  doubt  but  that  he  has  been  before  now  confirmed.  I  am 
very  glad,  for  he  is  a  very  nice  young  fellow.  ...  I  hope  you  will 
send  me  some  word  soon  about  Germany.  I  am  very  anxious  to  acquire 
the  language,  and  I  feel  that  it  would  be  much  better  for  me  to  go  there. 
I  cannot  stay  in  Paris  during  the  summer,  probably  not  longer  than  the 
15th  sure,  and  I  am  anxious  to  stay  in  Germany  for  four  months,  work 
ing  with  assiduity.  One  lesson  every  day  in  French  will  keep  me  well 
up. 

To  Walker: 

WASHINGTON,  May  1,  1872. 

I  am  just  congratulating  myself  on  our  excellent  habit,  lately  inaug 
urated,  —  can  a  habit  be  lately  inaugurated  ?  —  of  getting  up  for  a  half- 
past  eight  breakfast  —  so  now  at  9.15  we  are  all  at  liberty  to  go  our 
several  ways  :  father  to  the  parlor  crowded  full  of  gentlemen  ;  Shermy  to 
his  writing-table ;  C.  to  the  baby,  the  petted  darling  of  upstairs,  down 
stairs,  and  my  lady's  chamber;  M.  and  Q.  with  spade  and  shovel 
to  the  yard,  and  the  mamma  to  her  dearest  and  best  of  boys. 
Everything  has  gone  on  very  quietly  since  my  last  date.  Indeed,  Walker, 
we  are  a  most  happy  family.  So  much  of  life  and  so  much  love  do 
not  often  go  together.  The  affectionate  people  are  almost  always  quiet. 
Everything  political,  English  and  American,  seems  to  be  in  a  sort 
of  a  snarl.  Things,  I  believe,  will  all  come  out  right.  Your  father  was 
so  impressed  with  the  fatal  influence  which  any  concession  on  the  part  of 
Mr.  Fish  would  have  on  our  political  situation,  that  he  went  in  to  talk 
over  matters  with  him  Sunday  evening.  Was  there  till  a  very  late  hour. 
Commercial  interests  bring  heavily  to  bear  en  the  question. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  301 

To  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  May  7,  1872. 

To-morrow  will  be  your  seventeenth  birthday.  ...  I  shall  not  at 
tempt  any  advice  to  the  good  boy,  who  I  do  not  believe  needs  it,  for  how 
can  one  have  a  better  guide  than  conscience  ?  But  I  do  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart  thank  you,  Walker,  for  all  the  anxiety  you  have  spared  me. 
I  have  always  trusted  you.  —  so  has  your,  father,  —  and  never  have  you 
abused  the  trust.  Continue  ye  in  this  love.  .  .  .  The  little  sister  is  out 
in  all  the  glory  of  the  cherry  rosettes  and  short  dresses.  Has  called  on 
Miss  Ripley,  Mrs.  Fish,  and  is  now  gone  to  Mrs.  Hale's —  all  in  honor  of 
the  brother  she  has  never  seen.  .  .  . 

To  Walker  from  Mr.  Elaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  May  8,  1872. 

You  are  seventeen  years  old  to-day.  Almost  a  grown -man !  I  hope  you 
will  continue  to  be  a  good  boy,  and  make  a  good  man.  Remember  that 
there  is  no  success  in  this  life  that  is  not  founded  on  virtue  and  purity,  and 
a  religious  consecration  of  all  we  have  to  God.  Do  not  forget  your  capac 
ities,  your  abilities,  and  your  responsibilities.  .  .  . 

By  same  mail  herewith  you  will  receive  from  Jay  Cooke  an  additional 
letter  of  credit  for  £50 ;  should  you  desire  or  need  a  few  pounds  more, 
Mr.  Washburn  will  furnish  you  the  amount.  I  shall  write  him  in  regard 
to  it,  and  he  will  speak  to  you,  rather  than  you  to  him.  ...  I  want 
you  to  come  early  enough  in  June  to  be  here,  or  rather  at  home,  by  the  24th 
or  26th,  or  at  all  events,  the  first  of  July.  I  want  you  to  go  by  way  of  the 
Rhine,  round  through  Belgium,  taking,  say,  Strasburg,  Baden,  Frankfort, 
and  Homburg  en  route.  You  can  do  this  in  a  few  days,  and  will  be  gov 
erned  somewhat  by  securing1  a  fellow-traveller.  At  Brussels  you  will  take 
a  run  over  to  Waterloo.  .  .  .  You  will  see  how  strangely  politics  are 
tending  here.  Greeley's  nomination  is  very  strange.  ...  I  wish  you 
to  come  on  the  **  Scotia  "or  "  Russia  "  —  take  whichever  one  Captain  Lott 
commands ;  if  you  can  secure  a  good  state-room  on  her.  The  enclosed 
card  will  introduce  you  to  Captain  Lott. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

MAY  22,  1872. 

I  presume  you  need  more  money  than  I  have  sent,  and  you  will  find 
herewith  an  additional  letter  for  £40.  This  should  pay  your  passage  home 
and  all  other  expenses,  including  such  presents  as  you  may  desire  to  bring. 
I  would  not  go  very  largely  into  presents,  as  I  do  not  wish  you  to  smuggle 
anything,  or  in  any  way  evade  the  duties.  .  .  .  With  this  additional 
letter  of  credit  you  will  not  need  to  ask  Mr.  Washburn  for  any  aid  or 
loan.  .  .  .  Be  a  good  boy,  always  in  all  ivays. 

To  V.: 

AUGUSTA,  June  16,  1872. 

Mr.  Elaine  and  the  boys  —  the  elder  ones  —  have  just  driven  off  to 
church,  — three  fans,  a  cotton  umbrella,  and  a  horse  and  buggy,  amongst 


302  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

them.  The  papa  took  the  umbrella,  Emmons  drove,  and  Walker  fanned,  and 
I  only  hope  they  may  step  far  enough  heavenward  to  pay  for  the  earthly 
trouble  —  for  Mons,  in  harnessing,  broke  out  into  a  heat  which  nothino- 
could  allay  —  his  father,  in  the  supreme  moment  of  departure,  turned  round 
to  tell  us  how  large  his  head  felt,  while  Walker,  with  the  prospect  of  three 
or  four  favorite  girls  to  flirt  with,  was  eminently  content.  Q.  and  M. 
were  in  the  yard  to  see  them  off;  Q.  all  currant  and  raspberry  from  his 
throat  to  the  hem  of  his  frock,  but  clean  as  to  the  face  and  sweeter  than 
honey  in  the  honeycomb  ;  his  last  word  to  the  martyrologists  being,  Hulloa 
—  a  greeting,  which  they  seemed  to  think  a  pitiful  satire. 

When  we  got  home  we  found  that  no  entreaties  had  prevailed  on  Alice 
to  wear  one  of  her  new  dresses.  S.  had  had  them  all  made,  and  made 
beautifully,  and  there  they  hung  by  the  closetful.  When  we  arrived  the 
set  time  had  fully  come,  and  she  has  now  the  fine  satisfaction  of  dressing 
well  every  day.  Yesterday  she  began  to  go  to  dancing-school,  a  branch 
of  her  education  I  have  been  very  anxious  for  her  to  attend  to.  The 
boys  are  clever  as  can  be.  Walker  devoted  to  M.  and  L.  —  and  Emmons 
to  swimming,  the  "New  York  Ledger,"  base-ball,  and  all  sorts  of  boy 
business. 


To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  O.  P.  Morton : 

INDIANAPOLIS,  July  22,  1872. 

We  would  be  very  glad  to  have  you  come  into  Indiana  and  make  several 
speeches  if  it  is  in  your  power  to  do  so.  Your  great  reputation  will  draw 
large  crowds,  and  what  you  say  will  have  much  influence  with  our  people. 
The  contest  here  will  be  hard  fought  and  most  bitter,  and  we  shall  require 
all  the  assistance  possible.  I  shall  await  your  answer  with  anxiety. 

Free  trade  is  a  beautiful  theory,  but  in  practice,  neither  you  nor  I  will 
live  long  enough  to  see  it  prevail.  But  the  result  of  the  present  agitation 
will  be  to  lower  seriously  the  rate  of  duties  levied  by  the  existing  tariff, 
and  that  is  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished.  I  am  more  than  will 
ing  to  speed  the  day. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Judge  Hoar: 

CONCORD,  November  8,  1872. 

Thank  you  for  your  note,  which  is  very  kind.  My  only  dissatisfaction 
with  the  result  of  the  election  is  that  I  am  chosen  to  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives —  though  calling  it  a  "  bear  garden"  is  not  inconsistent  with 
the  highest  admiration  for  the  keeper  of  the  animals.  You  have  done  so 
much  to  contribute  to  the  splendid  victory,  that  I  think  you  are  fairly 
entitled  to  feel  as  if  you  owned  it. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  303 

From  V.: 

WASHINGTON,  1873. 

How  much  have  you  seen  of  Mr.  Elaine's  tilt  with  Mr.  Stevenson  ?  lie 
came  to  Mr.  Elaine  afterwards  rather  complaining  of  his  treatment.  Mr. 
Elaine  told  him  he  did  not  want  to  attack  him,  but  he  could  not  help  it, 
Mr.  Stevenson  brought  it  on  himself.  Mr.  Stevenson  said  of  course  he 
"  could  not  stand  up  against  a  man  of  Mr.  Elaine's  talent  and  courage  which 
was  perfectly  audacious."  He  objected  that  Mr.  Elaine  had  made  him  appear 
to  swear  falsely.  "Why,  Job,"  said  Mr.  Elaine,  "that's  the  very  point. 
Have  you  just  got  that  through  your  head?"  The  committee-room  was 
full,  and  they  say  Mr.  Elaine  went  at  him  shovel  and  tongs,  and  carried 
all  before  him  ;  even  the  ' '  Tribune  "  says  the  Speaker  came  oft'  with  flying 
colors,  and  the  "Herald"  quite  abuses  Stevenson.  George  W.  Curtis,  at 
the  Fish  dinner,  complimented  Mr.  Elaine  very  highly,  especially  upon 
shining  so  brightly  in  the  midst  of  so  much  darkness. 

From  General  Sherman : 

WASHINGTON,  Feb.  5,  1873. 

DEAR  ELAINE  :  Mrs.  Wood's  full  name  is  Ann  Mackall  Taylor  Wood. 
Her  habitual  signature  is  Ann  M.  Wood. 

She  heard  of  the  event  in  the  House  last  night  from  the  Hunters,  who 
were  with  you  at  Robeson's,  and  they  say  her  sense  of  gratitude  was 
beautiful,  especially  in  the  compliment  to  her  father's  memory. 

From  V.: 

WASHINGTON,  February,  1873. 

Mr.  Blaine  went  to  church  yesterday  for  the  first  time,  and  astonished 
Mr.  Whittlesey,  a  regular  attendant,  by  informing  him  he  had  not  seen 
him  out  before  this  winter. 

In  the  afternoon,  at  a  matinee  at  Colonel  Audenried's,  saw  Mrs.  James 
Brooks,  who  is  in  great  trouble  about  her  husband  who  is  deeply  implicated 
in  Credit  Mobilier.  I  comforted  her  all  I  could ;  saw  also  General  Sherman, 
the  Bristeds,  and  many  other  acquaintances  and  friends.  In  the  evening 
Mr.  Blaine  had  a  splendid  dinner.  Mr.  Evarts,  the  great  lawyer,  Geneva 
arbitrator,  etc.;  Horace  Clark,  Vanderbilt's  son-in-law,  a  lawyer;  Judge 
Watts  and  his  brother,  with  whose  father  Mr.  Elaine's  father  studied  law, 
and  Horace  Maynard,  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Evarts  is  a  thin,  sharp- 
featured,  keen-faced  man,  quiet  but  calm,  clear,  acute,  witty,  and  when 
the  flash  of  his  wit  is  too  bright  and  swift  for  the  popular  comprehension, 
enjoying  it  all  his  lane  or  telegraphing  across  the  table  with  his  eyes  to 
some  one  who  does  comprehend  the  additional  fun  contributed  by  the  non- 
comprehending. 


304  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    SLAItffi. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  E.  A.  Rollins : 

PHILADELPHIA. 

I  do  not  credit  half  the  news  I  see  in  the  newspapers,  more  particularly 
since  the  Credit  Mobilier  investigation  began.  Glad  you  are  all  right,  not 
in  fact  only,  but  in  reputation.  You  made  a  grand  witness  with  reference 
to  the  Iowa  road,  and  made  grand  good  points  on  Stevenson.  Everybody 
was  laughing  about  it  this  way.  I  wish  all  our  friends  were  all  right  in 
every  way  in  this  matter,  in  fact,  in  substance,  and  form. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

WASHINGTON,  March  26,  1873. 

I  forgot  to  tell  you  of  a  very  remarkable  coincidence  that  happened  just 
as  you  left  on  Saturday  last.  You  recollect  your  questioning  me  to  see  if 
I  remember  Mr.  Rollins'  street  and  number  aright.  [Two  hundred  and 
thirty-five  Forty-second  street.]  As  I  turned  from  the  depot,  as  your 
train  was  rolling  out,  Tom  Sherman  handed  me  some  letters  to  mark 
for  answer,  and  among  them  one  from  Eastern  Express  Company,  show 
ing  balance  with  them  to  my  credit,  $235.42,  and  that  was  the  very  first 
letter  I  opened.  Now,  had  a  coincidence  of  figures  like  unto  this 
happened  in  any  trial  at  law,  it  would  have  been  almost  conclusive  of 
guilt  or  innocence,  as  the  case  might  be.  These  fortuitous  coincidences 
should  make  us  very  careful  about  rash  conclusions  based  on  "  sich." 

Moral.  —  Give  all  the  doubts  to  Schuyler. 

From  President  Grant  to  Mr.  Elaine : 

LONG  BRANCH,  N.J.,  July  18,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SPEAKER  :  Your  favor  of  the  13th  is  at  hand,  having 
been  received  a  day  or  two  since.  It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  answer 
definitely  as  to  the  time  I  can  make  the  visit  to  the  State  of  Maine  and  to 
you,  proposed  before  we  left  Washington.  But  I  can  say  that  it  will 
not  be  before  the  5th  of  August,  and  that  I  will  endeavor  to  make  it  as 
near  that  time  as  possible,  informing  you  by  telegraph  the  exact  day 
when  I  shall  leave  here  the  moment  it  is  fixed  upon.  My  stay  in  Maine 
will  be  from  six  to  eight  days.  If,  however,  you  and  Mrs.  Blaine  have 
any  visit  or  trip  you  wish  to  make  that  would  be  in  the  slightest  degree 
interfered  with  by  this  selection  of  time,  I  beg  you  to  let  me  know.  Any 
time  after  the  5th  during  the  month  of  August  would  suit  me  as  well  as 
that  particular  time.  I  name  it  because  I  have  guests  invited  to  my  house 
up  to  about  that  date. 

Mrs.  Grant  and  Nellie,  both  of  whom  will  accompany  me,  join  in  kindest 
regards  to  Mrs.  Blaine  and  yourself. 

From  the  President  to  Mr.  Blaine  : 

LONG  BRANCH,  August  1,  1873. 

As  the  time  approaches  when  I  had  hoped  to  visit  you  in  Maine,  with  my 
family,  I  find  it  will  be  impossible  to  go  as  early  as  I  had  set,  and  that  it 


SIOGKAPT1Y    Of   JAMES    0.    KLA1NE.  305 

will  be  impossible  for  Mrs.  Grant  to  go  at  all.  Mr.  Dent  has  been  failing 
for  the  last  few  days  rapidly,  the  effects  of  old  age  and  a  dropsical  ten 
dency,  and  I  do  not  believe  would  survive  Mrs.  Grant's  absence  for  a 
week.  He  cannot  last  long  at  best. 

The  first  of  next  week  I  must  go  to  Washington  to  spend  a  couple  of 
days.  On  my  return  I  will  inform  you  by  telegraph  about  when  I  can  go, 
if  not  prevented  by  circumstances. 

I  beg  of  you  not  to  postpone  or  abandon  any  plans  you  or  Mrs.  Elaine 
may  have  formed  for  the  summer,  on  account  of  my  proposed  visit.  If 
not  prevented  from  going  by  the  sickness  or  death  of  Mr.  Dent,  one  time 
will  suit  me  as  well  as  another,  up  to  the  middle  of  September. 

From  the  President  to  Mr.  Blaine  : 

LONG  BRANCH,  August  7,  1873. 

On  my  return  from  Washington  I  find  your  letter  of  the  5th  inst.,  from 
which  I  infer  you  had  not  received  the  last  one  I  wrote  to  you.  In  that  I 
stated  that  unless  something  unforeseen  should  prevent,  I  would  leave  here 
on  Monday  next  for  Augusta,  Me.,  taking  the  night  train  from  New  York 
City.  My  party  will  consist  of  my  two  youngest  sons,  Nellie,  General 
Babcock,  and  myself.  My  intention  is  to  return  by  way  of  the  White 
Mountains,  Lake  Champlain,  and  Lake  George,  provided  I  can  get  back  by 
the  22d  inst.  There  is  nothing  now  to  prevent  my  going  at  that  time. 

From  Harper  &  Brothers : 

NEW  YORK,  August  14,  1873. 

In  reply  to  yours  of  the  llth,  we  beg  leave  to  say;  .  .  .  3d.  That 
we  also  like  Mr.  Blaine,  and  are  sorry  if  we  said  anything  (which  we 
never  did)  that  by  the  utmost  feminine  ingenuity  could  be  interpreted  to  the 
contrary.  He  is  as  independent  as  any  man  we  ever  knew,  and  is  abun 
dantly  able  to  take  care  of  himself  always  and  in  all  ways.  As  your 
Western  friends  say,  we  can  safely  "go  a  blind  on  him."  (>,  si  sic  (/nines! 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Samuel  J.  Randall : 

PHILADELPHIA,  September  29,  1873. 

Do  you  expect  to  be  south  soon,  say  as  far  as  New  York  or  Philadelphia? 
I  would  like  to  see  you  and  confer  as  to  some  legislation  during  next  ses 
sion,  principally  on  a  subject  which  has  caused  much  public  expression 
during  the  recess. 

You  are  to  be  made  to  discriminate  among  the  Republican  members 

from  Pennsylvania  as  to  a  successor  to  Mr.  .  ...  I  mention 

these  facts  with  no  possible  intention  to  draw  from  you  any  expression 
thereon  ;  simply,  however,  to  keep  you  advised. 

My  district  is  quiet  as  to  "  Back  pay,"  and  I  apprehend  no  opposition  to 
my  renomination  by  Democratic  convention  nor  as  to  the  reelection. 


806  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  W.  A.  Wheeler : 

MALONE,  October  21,  1873. 

I  have  yours  of  30th  ult.  It  is  true  that  there  has  been  an  effort  in  the 
New  York  delegation  to  induce  me  to  withdraw  my  declination  of  a  can 
didacy  for  the  Speakcrship.  As  to  the  motive,  so  far  as  I  can  fathom  it,  it 
originates  mainly  in  State  pride,  with  perhaps  an  opinion  that  the  delega 
tion  would,  in  the  event  of  my  election,  gain  something  in  the  construc 
tion  of  the  committees.  A  number  of  Western  men  are  also  pressing  me 
to  become  a  candidate,  assigning  various  reasons  :  such  as  the  domination  of 
New  England  in  both  ends  of  the  Capitol ;  that  you  will  give  the  best  places 
on  committees  to  those  implicated  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  aftiiir,  etc.,  etc. 
To  all  these  solicitations  I  have  but  one  response  :  «'  I  will  not  suffer  myself 
to  be  pitted  against  Mr.  Blaine  in  any  contingency/' 

You  had  my  word  for  this  a  year  ago,  and  the  statute  of  limitations  has 
not  yet  run  upon  it.  No  matter  what  rumor  may  at  any  time  say,  you  may 
rest  confidently  upon  my  assurance. 

I  am  afraid  the  West  will  annoy  you  greatly  in  the  making  up  of  the 
committees.  Credit  Mobilier  puts  you  in  a  delicate  position  with  refer 
ence  to  some  old  friends,  and  your  action  in  construction  of  committees 
will  have  a  very  important  bearing  upon  your  political  future.  We  are 
evidently  only  in  the  outer  circles  of  the  political  maelstrom  which  is  to 
swallow  up  all  the  wicked  politicians,  and  no  one,  for  some  time  to  come, 
can  expect  the  public  favor  who  has  not  a  claim  to  political  sanctity. 

As  to  committees,  my  preference  is  for  that  which  probably  you  could 
not  give  me  without  embarrassment — Chairman  of  Foreign  Affairs.  I 
don't  want,  in  any  contingency,  to  have  any  further  connection  with 
railroads. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Fernando  Wood : 

NEW  YORK,  October  29,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  SIR:  I  enclose  a  slip  from  the  "New  York  Times"  of  to-day. 
If  you  require  any  pecuniary  aid  as  a  loan,  I  am  at  your  service,  having 
just  now  a  surplus.  Supposing  that  in  your  position  a  favor  from  a  politi 
cal  opponent  would  be  more  desirable  than  from  one  who  might  have 
favors  to  ask  in  return,  I  offer  myself  as  a  personal  friend. 

(Enclosed.} 

JAY   COOKE   &  CO/S   ASSETS. 

The  "Evening  Star"  has  the  following  explanation  of  how  Speaker 
Blaine's  name  appears  in  the  list  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  debtors:  "  Amonf 
the  assets  of  Jay  Cookc  &  Co.  an  item  of  some  $30,000  from  lion.  Jas.  G. 
Blaine  is  reported.  We  find,  on  inquiry,  that  the  amount  due  from  Mr. 
Blaine  to  the  firm  is  for  money  borrowed  on  a  long  mortgage  in  18G9, 
when  he  purchased  his  residence  on  Fifteenth  street,  in  this  city.  The 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    KLAINE.  307 

mortgage  is  not  mature  until  1875.     The  amount  is  amply  secured  by  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  residence." 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Mr.  Wood: 

AUGUSTA,  October  31,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  T  thank  you  very  sincerely  for  your  kind  favor  and  its 
kind  offer.  I  thank  you  none  the  less  heartily  because  I  am  not  under  the 
necessity  of  availing  myself  of  your  generous  tender  of  aid.  The  strin 
gency  in  the  money  market  pinches  me  somewhat,  but  not  beyond  my 
power  of  control. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  bankers : 

WASHINGTON,  November  5,  1873. 

The  newspapers  are  in  some  way  misstating  your  indebtedness  to  our 
firm.  Your  principal  debt  is  for  money  loaned  you,  when  you  purchased 
your  house  on  Fifteenth  street  on  which  we  hold  a  mortgage  for  $33,333.33, 
last  payment  due  April  1,  1875.  Besides  this,  you  have  a  note  discounted 
for  $5,000,  amply  secured  by  Chicago  bonds  as  collateral.  You  are  also 
held  by  us  on  another  note  for  $1,000,  which  your  good  nature  induced  you 
to  indorse,  and  which  we  shall  expect  you  to  pay,  unless  the  principal 
pays.  This  is  all.  If  we  could  realize  as  readily  on  all  our  assets  as  on 
these,  we  should  at  once  have  a  heavy  surplus  on  hand. 

From  Hon.  S.  S.  Cox  : 

NEW  YORK,  November  5,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SPEAKER  :  For  I  must  again  cultivate  the  old  prefix. 
Your  congratulation  was  the  first  to  reach  me.  I  am  sure  it  made  me  very 
happy.  We  have  lived  an  eventful  life  together  under  trying  circum 
stances  ;  and  to  miss  your  face  in  the  House,  and  as  its  head,  would  be  to 
miss  the  House  itself. 

I  should  be  pleased  to  serve  on  the  Ways  and  Means.  It  is  generally 
expected,  as  all  my  studies,  since  I  left  college,  have  led  me  in  the  direc 
tion  of  the  economics.  .  .  .  My  majority  is  equal  to  my  opponents1 
vote.  I  led  my  ticket  largely.  With  the  assurance  that  you  will  be 
Speaker,  beyond  a  peradventure,  and  with  the  wishes  for  a  happy  winter 
—  a  happier  than  last  — 

I  am,  as  ever, 

your  friend. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  to  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  November  12,  1873. 

I  have  very  fully  reflected  on  your  case,  and  have  come  to  the  following 
conclusions  : 

First.  The  Faculty,  I  think,  were  not  logical  in  their  treatment  and  con 
clusions.  They  should  either  have  remitted  punishment,  or  expelled  you 


308  BiOGKAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAlNK. 

—  for  a  hazer  should  always  be  expelled  remorselessly.  A  middle  course 
was,  I  repeat,  illogical.  The  court-martial  that  tried  Fitz  John  Porter 
merely  sentenced  him  to  be  dropped  from  the  rolls.  This  was  sharply 
criticised  at  the  time,  as  wholly  an  inconsistent  verdict — for,  as  old  Mr. 
Ewing  well  said,  "  Porter  should  have  been  cleared  or  shot.'1'1  Something 
analogous  applies  to  the  case  of  you  boys.  The  Yale  Faculty,  however, 
proceeded  apparently  on  the  basis  of  the  old  trial  justice  with  the  man 
accused  of  stealing  a  horse  —  "Not  guilty  ;  but  dorft  you  ever  do  it  again.'1'1 

Second.  My  whole  conclusion  in  regard  to  the  course  of  you  boys  is,  that 
you  behaved  very  foolishly.  You  tried  the  impossible  game  of  ' '  running  with 
the  hare  and  holding  with  the  hounds."  You  had  to  proceed  by  an  indirection 
and  a  deception,  and  hence  placed  yourselves  in  an  indefensible  attitude, 
and  got  into  trouble.  If  you  could  not  make  open  resistance  to  the  hazers 
and  join  issue  with  them,  you  should  have  gone  to  your  rooms.  I  would 
have  justified  all  of  you  in  getting  into  the  most  desperate  fight  —  one  that 
would  have  roused  the  whole  college,  and  the  city  too,  if  need  be  —  in  re 
sisting  an  outrage  upon  a  friend  ;  but  when  you  had  to  resort  to  an  artifice 
and  an  evasion,  and  apparently  join  the  drunken  crowd  of  assailants,  you 
forfeited  all  the  moral  strength  of  your  position  —  Hinc  illc?  fachrymte. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  studying  well,  and  if  the  Faculty  should 
keep  you  out  six  months,  you  probably  will  not  be  the  loser  in  your 
studies.  I  have  great  faith  in  good  tutoring. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

AUGUSTA,  November  12,  1873. 

Suspension  is  always  a  silly  punishment:  The  idle  boy  likes  it,  the 
industrious,  ambitious  boy  may  be  greatly  injured  by  it.  It  always  seemed 
to  me  just  as  absurd  as  to  punish  a  soldier  for  misconduct,  by  depriving 
him  of  the  opportunity  to  drill.  All  offenders  in  a  college,  short  of  those 
requiring  expulsion,  can  be  punished  in  an  exemplary  manner  by  many 
little  deprivations  of  privilege,  which  the  student  would  keenly  feel.  I 
think  the  boys  are  doing  well  at  Hartford.  I  agree  with  you  fully  in  re 
gard  to  the  inexpediency  of  having  a  controversy  with  the  Faculty.  Let 
the  boys  grin  and  bear  it. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  General  Garfield: 

WASHINGTON,  December  5,  1873. 

You  are  so  crowded  with  calls  and  vexations,  that  I  will  write  a  few 
words  in  addition  to  the  suggestions  I  made  yesterday. 

My  colleague,  Mr.  Monroe,  is,  as  I  told  you,  specially  desirous  of  being 
made  chairman  of  some  committee,  such  as  Pensions,  Education  and  Labor, 
or  some  committee  of  similar  grade,  and  if  it  is  at  all  possible  I  hope  you 
will  so  arrange  it.  In  the  tempest  which  raged  in  Ohio  over  the  increase 
of  salary,  Mr.  Monroe  was  fortunate  in  having  the  full  approval  of  the 
people  in  his  record  on  that  subject,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  would  be  very 


OP  .TAMES    G.    fiLATNE.  309 

generally  acceptable  to  the  people  if  he  were  given  a  committee.  Mr. 
Monroe  is  warmly  my  friend,  and  it  would  gratify  me  very  much  if  you 
can  do  what  is  here  suggested. 

Several  other  suggestions  have  been  made  and  written  to  me  which  I 
will  not  weary  you  with,  but  I  enclose  a  note  or  two  for  your  consideration. 
I  will  also  mention  that  W.  H.  Stone,  a  Democrat  of  St.  Louis,  is  anxious 
to  be  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce.  I  have  been  unwilling 
to  bore  you  in  reference  to  these  things,  but  couldn't  avoid  it.  Let  me  say, 
in  conclusion,  that  I  hope  there  will  be  cultivated  between  those  of  us  who 
have  borne  the  storms  of  the  last  ten  years  such  a  close  intimacy,  and 
working  together  for  the  sake  of  comradeship  and  the  general  good,  that 
we  may  aid  each  other  in  many  ways. 

I  will  not  close  without  assuring  you  that  those  of  us  who  have  been 
the  special  objects  of  assault  during  the  last  year  appreciate  more  highly 
than  you  know  of  the  courage  and  manliness  with  which  you  stand  by 
them.  I  am  sure  you  will  never  have  occasion  to  regret  it. 


310  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    VLAINE. 


XIII. 

FROM  THE  SPEAKERSHIP  TO  THE  SENATE. 

FN  accepting  his  seventh  unanimous  nomination  in  1874  as 
representative  to  Congress,  Mr.  Blaine  was  able  to  con 
gratulate  his  constituents  that  the  currency  question,  at 
one  time  threatening  to  divide  parties,  and,  which  would  be  far 
more  serious,  to  divide  sections,  was  "  in  process  of  a  happy 
adjustment,  partly  by  wise  and  temperate  enactment,  passed 
by  a  large  majority  in  both  branches  of  Congress  and  approved 
by  the  President,  but  in  a  far  greater  degree  by  the  operation 
of  causes  more  powerful  than  any  legislation  can  be."  The 
old  questions  of  protection  and  free  trade  were  still  before  the 
people,  especially  in  Maine,  in  their  extreme  form.  Canada 
was  trying  to  negotiate  a  reciprocity  treaty  with  our  govern 
ment  in  which,  as  Mr.  Blaine  pointed  out,  the  reciprocity  was, 
like  that  of  its  predecessor,  all  on  one  side.  The  treaty  which 
was  terminated  in  1866  inflicted  upon  Maine  "  during  the 
eleven  years  of  its  existence,  a  loss  of  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 
It  presented  the  anomaly  of  giving  to  the  Canadians  the  control 
in  our  own  markets  of  certain  leading  articles,  on  terms  far 
more  favorable  than  our  own  people  had  ever  enjoyed.  The 
utmost  stretch  of  the  Divine  command  is  to  love  our  neighbor 
as  ourselves,  and  I  can  certainly  see  nothing  in  personal  duty 
or  public  policy  which  should  lead  us  to  prefer  our  Canadian 
neighbors  to  our  own  people. 

"  The  treaty  of  reciprocity  now  proposed  is  understood  to 
include  the  admission  of  Canadian  vessels  to  free  American 
registry,  and  the  full  enjoyment  of  our  coasting  and  lake  trade. 
Thus,  the  ship-building  and  commercial  interests  of  the  United 
States,  just  recovering  from  the  terrible  blows  dealt  by  British- 
built  cruisers  during  the  war,  are  again  to  be  struck  down  by 
giving  advantages,  hitherto  undreamed  of,  to  the  ships  of  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  311 

very  power  that  inflicted  the  previous  injury.  ...  To 
illustrate :  If  the  United  States  will  agree  to  admit  Canadian 
vessels  to  American  registry  and  the  coasting-trade,  Canada 
will  admit  straw  hats,  mule  harness,  and  rat-traps  free  of  duty. 
.  .  .  Let  us  simply  place  Canada  on  the  same  basis  with 
other  foreign  countries,  —  taxing  her  products,  or  admitting 
them  free,  according  to  our  own  judgment  of  the  interest  of 
our  own  revenue,  and  the  pursuits  and  needs  of  our  own  people, 
—  always  bearing  in  mind  that  in  governmental  as  in  family 
matters,  c  charity  begins  at  home,'  and  that  4  he  who  pro- 
videth  not  for  those  of  his  own  house  is  worse  than  an 
infidel.' " 

Even  more  important  than  the  protection  of  manufactures  Mr. 
Blaine  considered  the  protection  of  United  States  citizenship, 
and  urged  in  his  public  addresses  that  it  was  required  by  every 
principle  on  which  the  Republican  party  had  been  formed  and 
sustained,  and  for  which  the  war  had  been  waged.  "  The 
strength  of  a  column  is  the  strength  of  its  weakest  part,  and 
the  strength  of  government  protection  to  citizenship  is  not  that 
which  goes  out  to  the  wealthy  and  the  influential,  to  the  strong 
and  the  mighty,  but  it  is  that  which  protects  and  upholds  the 
lowly,  the  poor,  and  the  weak." 

Another  address  called  attention  to  a  fact  of  wide  and  great 
importance,  but  almost,  if  not  altogether,  unnoticed.  Mr. 
Blaine  had  been  invited  to  speak,  incidentally,  to  the  Northern 
Wisconsin  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Association  at  their 
annual  fair  in  Oshkosh.  He  had  accepted,  but  learned  shortly 
before  the  designated  day  that,  without  consulting  him,  the 
association  had  made  him  the  chief  speaker.  He  therefore 
prefaced  his  address  with  the  apology :  "  If  this  large  audience 
shall  feel  disappointed  with  the  result,  they  must  not  lay  the 
charge  at  my  door,  but  hold  the  officers  of  the  association  re 
sponsible  in  such  exemplary  damages  as  a  good  Wisconsin  sense 
of  justice  may  impose. 

"I  believe,  by  modern  usage,  an  address  before  an  agricul 
tural  society  is  expected  to  leave  agriculture  severely  alone ; 
on  the  very  sound  and  sensible  presumption  that  the  audi 
ence  have  more  knowledge  on  that  subject  than  the  speaker 
is  likely  to  possess.  In  my  own  case,  certainly,  I  am  ready 


312  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

to  admit  the  full  force  of  such  presumption  ;  for,  although 
I  was  born  and  reared  in  an  agricultural  community  in  west 
ern  Pennsylvania,  and  have  lived  all  the  years  of  my  maturer 
life  in  the  best  agricultural  districts  of  Maine,  I  do  not  claim 
such  practical  knowledge  of  the  great  art  and  science  as 
would  enable  me  to  give  one  word  of  needed  instruction  to  the 
assemblage  which  I  have  now  the  honor  to  address."  He  then 
brought  up  the  subject  of  debt,  —  national,  State,  county,  and 
town, —  beginning  with  a  slight  sketch  of  the  origin  and  growth 
of  debts,  showing  that  the  vast  mass  of  the  world's  debt  was 
incurred  "  not  to  promote  the  ends  of  peace,  not  to  develop  ag 
riculture  or  the  mechanic  arts,  not  to  improve  harbors  and  the 
navigation  of  rivers,  not  to  found  institutions  of  learning,  or  of 
charity,  or  of  mercy,  not  to  elevate  the  standard  of  culture 
among  the  masses,  not  for  any  or  all  of  these  laudable  objects, 
but  for  the  waste,  the  cruelty,  the  untold  agonies  of  war.  The 
vast  mass  of  this  prodigious  sum-total  not  only  went  for  war, 
but  for  wars  of  ambition  and  conquest,  in  which  the  fate  of 
reigning  dynasties  was  the  stake,  and  not  the  well-being  of  the 
people  or  even  the  aggrandizement  of  the  nation  itself  in  the 
higher  and  better  sense.  In  our  own  country  we  have  had  four 
wars,  and  with  the  exception  of  that  with  Mexico,  they  may 
certainly  and  fairly  be  called  defensive  on  our  part,  for  they 
were  assuredly  wars  essential  to  our  national  existence  and  in 
dependence.  But  still  this  fact  makes  us  no  exception  to  the 
rest  of  the  world  ;  and  war,  however  unavoidable  in  our  case, 
was  nevertheless  the  direct  cause  of  our  national  burden.  Our 
total  national  indebtedness  to-day  is  twenty-one  hundred  and 
forty  millions  of  dollars  ($2,140,000,000);  and  of  this  great 
sum  sixty-four  millions  ($64,000, 000)  given  towards  the  con 
struction  of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  is  all  that  was  incurred  for 
works  of  peace.  The  remainder  was  expended  in  the  long  and 
bloody  and  desolating  struggle  in  which  secession  was  resisted 
and  destroyed,  and  in  which  we  won  the  privilege  of  continuing 
to  exist  as  the  United  States  of  America. 

"  But  in  regard  to  the  national  debt,  whatever  vain  regrets 
we  may  indulge  over  the  loss  of  so  much  treasure  and  the  fear 
ful  sacrifice  of  that  which  is  beyond  earthly  price,  we  have  this 
to  console,  —  that  the  war  which  gave  rise  to  it  was  unavoidable, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  313 

t 

apparently  forecast  as  part  of  the  great  experience  of  bitterness 
and  of  blood  through  which  it  was  our  destiny  as  a  nation  to 
pass,  and  that  out  of  its  sorrowful  depths  we  have  emerged  a  re 
generated  people,  doing  justice  to  a  race  long  oppressed,  educat 
ing  ourselves  to  higher  standards  of  liberty  and  of  law,  and  having 
our  feet  henceforth  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  Gospel  of 
Peace. 

"  Leaving  the  consideration  of  our  national  debt  as  an  obliga 
tion  not  within  our  discretion,  except  as  to  the  best  and  most 
honorable  means  of  reducing  and  discharging  it,  I  invite  your 
attention  to  those  less  observed,  but  even  more  burdensome, 
forms  of  obligation  contracted  by  States,  counties,  cities,  and 
smaller  municipalities,  and  contracted  oftentimes,  I  may  add, 
with  an  extravagance  and  prodigality  that  seem  to  invite 
calamity." 

He  then  gave  a  startling  array  of  figures,  all  the  more  im 
pressive  for  being  entirely  apart  from  politics,  showing  not 
only  the  alarming  increase  of  debt,  but  the  recklessness  with 
which  it  was  created,  and  the  extravagance  by  which  it  was 
attended.  "  I  venture  the  assertion,  based  on  careful  scrutiny 
of  the  facts,  that,  taking  the  aggregate  of  State  debts  as  they 
stand  to-day,  there  has  not  been  realized  on  the  average  fifty 
cents  permanent  value  for  each  dollar  raised  and  expended." 
He  ended  by  suggesting  for  the  defence  of  the  people  against 
themselves  more  stringent  restriction  of  the  power  of  State 
legislation  to  incur  debts,  and  a  more  careful  definition  of  the 
precise  ends  for  which  municipal  credit  should  be  used,  together 
with  some  adequate  safeguard  against  the  overlapping  of 
municipal  and  county  debts,  so  that  the  smaller  organization 
should  not  find  itself  involved  in  the  embarrassments  of  the 
larger ;  quoting  as  a  safe  governing  principle  the  advice  of  Mr. 
Jefferson :  "  Never  borrow  a  dollar  without  laying  a  tax  at  the 
same  instant  for  paying  the  interest  annually,  and  the  principal 
within  a  given  term ;  and  consider  that  tax  as  pledged  to  the 
creditors  on  the  public  faith." 

It  was  not  flattering  to  the  sagacity  of  self-governing  people, 
who  love  to  rebuke  the  extravagances  of  their  national  Con 
gress,  but  are  not  given  to  accusing  themselves  of  far  greater 
extravagance.  It  was,  however,  a  timely  and  necessary  warning, 


314  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

t 

and  arrested  general  attention  at  home,  while  in  England  its 
information  regarding  our  situation  and  resources  was  used  by 
public  speakers  with  marked  effect. 

One  of  the  interesting  incidents  of  the  winter  of  1874-75,  im 
portant  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  was  the  presence  in 
Washington  of  Kalakaua,  king  of  the  Hawaiian  islands.  On 
the  18th  of  December  he  was  received  by  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  Escorted  by  Senator  Cameron  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
Representative  Orth  of  Indiana,  he  entered  the  hall  and  took 
his  position  in  the  centre  aisle  fronting  the  Speaker,  who 
welcomed  him  on  behalf  of  the  American  Congress,  empha 
sizing  the  visit  as  "the  first  instance  in  which  a  reigning 
sovereign  has  set  foot  upon  the  soil  of  the  United  States,  and  it 
is  a  significant  circumstance  that  the  visit  comes  to  us  from 
the  West,  and  not  from  the  East."  With  a  few  words  of 
personal  courtesy  and  compliment,  the  Speaker  assured  his 
majesty  that  "  our  whole  people  cherish  for  your  subjects 
the  most  friendly  regard.  They  trust  and  believe  that  the 
relations  of  the  two  countries  will  always  be  as  peaceful 
as  the  great  sea  that  rolls  between  us  —  uniting  and  not 
dividing." 

Chief-Justice  Allen,  of  Hawaii,  —  and  Maine,  —  read  the 
king's  reply  of  graceful  acknowledgment  that  "  for  any  success 
in  government,  and  for  our  progress  in  a  higher  civilization,  we 
are  very  much  indebted  to  the  government  and  people  of  this 
great  country.  Your  laws  and  your  civilization  have  been  in  a 
great  degree  our  model."  The  Speaker  then  left  the  chair  for 
a  more  personal  greeting  to  the  king,  before  he  withdrew  with 
his  suite. 

The  elections  of  1874  gave  the  House  of  Representatives  to 
the  Democratic  party  for  the  first  time  since  the  Rebellion. 
Naturally  many  Republicans  were  greatly  alarmed  at  seeing  the 
balance  of  power  about  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  their  oppo 
nents,  so  lately  armed  foes  of  the  country.  Many  members  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  had  been  in  the  rebel  ranks,  — 
softened  by  time  into  "  confederate "  ranks.  The  Republican 
party,  without  cleaving  into  distinct  factions,  gravitated  in  two 
distinct  directions,  —  towards  further  repressive  legislation  on 
the  one  hand,  on  the  other  towards  the  enforcement  of  present 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  315 

law  through  the  machinery  already  provided.  The  administra 
tion  led  in  the  first  direction  the  radical  element.  Mr.  Blaine 
was  universally  recognized  as  head  of  the  more  conservative 
forces.  The  presidential  election  of  1876  was  near  enough  to 
be  an  estimated,  if  not  always  a  perceptible  motive.  Desire  for 
a  third  election  to  the  presidency  was  attributed  to  President 
Grant.  Denial  was  hardly  possible  to  him,  and  his  most 
intimate  friends  advocated  "  a  third  term."  By  common  con 
sent  Mr.  Blaine  was  counted  as  the  rival  candidate,  whether 
he  would  or  not,  and  he  certainly  gave  no  sign  that  he  would 
not.  He  was  in  the  prime  of  life,  thoroughly  versed  not  only 
in  historical  but  in  practical  politics  —  a  phrase  not  less  weighty 
for  being  warped  into  a  petty  and  corrupt  interpretation.  The 
ideal  policy  of  this  great  nation  was  already  shaping  itself,  in 
his  ardent  thought,  towards  new  advances  in  national  power, 
and  individual  prosperity  and  happiness.  He  had  no  misgiving 
as  to  the  correctness  of  his  judgment  on  those  points,  or  his 
ability  to  guide  the  country  along  the  course  which  he  deemed 
its  true  and  high  destiny.  He  was  always  eager  to  use  the  one 
in  furtherance  of  the  other.  It  was  not  timely  or  necessary  for 
him  to  avow,  but  he  did  not  disavow,  the  candidacy.  He  had  a 
full  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the  position,  a  greatness  not  to 
be  minimized  by  unworthy  seeking,  or  by  insincere  pretence  of 
not  seeking.  He  had  a  strong  sense  of  its  influence,  a  solemn 
sense  of  its  responsibility.  He  accepted  the  opportunity,  and 
would  have  accepted  the  presidency  with  all  his  heart  and  soul, 
with  all  his  mind  and  strength.  But  he  did  not  and  could  not 
do  what  many  both  in  his  own  party  and  in  the  opposition 
wished  him  to  do,  —  withdraw  from  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  that  he  might  avoid  embarrassing  complications.  When  the 
anti-third  term  resolution  was  put  to  vote  in  the  House  early  in 
the  winter  of  1875-76,  he  was  quite  willing  to  absent  himself  and 
meet  the  not  ill-humored  raillery  of  having  made  public  procla 
mation  of  his  candidacy,  rather  than  cast  a  vote  which  seemed 
to  reflect  so  directly  on  the  President.  But  he  was  not  willing 
to  relinquish  his  Avork  and  retire  from  his  post  rather  than  run 
the  risk  of  such  complications.  He  would  not  exchange  a 
present  certain  opportunity  for  a  future  which  was  only 
possibility. 


316  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Several  of  the  Southern  States  were  in  a  very  unsettled  con 
dition.  Arkansas  was  agitated  almost  to  the  point  of  the 
bayonet  by  internal  political  conflict.  The  Louisiana  elec 
tion  troubles  were  at  culmination.  Mr.  Kellogg  and  Mr. 
McEnery  were  both  claiming  the  governorship  of  the  State. 
Behind  the  one  were  the  returning  board,  the  administration, 
and  the  arm}- ;  the  other  based  his  title  on  the  popular  vote. 
The  administration  party  maintained  that  the  honest  vote 
was  prevented  by  intimidation,  and  must  be  secured  by 
federal  interposition.  The  anti-administrationists  maintained, 
on  the  contrary,  that  Louisiana  votes,  returned  as  polled  under 
the  State  government  supervision,  aided  by  United  States 
supervisors  and  United  States  troops,  gave  the  State  Legislature 
to  conservatives  ;  that  a  returning  board  of  seven  men,  none  of 
them  citizens  of  Louisiana,  was  called  as  a  board  of  arbitrators 
to  determine  who  were  the  men  chosen  by  the  people  of  that 
State  to  represent  them  in  their  own  Legislature ;  that  this  re 
turning  board  had  rejected  the  governor  chosen  by  the  people, 
and  had  installed  in  the  Legislature  Republicans  who  had  never 
even  made  a  contest  for  seats,  and  that  these  had  been  kept  in  by 
federal  bayonets.  The  State  House  was  guarded  and  conserva 
tive  legislators  were  ejected  by  federal  troops.  Such  a  state  of 
things  ten  years  after  the  war  was  over  could  but  be  eminently 
unsatisfactory.  The  North  no  more  liked  to  see,  than  the  South 
to  feel,  United  States  soldiers  entering  a  capitol,  and  turning 
out  members  of  the  Legislature.  The  aggrieved  State  main 
tained  that  she  respected  the  National  government,  but  detested 
the  State  government  as  fraudulent.  The  President's  opponents 
insisted  that  it  was  the  result  of  his  officious  and  unconstitu 
tional  intermeddling.  The  radical  wing  of  his  supporters 
affirmed  that  it  was  due  to  the  rebellious  spirit  yet  rampant  in 
the  South.  The  conservative  wing  sought  to  compose  the 
differences  and  bring  about  a  better  feeling  and  condition, 
without  antagonizing  the  President,  or  widening  the  party  dis 
affection.  Of  these  Mr.  Blaine  was  chief. 

A  compromise  was  effected.  A  committee  was  appointed 
by  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  whose  decision  Louisiana 
promised  to  accept.  Its  final  recommendation  was  that  Kel 
logg  should  be  recognized  as  the  de  facto  governor,  that  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  317 

errors  of  the  Republican  enrolling  board  should  be  corrected, 
and  the  popular  branch  of  the  Legislature  given  to  the 
Democrats. 

Some  of  the  spring  elections  were  made  to  turn  virtually  on 
the  third-term  question,  as  involving  the  President's  vindica 
tion.  New  Hampshire  came  out  strongly  against  third  term, 
and  won.  In  Connecticut  the  Republican  platform  contained 
a  full  approval  of  the  administration,  and  lost.  Mr.  Blaine  was 
reproached  on  the  one  side  for  giving,  in  his  Connecticut 
speeches,  an  apology  for  the  President  rather  than  cordial  sup 
port  ;  and  on  the  other  side  for  giving,  if  not  justification,  at 
least  an  apology  for  the  President.  Against  complaint  of  sec 
tionalism  he  declared  broadly  and  definitely  that  the  sectional 
question  would  not  cease  until  the  Union  was  everywhere 
respected,  the  majesty  of  the  law  everywhere  recognized  ;  until 
the  rights  of  the  humblest  were  everywhere  conceded,  and 
freedom  of  speech  was  nowhere  denied;  until  Wendell  Phillips 
and  General  Logan  could  speak  as  freely  in  Georgia  as  Gordon 
and  Lamar  in  New  Hampshire ;  until  every  man  entitled  to 
suffrage  was  freely  accorded  the  privilege  of  voting.  He  also 
took  occasion  to  say  that  before  the  report  of  the  House 
Committee  had  been  received,  the  President  had  wisely  and 
necessarily  reached  its  conclusion,  which  was  the  only  practi 
cable  adjustment.  Any  other  would  have  involved  wrong  on 
one  hand,  anarchy  on  the  other. 

But  he  declared  as  definitely  that  he  had  no  faith  in  any 
special  form  of  additional  coercive  legislation.  He  believed 
that  legislation  had  gone  as  far  as  was  prudent  or  promis 
ing.  He  thought  the  time  had  come  for  reliance  on  other  forces. 
He  could  not  advise  or  consent  to  any  interference  with  an 
existing  State  government  except  under  the  express  terms  of 
the  Constitution  and  under  an  exigency  so  pressing  as  to  in 
volve  the  public  safety.  "  What  is  wanted  is  not  more  law,  but 
a  better  public  opinion" 

Both  sides  agreed  that  he  was  right  in  appealing  to  the  gen 
eral  feeling  that  the  Democrats  could  not  be  trusted,  and  the 
most  radical  began  to  observe  and  remark  with  approval  that 
Mr.  Blaine  had  not  condemned  outside,  but  had  labored  within 
the  party  to  correct  mistakes  and  to  prevent  their  repetition. 


318  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

The  Civil  Rights  bill,  characterized  by  its  opponents  as  a 
bill  to  abolish  the  color  line  and  the  Federal  Elections  bill,  by 
corresponding  authority  characterized  as  u  the  force  bill,"  and 
"  a  bill  to  facilitate  executive  interference  with  elections,"  were 
before  Congress  and  were  discussed  with  great  and  warm  in 
terest.  The  Republican  party  was  passing  from  power  in  the 
House,  and  the  more  radical  Republicans  deemed  the  enactment 
of  these  bills  sufficiently  important  to  justify  drastic  measures. 
They  insisted  that  the  Speaker  should  refuse  to  recognize  the 
Democrats  making  dilatory  motions,  and  should  recognize  only 
the  Republicans  who  were  in  charge  of  the  bills.  Mr.  Hlaine 
maintained  that  the  dilatory  motions  were  perfectly  in  accord 
ance  with  the  rules  of  the  House,  and  no  choice  was  left  him 
but  to  recognize  their  movers. 

The  object  aimed  at  in  both  bills,  Mr.  Blaine  desired  and  sought, 
but  he  did  not  think  it  attainable  in  the  prescribed  direction. 
He  believed  that  the  two  bills  were  an  attempt  to  accomplish 
by  legislation  what  legislation  can  never  accomplish.  Clearly 
seeing  the  great  wrongs  of  the  freedman  at  the  hands  of  South 
ern  prejudice  and  pride,  he  saw  as  clearly  that  no  great  advan 
tage  is  to  be  gained  by  legislating  against  human  pride  and 
prejudice.  Always  outspoken  for  a  free  and  pure  ballot  as 
essential  to  the  life  of  a  republic,  he  had  a  historic  patience, 
could  make  allowance,  and  strove  to  introduce  other  and  varied 
interests  of  business  and  patriotism  that  should  divert  the 
thought  of  the  South  from  sectional  matters  and  enlist  its  own 
financial  prosperity  and  material  progress  in  the  cause  of  human 
rights,  thus  dividing  the  u  solid  South  "  on  non-political  issues, 
making  the  colored  vote  valuable  and  to  be  sought  by  each 
party,  rather  than  worthless  because  abhorred  by  both.  To 
him  it  seemed  that  we  were  in  danger  of  losing  a  practical 
advance,  certified  by  the  logic  of  statistics  and  the  testimony 
of  unprejudiced  observers,  for  a  sentimental  advantage  that 
undoubtedly  showed  better  on  paper  and  rang  out  better  in 
oratorical  rhetoric  and  even  syllogism,  but  left  both  white 
and  black  at  the  South  waging  their  unequal  and  profitless 
war,  —  because  the  friction  of  humanity  must  always  be  allowed 
for  in  the  working  of  pure  logic. 

In  the  spring  of  1874  rumors  were  abroad  that  Independent 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  319 

editors  were  designing  to  form  a  party  by  joining  the  hard- 
money  Democrats,  with  Speaker  Blaine  for  a  candidate,  u  be 
cause  he  was  more  popular  with  the  Democrats  than  any  other 
Republican ; "  and  again  in  the  winter  of  1874-75  a  section 
of  the  Republican  party  that  was  impatient  of  slow  processes 
undertook  to  form  a  new  party,  and  endeavored  to  secure  the 
alliance  of  Mr.  Blaine.  His  unsurpassed  power  as  a  popular 
leader  was  everywhere  recognized  and  acknowledged,  and  it 
was  equally  manifest  that  in  principle  he  was  steadfast,  im 
movable  —  antagonizing  Republicans  with  promptness  and  effect, 
whenever  necessary  in  the  interests  of  good  government.  If 
his  cooperation  could  be  secured,  it  was  believed  that  the  people 
would  follow  ;  that  the  new  party  would  immediately  form  and 
move  without  halt  in  the  right  direction. 

The  disaffected  Republicans  assembled  in  force  in  Washing 
ton  and  made  direct  overtures  to  Mr.  Blaine  in  his  own  house. 
He  received  them  with  his  usual  light-hearted  cordiality  and 
hospitality,  conducted  what  could  hardly  be  called  the  negotia 
tions  with  abundance  of  argument  enlivened  with  much  illus 
tration  and  anecdote  ;  but  his  opinion  could  not  be  changed  or 
his  course  in  the  least  degree  influenced.  He  never  for  one 
moment  countenanced  a  secession  from  the  Republican  party. 
What  the  u  Independents "  could  not  understand  was  the 
principle  upon  which  Mr.  Blaine  assented  and  dissented. 
That  on  one  and  another  point  he  should  resist  his  party  to 
the  utmost,  yet  refuse  to  abandon  it  altogether,  was  to  them 
strangely  inexplicable.  He  was  first  and  last  in  demanding  a 
free  vote  and  a  fair  count,  and  yet  he  had  constantly,  stubbornly, 
and  effectually,  though  quietly,  opposed  the  "  force  bill "  with 
its  extreme  and  dangerous  power  of  suspending  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  using  the  army  in  the  suppression  of  vio 
lence,  without  reference  to  the  State  authorities.  He  had  cor 
dially  advocated  Grant's  reelection,  yet  was  well  known  to  be 
firmly  opposed  to  the  third  term.  The  direct  road  may  not  be 
wholly  in  sight  from  every  point  upon  it,  but  it  is  none  the  less 
the  direct  road.  What  seemed  to  uncomprehending  observers, 
or  what  insincere  observers  chose  to  characterize  as  tergiver 
sation,  or  caprice,  or  timidity,  was  the  instantaneous  and 
instinctive  application  of  unchanged  and  unchanging  principle. 


320  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

Mr.  Elaine,  moreover,  did  not  believe  that  parties  are  ever 
formed  on  Monboddo's  theory  of  the  construction  of  language, 
by  a  company  of  learned  men  assembled  for  the  purpose.  Parties 
form  themselves  and  whirl  up  their  own  leaders  in  the  storm. 
The  Republican  party  had  not  outlived  its  usefulness.  He  held 
it  to  be  sound  at  the  heart  —  occasionally  and  incidentally  wrong, 
substantially  right.  Its  organization,  traditions,  principles,  were 
too  valuable  to  be  thrown  aside.  He  foresaw  his  own  deposi 
tion  from  the  speakership,  not  only  with  tranquillity,  but  witli 
abundant  hope  of  greater  opportunity ;  of  putting  his  hand 
more  directly  to  the  helm  and  heading  the  noble  ship  more 
surely  on  her  true  course.  He  felt  no  need  of  a  new  party,  and 
saw  no  hope  in  leaving  the  old  party. 

The  4th  of  March  came,  and  he  relinquished  the  chair  amid 
the  warmest  expressions  of  personal  regret  and  regard,  not  only 
from  his  own  partisans,  but  from  his  comrades  in  the  oppo 
sition.  "  As  a  work  of  art,"  says  an  unemotional  eye-witness, 
"  his  speech  was  perfect,  but  no  one  who  reads  it  can  appreciate 
its  effect  as  it  was  delivered  to  the  vast  throng.  The  deep  feel 
ing  which  was  apparent  in  every  word  and  sentence  aroused 
corresponding  sympathy,  and  when  he  closed,  threw  down  the 
gavel  and  left  the  chair,  no  such  scene  has  been  witnessed  in 
the  House  by  the  oldest  habitue  of  the  Capitol." 

It  was  the  beginning  of  our  centennial  years,  and  he  took  an 
interested  part  in  the  Concord  and  Lexington  celebrations, 
whose  patriotism  could  no  more  be  chilled  by  the  April's  un 
timely  fierce  cold  than  could  the  patriotism  of  our  fathers  be 
withered  by  the  untimely  heat  of  its  predecessor  one  hundred 
years  before. 

In  October,  with  a  small  party  of  friends,  he  paid  a  vacation 
visit  of  a  week  or  more  to  our  British  neighbors  in  the  Provinces, 
touching  all  along  the  way,  through  St.  John  to  Halifax,  inspect 
ing  the  Citadel,  —  now  but  a  pleasant  international  jest, —  and  the 
beautiful  "Bellerophon,"  as  peaceful  as  a  white-winged  bird,  but 
which  might  turn  the  jest  into  a  sombre  fact ;  interchanging 
courtesies  with  the  Provincial  authorities,  and  building  with 
swift,  sure  hand  upon  history  and  poetry,  upon  race  resources 
and  position,  a  future  of  fair  promise. 

In   December  he  went  back  to   Congress  to  be   one  of  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  321 

minority  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  with  the  Democrats  naturally 
exulting  in  their  new  and  novel  majority. 

And  in  one  day  the  tide  had  turned,  and  the  majority,  sur 
prised  and  sobered,  found  themselves  swept  on  and  swept  under 
to  a  familiar  but  unwelcome  subordinacy. 

The  occasion  was  a  quiet  little  Democratic  attempt  to  un 
settle  the  Louisiana  settlement.  The  members  elected  to  the 
House  from  Louisiana  presented  themselves  for  admission. 
The  greater  number  of  them  held  certificates  from  both  Kellogg 
and  McEnery ;  one  held  a  certificate  from  Kellogg  alone  and 
had  no  competitor.  These  were  at  once  admitted.  One, 
Frank  Morey,  had  a  certificate  from  Governor  Kellogg,  but  had 
a  competitor  whose  certificate  was  signed  by  McEnery.  Hon. 
Fernando  Wood  moved  that  these  contesting  applications 
should  be  sent  to  the  Committee  on  Elections  for  decision — 
thereby  silently  assuming  that  the  governorship  was  still  in 
question.  But  this  apparently  harmless  arrangement  was  upset 
by  Mr.  Blame  the  moment  it  was  launched,  with  the  declara 
tion  that  McEnery  had  no  more  claim  to  be  considered 
governor  of  Louisiana  than  had  Mr.  Wood  to  be  governor  of 
New  York ;  and,  ably  supported  by  Wheeler,  of  New  York, 
who  had  been  chairman  of  the  House  Committee  on  Louisiana 
Affairs,  against  the  gentle  Lamar  and  the  witty  Cox  and  all 
other  comers,  he  proceeded  to  wrest  victory  from  the  jaws  of 
defeat,  till  Speaker  Kerr  sent  down  to  his  friends  on  the  floor 
the  word  of  advice  for  withdrawal,  and  the  experienced  Mr. 
Hoi  man  led  the  perplexed  ranks  of  his  party,  who  had  thought 
it  incumbent  upon  them  to  follow  Mr.  Wood,  safely  back  into 
camp.  The  Republicans  were  as  little  used  to  being  in  the 
minority  as  the  Democrats  were  to  being  in  a  majority,  and 
were  as  much  astonished  as  their  opponents  to  see  the  Demo 
cratic  party  "  broken  in  two  "  on  their  first  party  vote,  Mr. 
Wood's  budding  leadership  blighted,  and  such  men  as  Mr. 
Lamar  and  Mr.  Cox  turned  adrift,  on  the  first  day  of  the  ses 
sion.  They  took  heart  at  once,  and  in  the  elation  of  their  unex 
pected  triumph  openly  declared  that  "  the  whole  conduct  of 
affairs  might  as  well  be  put  into  Blaine's  hands  for  the  winter;  " 
that  not  only  could  he  be  trusted  to  lead,  but  that  a  man  who  can 
"  achieve  the  unprecedented  parliamentary  triumph  of  defeating 


322  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

and  demoralizing  the  majority  on  the  first  day  of  the  session, 
will  be  sure  to  shape  the  action  of  any  caucus  or  conference, 
and  can  fear  neither  his  foes  of  the  other  party  nor  rivals  in 
his  own." 

The  school  question,  as  connected  with  sectarianism,  had 
been  more  than  usually  prominent  before  the  country,  and  in 
one  State  at  least  it  had  been  considered  the  pivotal  point  on 
which  a  governor  —  Mr.  Hayes,  of  Ohio — was  elected  over 
his  Democratic  opponent,  Mr.  Allen.  Mr.  Blaine  thought  the 
matter  too  fundamental  to  be  left  to  the  varying  fortunes  of 
partisanship,  and  in  October,  1875,  he  had  written  to  a  citizen 
of  Ohio  a  letter  whose  substance  was  afterwards  formulated  in 
a  constitutional  amendment  which  should  forever  prohibit  any 
State  interference  for  or  against  an  establishment  of  religion  or 
the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  any  portion  of  the  public-school 
money,  whether  raised  by  taxation  or  derived  from  any  public 
funds,  from  being  placed  under  the  control  of  any  religious  sect 
or  divided  among  sects  or  denominations. 

Another  measure  which  the  Democrats  hoped  to    carry  un 
opposed  if   not  unobserved  in  the   glow  of  good  feeling  char 
acterizing  the  first  centennial  year,   Mr.  Blaine  promptly  laid 
hold  of  to  the  advancement  of  public  virtue  and  of  the  Repub 
lican  party. 

A  rebellion,  never  exceeded  in  magnitude,  had  been  followed 
by  a  victory  never  exceeded  in  magnanimity.  The  government 
in  the  hands  of  Republicans  had  from  time  to  time  remitted  the 
penalties  of  rebellion,  until  only  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
men  remained  outside  of  pardon  and  citizenship.  The  last 
Congress  had  reported  a  general  amnesty  bill  through  the 
House  Committee  of  Rules,  of  which  the  Speaker  is  chairman. 
Mr.  Blaine  had  not  wholly  approved  the  bill,  and  had  in  com 
mittee  objected  to  certain  of  its  features.  He  had,  however, 
been  willing  that  it  should  be  brought  before  the  House,  but  had 
asked  certain  members  to  oppose  it  in  the  House  and  had  not 
himself  taken  the  floor  against  it. 

Early  in  the  new  session  the  Democrats,  not  unwilling  to 
receive  some  small  share  of  the  glory  and  grace  of  the  final 
amnesty  in  our  centennial  year,  presented  a  bill  for  general  am 
nesty  through  Mr.  Randall,  of  Pennsylvania,  afterwards  Speaker. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  323 

Mr.  Blaine  at  once  gave  notice  that  he  should  offer  an  amend 
ment.  On  the  10th  of  January  Mr.  Randall  called  up  his  bill 
relieving  all  persons  in  the  United  States  from  the  disabilities 
imposed  by  the  fourteenth  article  of  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution.  Mr.  Blaine  at  once  projected  his  amendment,  in  the 
nature  of  a  substitute,  that  u  all  persons  in  the  United  States 
under  the  disabilities  imposed  by  the  fourteenth  amendment, 
with  the  exception  of  Jefferson  Davis,  late  president  of  the  so- 
called  confederate  States,  shall  be  relieved  of  such  disabilities, 
upon  their  appearing  before  any  judge  of  a  United  States  court, 
and  taking  and  subscribing  an  oath  that  they  will  support  and 
defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  bear  true  faith 
and  allegiance  to  the  same" 

The  exception  of  one  man,  and  the  condition  that  those  who 
wished  their  disabilities  removed  should  certify  their  change  of 
heart  by  swearing  allegiance  to  the  government  that  must  re 
move  them,  seems  but  a  slight  modification  of  the  amnesty  reso 
lution,  a  very  mild  display  of  Republican  revenge  ;  but  it  proved 
to  be  the  little  candle  that  lighted  up  the  whole  scene. 

Mr.  Randall  declined  to  admit  the  amendment  to  vote  or  de 
bate.  The  Republicans  refused  to  permit  it  to  be  summarily 
smothered,  and  therefore  defeated  the  bill,  which  required  a  two- 
thirds  vote.  Mr.  Blaine  then  moved  to  reconsider,  and  thus 
gained  control  of  the  bill,  which  lie  at  once  opened  to  debate 
and  amendment,  thereby  gaining  opportunity  to  offer  his  amend 
ment  as  a  substitute  for  the  original  bill.  He  then  addressed 
the  House,  emphasizing  the  spirit  and  defining  the  position  of 
the  Republican  party  regarding  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States : 

"  Every  time  the  question  of  amnesty  has  been  brought  be 
fore  the  House  by  a  gentleman  on  that  side  for  the  last  two 
Congresses,  it  has  been  done  with  a  certain  flourish  of  magna 
nimity  which  seems  to  convey  an  imputation  on  this  side  of  the 
House.  It  seemed  to  charge  the  Republican  party,  which  has 
been  in  control  of  the  government  for  the  last  fifteen  years,  with 
being  bigoted,  narrow,  and  illiberal,  grinding  down  certain  gen 
tlemen  in  the  Southern  States  under  a  great  tyranny,  from  which 
the  hard-heartedness  of  this  side  of  the  House  constantly  refuses 
to  relieve  them. 


324  BIOGRAPHT    OF  JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

"  If  I  may  anticipate  as  much  wisdom  as  ought  to  character 
ize  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House,  this  may  be 
the  last  time  that  amnesty  will  be  discussed  in  the  American 
Congress.  I  therefore  desire,  and  under  the  rules  of  the  House, 
with  no  thanks  to  that  side  for  the  privilege,  to  place  on  record 
just  Avhat  the  Republican  party  has  done  in  this  matter.  I  wisli 
to  place  it  there  as  an  imperishable  record  of  liberality,  and  mag 
nanimity,  arid  mercy  far  beyond  any  that  has  ever  been  shown 
before  in  the  world's  history  by  conqueror  to  conquered." 

A  concise  review  demonstrated  that  restoration  to  citizen 
ship  of  those  lately  in  rebellion  had  gone  steadily  on,  till  only 
about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  men  remained  outside  the  par 
don  of  the  United  States  government:  and  that  of  these  men 
three  hundred  and  twenty-five  were  officers  of  the  United 
States,  educated  at  its  own  expense  at  West  Point ;  two  hundred 
and  ninety-five  were  officers  of  the  navy ;  the  remainder  were 
Senators  and  Representatives  of  the  Thirty-sixth  and  Thirty- 
seventh  Congresses,  officers  in  the  judicial  service,  heads  of 
departments,  and  foreign  ministers  of  the  United  States.  To 
their  restoration  to  citizenship  he  offered  no  objection. 

"All  I  ask  is  that  each  of  these  gentlemen  shall  show  his 
good  faith  by  coming  forward  and  taking  the  oath  which  you 
on  that  side  of  the  House  and  we  on  this  side  of  the  House  take 
and  gladly  take.  It  is  a  very  small  exaction  to  make  as  a  pre 
liminary  to  full  restoration  to  all  the  rights  of  citizenship. 

"  In  my  amendment  I  have  excepted  Jefferson  Davis  from 
amnesty.  I  do  not  place  his  exclusion  on  the  ground  that  Mr. 
Davis  was,  as  he  has  been  commonly  called,  the  head  and  front 
of  the  Rebellion,  because  on  that  ground  I  do  not  think  the 
exception  would  be  tenable.  Mr.  Davis  was  in  that  respect  as 
guilty,  no  more  so,  no  less  so,  than  thousands  of  others  who 
have  already  received  the  benefit  and  grace  of  amnesty.  Prob 
ably  he  was  far  less  efficient  as  an  enemy  of  the  United  States ; 
probably  he  was  far  more  useful  as  a  disturber  of  the  councils 
of  the  confederacy,  than  many  who  have  already  received  am 
nesty.  It  is  not  because  of  any  particular  and  special  damage 
that  he  above  others  did  to  the  Union,  or  because  he  was  person 
ally  or  especially  of  consequence,  that  I  except  him.  But  I 
except  him  on  this  ground  :  that  he  was  the  author  knowingly, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  325 

deliberately,  guiltily,  and  wilfully,  of  the  gigantic  murders  and 
crimes  at  Andersonville." 

He  then  produced  in  detail  the  awful  proof  of  his  awful  ar 
raignment,  from  the  testimony  of  Democrats  and  Republicans, 
of  Southern  men  and  Northern  men,  of  soldiers  and  the  clergy  ; 
testimony  concerning  bloodhounds  set  upon  skeletons  that 
escaped  from  the  unspeakable  horrors  of  Andersonville,  —  tes 
timony  sworn  to  before  Congress  by  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses, 
recorded  in  its  annals,  and  concurred  in  by  Democrats  and  by 
Republicans.  All  this  he  charged  upon  the  deliberate  knowl 
edge  and  intent  of  Jefferson  Davis,  since  Winder  and  Wirz 
were  his  creatures,  acting  under  his  appointment  and  orders, 
and  even  sustained  by  him. 

"  The  poor  victim  Wirz  deserved  his  death  for  brutal  treat 
ment  and  murder  of  many  victims  ;  but  it  was  a  weak  policy  on 
the  part  of  our  government  to  allow  Jefferson  Davis  to  go  at 
large  and  hang  Wirz.  Wirz  was  nothing  in  the  world  but  a 
mere  subordinate,  and  there  was  no  special  reason  for  singling 
him  out  for  death.  I  do  not  say  he  did  not  deserve  it.  He 
deserved  no  mercy  ;  but  his  execution  seemed  like  skipping  over 
the  president,  superintendent,  and  board  of  directors  in  the  case 
of  a  great  railroad  accident  and  hanging  the  brake  man  of  the 
rear  car. 

"  There  is  no  proposition  here  to  punish  Jefferson  Davis.  No 
body  is  seeking  to  do  it.  That  time  has  gone  by.  The  statute 
of  limitations,  the  common  feelings  of  humanity,  supervene  for 
his  benefit.  But  what  you  ask  us  to  do  is  to  declare  by  a  vote 
of  two-thirds  of  both  branches  of  Congress  that  we  consider 
Mr.  Davis  worthy  to  fill  the  highest  offices  in  the  United  States 
if  he  can  find  a  constituency  to  endorse  him.  He  is  already  a 
voter ;  he  can  buy  and  he  can  sell ;  he  can  go  and  he  can  come. 
He  is  as  free  as  any  man  in  the  United  States.  This  bill  pro 
poses  that  Mr.  Davis,  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Senate  and  a 
two-thirds  vote  of  the  House,  shall  be  declared  eligible  and 
worthy  to  fill  any  office  up  to  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States.  For  one,  upon  full  deliberation,  I  refuse  my  assent  to 
that  proposition." 

Mr.  Blaine  was  not  content  with  making  no  charge  against 
the  Southern  people. 


326  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

"  I  do  not  arraign  the  Southern  people  for  these  inhumanities. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  charge  sympathy  with  such  wrongs 
upon  the  mass  of  any  people.  There  were  many  evidences  of  great 
uneasiness  in  the  South  about  the  condition  of  Andersonville. 
One  of  the  great  crimes  of  Jefferson  Davis  was  that,  besides 
conniving  at  the  cruelty,  he  concealed  it  from  the  Southern 
people.  He  labored  not  only  to  conceal  it,  but  to  make  false 
statements  about  it.  This  is  not  a  proposition  to  punish  Jeffer 
son  Davis.  Nobody  is  attempting  that.  But  here  and  now  I 
express  my  firm  conviction,  that  there  is  not  a  government,  a 
civilized  government,  on  the  face  of  the  globe  —  I  am  very  sure 
there  is  not  a  European  government  —  that  would  not  have 
arrested  Mr.  Davis  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  when  they  had 
him  in  their  power  would  not  have  tried  him  for  maltreatment 
of  the  prisoners  of  war  and  shot  him  within  thirty  days. 
France,  Russia,  England,  Germany,  Austria,  any  one  of  them 
would  have  done  it." 

"It  is  often  said  that  fcwe  shall  lift  Mr.  Davis  again  into 
great  consequence  by  refusing  him  amnesty.'  That  is  not  for 
me  to  consider.  I  only  see  before  me,  when  his  name  is  pre 
sented,  a  man  who,  by  a  wave  of  his  hand,  by  a  nod  of  his  head, 
could  have  put  an  end  to  the  atrocious  cruelties  at  Andersonville. 
Some  of  us  had  kinsmen  there,  most  of  us  had  friends  there, 
all  of  us  had  countrymen  there.  In  the  name  of  those  kinsmen, 
friends,  and  countrymen  I  here  protest,  and  shall  with  my  vote 
protest,  against  calling  back  and  crowning  with  the  honors  of 
full  American  citizenship  the  man  who  organized  that  murder." 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the  sensation  produced  by 
this  speech,  near  and  far,  immediate  and  lasting.  In  the 
House  the  opposition  raged  with  a  violence  which  to  the  ob 
server  seemed  portentous,  but  which  now  seems  creditable  and 
indeed  inevitable.  From  the  horror  and  the  crime  of  Anderson 
ville,  the  South  recoiled  as  strongly  as  the  North.  Their  hearts 
refused  to  receive  the  witness  of  their  heads.  They  simply 
denied  atrocities  which  they  could  neither  justify  nor  disprove. 

The  more  astute  saw,  too,  that  the  controversy  was  putting 
them  terribly  in  the  wrong  before  the  people ;  was  doing  them 
politically  more  harm  than  even  the  quiet  passage  of  an  am 
nesty  bill  could  have  done  them  good.  Under  the  goading  of 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  327 

this  formidable  opponent,  the  weaker  brethren  were  exposing 
their  weakest  points,  making  them  still  weaker  and  more  de 
fenceless.  Ineffectual  attempts  were  made  to  stay  the  torrent. 
It  was  doubly  hard  to  lose  a  victory,  so  nearly  ensured,  by  the 
sudden  necessity  of  making  a  political  stand  on  an  issue  im 
moral  and  indefensible. 

"  Has  not  the  time  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine  expired  ? " 
but  the  Speaker  was  obliged  to  answer  that  it  had  not. 

"  Can  he  claim  the  floor  ?  "  was  asked  when,  after  brief  sur 
cease,  he  was  up  again. 

"  Certainly,  I  have  the  floor  for  an  hour,  and  you  cannot  pre 
vent  it," 

u  I  did  not  ask  the  gentleman  from  Maine." 

But  the  Speaker,  whom  the  questioner  did  ask,  ruled  honor 
ably,  if  reluctantly,  that  the  gentleman  from  Maine  was  in 
order. 

"Will  the  gentleman  allow  me  a  moment?  "  he  asked  when 
off  the  floor,  and  "  no !  no !  "came  from  a  dozen  storm-centres  on 
the  Democratic  side  of  the  house. 

Vainly  he  protested,  "  Do  not  be  alarmed.  I  only  want  a 
moment."  His  "  moments  "  had  a  terror  of  their  own. 

Mr.  Cox  made  a  vain  attempt  at  response,  but  it  was  perfunc 
tory  and  ineffective.  Mr.  Hill,  of  Georgia,  with  the  courage  of 
despair  attempted  to  neutralize  the  effect  by  charging  that  equal 
atrocities  were  perpetrated  upon  Southern  prisoners  at  the  North  ; 
but  Northern  Democrats  from  the  locality  of  the  rebel  prisoners 
were  summoned  to  testify  on  the  spot,  and  between  two  opposing 
tires,  their  Northern  constituencies  and  their  Southern  allies,  gave 
unwilling  but  direct  testimony  against  an  allegation  so  false  as 
to  be  suicidally  foolish ;  while  Southern  Democrats  were  refuted 
by  unexpected  quotations  from  their  own  speeches  in  other 
halls.  Angry  men  cried  out  on  the  floor  that  Mr.  Blaine  was 
spoiling  the  opportunities  of  the  centennial  year  for  universal 
harmony.  He  was  like  some  "  magician  of  the  black  art,  with 
devilish  incantation,  calling  up  grim  and  gory  spectres  from  the 
political  inferno  to  mar  the  fair  form  of  the  festal  cheer  of  the 
Republic."  He  was  speaking  out  "  hate  and  venom."  He  was 
"a  ghoul,"  "a  howling  hyena,"  and  other  unpleasant  objects 
of  history  and  imagination.  But  no  rage  or  rhetoric  could 


328  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

disguise  the  simple  fact  that  what  he  sought  and  all  he  sought 
was  a  prohibition  of  national  honors  for  the  author  of  crimes 
against  humanity,  and  for  the  others  the  Divine  condition  of 
pardon,  —  the  asking  for  it.  The  father  went  out  to  meet  his 
prodigal  son  a  great  way  off,  but  not  while  the  prodigal  sat 
sulking  among  his  swine  ;  not  till  he  had  said,  and  suited  the 
action  to  the  word,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father,  and  will 
say  unto  him,  Father,  I  have  sinned." 

Two  days  afterwards  —  January  12  —  General  Garfield  fol 
lowed  Mr.  Blaine,  and  in  his  best  manner,  with  his  own  indi 
viduality  and  independence,  defended  every  position  that  Mr. 
Blaine  had  taken. 

Of  Mr.  Hill's  statement  that  the  atrocities  of  Andersonville 
do  not  begin  to  compare  with  the  atrocities  of  Elmira,  of  Fort 
Douglas,  or  of  Fort  Delaware,  and  that  of  all  the  atrocities, 
both  at  Andersonville  and  Elmira,  the  Confederate  government 
stands  acquitted  from  all  responsibility  and  blame,  —  General 
Garfield  said : 

"  I  stand  in  the  presence  of  that  statement  with  an  amaze 
ment  that  I  am  utterly  incapable  of  expressing.  I  look  upon 
the  serene  and  manly  face  of  the  gentleman  who  uttered  it,  and 
I  wonder  what  influence  of  the  supernal  or  nether  gods  could 
have  touched  him  with  madness  for  the  moment  and  led  him  to 
make  that  dreadful  statement.  I  pause  ;  and  I  ask  the  three 
Democrats  on  this  floor  who  happen  to  represent  the  districts 
where  are  located  the  three  places  named,  if  there  be  one  of 
them  who  does  not  know  that  this  charge  is  fearfully  and  awfully 
untrue?  [A  pause.]  Their  silence  answers  me.  They  are 
strangers  to  me,  but  I  know  they  will  repel  the  charge  with  all 
the  energy  of  their  manhood." 

Mr.  Blaine,  resuming  the  floor,  designated  the  two  questions 
of  our  treatment  of  rebel  prisoners  and  whose  was  the  blame 
for  breaking  exchange  as  points  on  which  General  Garfield  had 
left  him  nothing  to  say.  "  No  gentleman  in  this  House  has 
answered,  no  gentleman  can  answer,  one  fact  presented  by  him." 
But  he  pressed  harder  and  fortified  by  further  indisputable 
evidence,  by  the  words  of  the  Southern  men  themselves,  the  ter 
rible  truths  which  had  been  met  only  with  futile  denial  and  more 
futile  resentment,  and  especially  emphasized  his  citations  as 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  329 

being  always  from  Confederate,  never  from  Union  prisoners  — 
till  the  cry  was  repeated : 

Has  not  the  time  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine  expired  ? 

The  SPEAKER  (pro  tempore).  --  The  time  of  the  gentleman 
from  Maine  has  not  expired. 

Mr.  HANCOCK.  —  He  commenced  ten  minutes  before  one 
o'clock. 

Mr.  JONES  (of  Kentucky).  -  -  The  gentleman  from  Maine  is 
constantly  violating  the  rules  of  this  House. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  In  what  respect? 

The  SPEAKER  (pro  tempore). —  The  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
is  out  of  order.  The  Speaker  of  the  House  set  the  dial  exactly 
at  the  time  the  gentleman  from  Maine  commenced  his  speech, 
showing  exactly  when  his  hour  will  expire,  and  the  present 
occupant  of  the  chair  when  that  time  is  reached  will  notify 
the  House. 

On  the  14th  the  Democrats  attempted  by  a  coup  d'etat  to 
pass  their  amnesty  bill ;  but  Mr.  Elaine  anticipated  them, 
rallied  the  now  thoroughly  aroused  Republicans  to  their  posts 
of  vantage,  and  forced  the  Democrats  to  the  necessity  of  oppos 
ing  in  open  day  an  amnesty  bill  which  gave  pardon  for  the 
asking  to  every  man  but  one,  and  which  the  Republicans  would 
combine  with  Democrats  in  passing,  in  order  to  bring  up  a  bill 
which  they  knew  could  not  be  passed  at  all ;  and  having  mar 
shalled  all  forces  in  full  array,  he  dismissed  them  as  one  having 
authority : 

"  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  which  I  endeavored  to  have  this 
morning  the  poor  privilege  of  reading,  and  which  I  could  not 
get ;  but  again  under  the  rules  of  the  House,  always  beneficent, 
and  which  I  have  no  doubt  will  always  be  beneficent  as  admin 
istered  by  the  honorable  occupant  of  the  chair,  I  have  that 
privilege.  This  morning  I  received  a  letter  which  I  commend 
to  gentlemen  from  the  South.  With  that  fascinating  eloquence 
which  my  friend  from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Banks)  possesses,  he 
called  your  attention  to  the  great  value  in  this  centennial  year 
of  having  no  man  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  under 
the  slightest  political  disabilities,  and  why  except  poor  Jefferson 
Davis  ?  I  have  here  a  letter  written  to  me  without  any  request, 
and,  so  far  as  I  know,  without  any  expectation  that  it  would 


330  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

be  made  public  ;  but  I  am  sure  that  even  if  it  be  a  private  letter 
the  gentleman  writing  it  will  pardon  me  for  reading  it. 
1 1  is  as  follows : 

RALEIGH,  N.C.,  January  1~2,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  observe  there  is  excitement  in  the  House  on  the  amnesty 
proposition. 

In  1870  I  was  impeached  and  removed  from  office  as  governor  of  this 
State  solely  because  of  a  movement  which  I  put  on  foot  according  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  law  to  suppress  the  bloody  Ku-Klux.  This  was  done 
by  the  Democrats  of  the  State,  the  allies,  and  the  echoes  of  Northern 
Democrats.  I  was  also  disqualified  by  the  judgment  of  removal  from  hold 
ing  office  in  this  State.  The  Democratic  Legislature  of  this  State  and  its 
late  constitutional  convention  were  appealed  to  in  vain  by  my  friends  to 
remove  this  disability.  The  late  convention,  in  which  the  Democrats  had 
one  majority  by  fraud,  refused  by  a  strict  party  vote  to  remove  my  disa 
bilities  thus  imposed ;  and  I  am  now  the  only  man  in  North  Carolina  who 
cannot  hold  office. 

I  think  these  facts  should  be  borne  in  mind,  when  the  Democrats  in  Con 
gress  clamor  for  relief  to  the  late  insurgent  leaders.  Pardon  the  liberty  I 
have  taken  in  referring  to  this  matter,  and  believe  me,  truly,  your  friend, 

W.    W.    HOLDEN. 

Hon.  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 


"  Gentlemen,  what  have  you  to  say  to  that? 

"  Now,  I  wish  to  make  this  proposition,  that  I  may  bring  my 
bill  before  the  House  by  unanimous  consent,  and  I  will  yield  to 
any  gentleman  to  move  an  amendment  to  it.  I  will  give  to  that 
side  of  the  House  all  I  have  asked  for  this  side.  If  it  be 
the  case  that  gentlemen  will  refuse  that  proposition,  then  it  is 
because  they  do  not  want  any  bill  passed.  I  am  for  a  practi 
cable  amnesty.  I  am  for  an  amnesty  that  will  go  through." 

Mr.  ROBBINS,  of  North  Carolina.  —  I  object. 

Mr.  BLALNE.  —  Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  will  end  this  matter, 
which  I  have  within  my  power:  I  withdraw  the  motion  to 
reconsider. 

And  Jefferson  Davis  went  to  his  grave  a  man  without  a 
country. 

Many  of  Mr.  Elaine's  political  and  personal  friends  doubted 
the  wisdom  of  his  course,  —  feared  the  stirring  up  of  ill-feeling, 
deprecated  possible  consequences,  did  not  understand  how  he 
who  opposed  the  force  bill  could  also  oppose  the  amnesty  bill. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  331 

They  thought  the  country  was  "  weary  of  strife,  wanted  con 
ciliation,  and  not  renewal  of  acerbity.  Everybody  was  sick  of 
the  whole  Southern  business.  The  country  had  a  chance  to 
make  money  and  wanted  to  be  let  alone." 

He  was  sternly  warned  by  the  Republican  press  that  such 
movements  would  "  lose  him  the  presidency."  In  noting  can 
didates  "  Speaker  Blaine  was  already  counted  out."  "  Hot  corn 
was  not  dropped  more  suddenly  than  our  candidate  James  G. 
Blaine."  "  It  was  smartness,  but  not  statesmanship."  It  was 
hoped  that  "  his  speech  on  the  second  day  would  retrieve  the 
errors  of  his  first."  He  had  not  "  only  destroyed  the  centen 
nial  harmony  in  the  land,  but  the  centennial  appropriation  in 
Congress." 

But  Mr.  Blaine  never  mistook  the  temper  and  touch  of  the 
people.  Across  the  leaders,  athwart  apparent  tendencies,  he 
appealed  to  the  general  sense  of  justice,  to  the  conscience, 
the  reason,  the  heart ;  and  the  response  was  sure.  In  this  case 
it  was  electric.  The  nation  was  tired  of  strife  and  wanted 
peace,  but  riot  with  Jefferson  Davis  as  a  chief  corner-stone. 
Outside  of  politics,  regardless  of  parties,  over  all  the  North,  in 
crowded  city  and  remote  hamlet,  here,  there,  everywhere,  was 
a  father,  a  mother,  wife,  sister,  daughter,  in  whose  heart  dwelt 
an  undying  memory,  the  memory  of  some  one  dearer  than  life, 
who  had  sunk  in  the  mud  of  Andersonville,  his  only  bed,  and 
had  died  in  the  mud  where  he  sank  ;  memories  of  dear  ones 
who  had  gone  out  men  and  had  returned  —  but  let  us  forget. 
Jefferson  Davis  was  not  honored,  and  it  is  lawful  now  to 
forget. 

To  these  suvivors  Mr.  Blaine's  words  spoke  like  a  voice  from 
heaven.  Their  unspeakable  sorrows  were  not  forgotten ;  their 
unspeakable  wrongs  were  not  to  be  whelmed  in  a  rush  even  of 
centennial  good  feeling,  and  the  centennial  was  all  the  more 
worth  celebrating  because  they  were  not.  Letters  came  pour 
ing  in  upon  Mr.  Blaine.  Steam  was  not  swift  enough.  From 
every  quarter  the  lightning  flashed  gratitude  to  the  man  who 
had  touched  a  sacred  woe  with  sympathetic  hand.  Every  mail 
and  every  minute  brought  messages  of  love  and  thanks. 

The  echoes  of  disapproval  had  not  died  away  before  Repub 
lican  conventions  began  to  pass  resolutions  denouncing  Mr. 


332  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLATNE. 

Hill  and  endorsing  Speaker  Blaine  "  for  his  noble  defence  in 
opposition  to  the  amnesty  bill."  It  began  soon  to  be  dis 
covered  by  the  newspapers  that  Mr.  Elaine's  great  blunder  in 
making  the  speech  had  been  more  than  offset  by  Mr.  Hill's 
monstrous  errors  in  answering  it.  Then  came  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Jefferson  Davis,  on  the  27th  of  January,  citing  to  an 
astonished  world  his  "  inexcusable  tortures  and  privations  at 
Fortress  Munroe,"  the  "  want  and  suffering  of  men  in  Northern 
prisons,"  and  the  extraordinary  argument  that  "  to  remove 
political  disabilities,  which  there  was  not  legal  power  to  impose, 
was  not  an  act  of  so  much  grace,"  and  that  he  had  been  cen 
sured  "  because  I  would  not  visit  on  the  helpless  prisoners  in 
our  hands  such  barbarities  "  as  had  been  inflicted  on  Southern 
prisoners  by  the  North. 

Then  men  remembered  that  Mr.  Blame  had  avowed  his 
desire  that  the  people  should  know  the  animus  of  these  unre 
pentant  rebel  leaders  who  were  as  busy  as  they  had  been 
before  the  war  in  consolidating  the  old  slave  States  into  one 
compact,  political  organization,  which,  with  a  very  few  votes 
from  the  North,  should  govern  the  country;  and  eveii-those  who 
had  decried  his  appeal,  declared  that  one-half  of  Davis's  letter 
was  taken  up  in  showing  that  Blaine  was  right !  "  It  is 
Blaine's  luck,"  was  the  half  vexed,  half  admiring  comment. 
"  He  will  be  marching  through  the  country  now  as  the  cham 
pion  of  disabled  Union  soldiers,  just  as  lie  did  a  month  ago  as 
champion  of  public  schools."  He  even  received  the  tribute 
of  imitation,  and  other  men  smote  the  same  chords,  but  drew 
thence  only  a  languid  note  and  passed  in  music  out  of  sight. 

Leaving  the  discussion  to  wear  itself  away,  Mr.  Blaine 
turned  to  other  things.  An  irredeemable  paper  currency  still 
seemed  to  many  a  way  of  escape  from  poverty,  and  the  "  Rag 
Baby  "  was  fondled  and  scourged  through  the  country.  The 
essential  nature  and  value  of  the  circulating  medium  Mr.  Blaine 
believed  to  be  a  matter  about  which  parties  should  agree  never 
to  disagree.  On  the  10th  of  February  he  spoke  in  the  House, 
arguing  witli  great  force  from  the  experience  of  the  world,  the 
necessity  of  a  specie  standard,  a  necessity  which  the  greater 
necessity  of  war  had  temporarily  overborne,  and  which  contin 
ued  prostration  of  business  had  permitted  to  be  overlooked. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Government  notes  as  legal  tender  had  been  the  last  and  suc 
cessful  resort  of  war ;  but  he  demonstrated  the  disorder  and 
disaster  that  must  follow  a  reliance  on  an  irredeemable  paper 
currency  as  relief  from  business  stagnation,  or  as  anything  but 
the  addition  of  permanent  confusion  to  whatever  burden  we 
might  be  laboring  under. 

All  occasion  for  such  argument  has  happily  long  since 
passed ;  yet  so  clear  in  statement,  so  pertinent  in  illustration, 
so  picturesque  and  forceful  in  arrangement,  so  vivid  in  style,  so 
patriotic  and  proud  was  his  presentation,  that  it  can  be  read 
to-day  with  keen  interest  and  pleasure.  Amid  the  many  inflation 
schemes  fatal  to  both  honor  and  prosperity,  it  was  welcomed 
as  a  guiding  voice  on  a  darkened  and  perilous  way. 

Public  approval  of  Mr.  Elaine's  position  on  the  currency  was 
outspoken.  Men  of  affairs  said  that  while  his  speech  on  am 
nesty  appealed  to  patriotic  sentiment,  his  soundness  on  money 
showed  hard-headed  business  ability.  Even  the  omniscients  of 
the  lecture-room  and  the  editorial  chair,  who  had  thought  his 
"  amnesty  performances  mere  smartness,"  admitted  this  to  be 
as  near  statesmanship  as  they  ever  allow  Congressmen  to 
approach.  Before  the  month  was  out,  the  newspapers  were 
declaring  that  "  Blaine  is  the  only  one  of  the  candidates  mak 
ing  real  headway."  He  was  "  popular  with  the  people."  Men 
might  be  never  so  tired  of  strife,  never  so  eager  to  make 
money,  but  "  Blaine  is  gathering  in  the  States."  When  the 
"  post-tradership  scandals  "  were  before  Congress,  "  the  Repub 
licans  had  the  best  of  the  discussion,  not  because  their  argu 
ments  were  stronger,  but  because  Blaine,  by  his  skilful 
leadership,  persistency,  and  strength  of  lungs  bore  down  all 
opposition.  What  with  Ben  Hill  and  the  Rag  Baby,  the  under 
tow  of  Blaine  sentiment  is  unmistakable." 

When  the  reformers  put  forward  a  bill  prohibiting  election 
contributions  from  government  clerks,  Mr.  Blaine  went  a  step 
further,  and  moved  an  amendment  prohibiting  election  contribu 
tions  also  from  members  of  Congress  while  they  were  candidates 
for  Congress ;  but  took  occasion  to  warn  the  reformers  that  one 
or  two  men  behind  the  polling-booth  can  do  more  mischief  than 
a  thousand  bribed  men  can  do  outside.  It  seemed  in  the  right 
line  and  harmless,  and  Mr.  Caulfield,  who  had  it  in  charge. 


334  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

permitted  him  to  introduce  it ;  but  evidently  fearing  some  mys 
terious  consequence,  took  back  his  permission  in  a  panic,  and 
Mr.  Blaine  was  forced  to  get  possession  of  the  bill  and  introduce 
his  amendment  as  an  original  proposition. 

By  April,  palliation  and  modifications  and  secondary  causes 
were  thrown  aside,  and  leading  Republican  journals  admitted 
that  Mr.  Blame  had  with  "consummate  sagacity  sounded  the 
key-note  of  his  policy  in  his  amnesty  speech  last  winter.  Many 
of  his  best  friends  then  thought  he  had  made  a  frightful 
blunder,  but  he  understood  the  temper  of  the  Republican 
masses  better  than  they."  And  on  the  lines  which  he  laid 
down  that  winter  the  victory  of  1876  was  won. 

The  situation  became  to  the  party  which  had  been  sixteen 
years  out  of  power,  acute  and  critical.  As  the  life  and  death 
questions  of  slavery  and  reconstruction  receded,  leaving  victory 
with  the  nation,  private  ambitions  grew  more  restless  and  party 
opposition  more  hopeful.  The  Republican  State  defeats  of 
Grant's  second  term  augured  the  possibility  of  a  national  defeat 
in  1876.  But  it  became  constantly  more  evident  that  one  man 
in  particular  must  be  disabled  before  success  could  be  assured. 
From  party  defeat  as  from  party  triumph  the  Democrats  and  the 
reformers  observed  with  dismay  that  this  man  came  out  stronger 
than  he  went  in,  and  that  behind  him  followed  a  great  admiring 
and  enthusiastic  army  of  the  loyal,  sturdy,  controlling  masses  of 
the  Republican  party,  —  an  army  whose  ranks  were  constantly 
swelling  in  numbers,  in  strength,  in  momentum.  Whether  it 
were  the  dry  matters  of  finance  or  the  more  emotional  questions 
of  amnesty,  or  public  concerns  of  less  denned  if  not  less  impor 
tant  traits  than  either,  mere  political  opposition  was  of  no  avail. 
There  must  be  a  resort  to  some  other  expedient. 

The  politics  of  those  who  opposed  the  Republicans  seemed  to 
consist  mainly  of  investigation.  To  justify  a  new  party,  it 
seemed  necessary  to  demonstrate  that  the  chief  men  of  the  old 
Republican  party  were  scoundrels.  In  number  and  extent  the 
investigations  set  on  foot  during  that  Democratic  reform  winter 
were  unprecedented.  Whether  it  was  the  aftermath  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier,  or  whether  human  nature,  after  rising  to  the 
height  of  great  questions,  must,  upon  their  settlement  and  with 
drawal,  react  in  false  and  feeble  and  futile  issues,  the  air  was 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  335 

heavy  with  charges  and  counter-charges  of  corruption.  Mr. 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  lifted  up  his  voice  and  protested 
that  the  nation's  work  was  being  ever  better  done,  and  was 
laughed  at  for  his  pains  by  the  professional  reformers.  From 
the  Credit  Mobilier  storm  Mr.  Blaine  had  emerged  untouched  ; 
but  his  name  had  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  railroads, 
and  railroads  had  not  yet  been  taken  from  the  "  Index  Expurga- 
torius."  The  popular  prejudice  regarding  railroads  might  yet 
be  turned  to  account  against  him. 

Indefinite  and  anonymous  but  scandalous  rumors  began  to 
steal  about.  On  February  28,  1876,  Mr.  Blaine  received  a  let 
ter  from  a  friend  which  gave  them  definite  shape,  and  the 
authority  of  Mr.  John  Scott  C.  Harrison,  of  Indianapolis,  a 
government  director  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company, 
a  road  which  derived  its  franchises  from  the  national  govern 
ment.  This  story  was  that  shortly  after  Mr.  Harrison  became  a 
director,  he  found  seventy-five  worthless  bonds  of  the  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  among  the  assets  of  the  com 
pany.  Upon  inquiry,  he  learned  that  the  company,  in  return  for 
a  favor  done  it  by  Mr.  James  G.  Blaine,  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  had  loaned  him  $ 64,000,  had  accepted  his  worthless  bonds 
as  security,  and  that  Mr.  Blaine  had  never  repaid  the  loan. 
The  draft  had  been  ordered  on  motion  of  Thomas  Scott,  presi 
dent  of  the  road,  and  was  made  payable  to  the  order  of  Morton, 
Bliss,  &  Co.,  New  York.  This  information  Mr.  Harrison  re 
ceived  from  Mr.  Rollins,  an  officer  of  the  company.  Such,  with 
many  variations  and  details,  was  the  substance  of  the  rumors. 
The  favor  for  which  Mr.  Blaine  received  the  $64,000  was  not 
stated,  but  the  implication  was  of  corrupt  legislation. 

This  letter  Mr.  Blaine  answered  with  a  denial  of  the  whole 
statement  so  far  as  it  concerned  himself ;  but  no  private  denial 
could  make  headway  against  a  tale  intended  for  public  cir 
culation.  On  April  11  an  Indianapolis  newspaper  opened 
its  columns  formally  to  the  charge,  unwittingly  revealing  the 
animus  of  the  attack  in  the  first  sentence :  "  A  prominent 
banker  of  this  city  is  in  possession  of  a  secret,  the  exposure  of 
which  will  forever  blast  the  prospects  of  a  certain  candidate  for 
the  presidency." 

As  Mr.  Blaine  did   not   immediately   reply,    the  utterers    of 


836  BIOGRAPHY    Of  JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  tale  began  to  demand  that  Mr.  Blaine  ask  an  immediate 
investigation,  and  to  threaten  that  "  if  he  does  not,  J.  S.  C.  Har 
rison  will  go  before  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  as 
government  director  of  the  road  and  demand  an  immediate 
investigation ;  "  and  when  a  week  had  passed  some  not  perhaps 
so  unfriendly  as  timid  observers  began  to  fear  that  "  Blaine  had 
made  a  mistake  in  not  asking  an  investigation." 

Mr.  Blaine  had  his  own  way  of  meeting  these  rumors.  His 
private  letter  of  denial  had  been  enough  to  meet  honest  doubt. 
To  the  public  charge  he  made  public  answer  in  the  full  House 
of  Representatives,  not  demanding  investigation,  but  bringing 
proof  that  defied  investigation. 

It  was  on  the  24th  of  April,  a  rainy  and  dismal  day,  but  the 
House  was  crowded.  Mr.  Blaine  read  his  speech  from  manuscript. 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  Mr.  Speaker,  with  the  leave  of  the  House,  so 
kindly  granted,  I  shall  proceed  to  submit  certain  facts  and  cor 
rect  certain  errors  personal  to  myself.  The  dates  of  the  corre 
spondence  embraced  in  my  statement  will  show  that  it  was 
impossible  for  me  to  make  it  earlier.  I  will  be  as  brief  as 
the  circumstances  shall  permit.  For  some  months  past  a  charge 
against  me  has  been  circulating  in  private,  and  was  recently 
made  public,  designing  to  show  that  I  had,  in  some  indirect 
manner,  received  the  large  sum  of  164,000  from  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  1871,  —  for  what  services  or  for 
what  purposes  has  never  been  stated.  The  alleged  proof  of  this 
serious  accusation  was  based,  according  to  the  original  story, 
upon  the  authority  of  E.  H.  Rollins,  treasurer  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Company,  who,  it  was  averred,  had  full  knowledge  that 
I  got  the  money ;  and  also  upon  the  authority  of  Morton,  Bliss, 
&  Co.,  bankers  of  New  York,  through  whom  the  draft  for 
$64,000  was  said  to  have  been  negotiated  for  my  benefit,  as  they 
confidentially  knew.  Hearing  of  this  charge  some  weeks  in 
advance  of  its  publication,  T  procured  the  following  statement 
from  the  two  principal  witnesses  who  were  quoted  as  having 
such  definite  knowledge  against  me : 

UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  COMPANY, 

BOSTON,  March  31,  1876. 

DEAR  SIR  :  In  response  to  your  inquiry,  I  beg  leave  to  state  that  I  have 
been  treasurer  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  since  April  8,  1871, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  337 

and  have  necessarily  known  of  all  disbursements  made  since  that  date. 
During  that  entire  period,  up  to  the  present  time,  1  am  sure  that  no  money 
has  been  paid  in  any  way  or  to  any  person  by  the  company  in  which  you 
were  interested  in  any  manner  whatever. 

I  make  this  statement  in  justice  to  the  company,  to  you,  and  to  myself. 

.  Very  respectfully  yours, 

E.  H.  ROLLINS. 
Hon.  JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

NEW  YORK,  April  G,  1876. 

DEAR  SIR  :  In  answer  to  your  inquiry  we  beg  to  say  that  no  draft,  note, 
or  check,  or  other  evidence  of  value,  has  ever  passed  through  our  books  in 
which  you  were  known  or  supposed  to  have  any  interest  of  any  kind, 
direct  or  indirect. 

We  remain,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servants, 

MORTON,  BLISS,  &  Co. 
Hon.  JAMES  G.  BLAINE, 

Washington,  D.C. 

Some  persons  on  reading  the  letter  of  Morton,  Bliss,  &  Co. 
said  that  its  denial  seemed  to  be  confined  to  any  payment 
that  had  passed  through  their  "books,"  whereas  they  might 
have  paid  a  draft  in  which  I  was  interested  and  yet  no  entry  of 
it  made  on  their  "  books."  On  this  criticism  being  made  known 
to  the  firm,  they  at  once  addressed  me  the  following  letter : 

XEW  YORK,  April  13,  1876. 

DEAR  SIR  :  It  has  been  suggested  to  us  that  our  letter  of  the  6th  instant  was 
not  sufficiently  inclusive  or  exclusive.  In  that  letter  we  stated  "that  no 
draft,  note,  or  check,  or  other  evidence  of  value,  has  ever  passed  through 
our  books  in  which  you  were  known  or  supposed  to  have  any  interest,  direct 
or  indirect."  It  may  be  proper  for  us  to  add  that  nothing  has  been  paid  by 
us,  in  any  form  or  at  any  time,  to  any  person  or  any  corporation,  in  which 
you  were  known,  believed,  or  supposed  to  have  any  interest  whatever. 
We  remain,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servants, 

MORTON,  BLISS,  &  Co. 
Hon.  J.  G.  BLAINE, 

Washington,  D.C. 

The  two  witnesses  quoted  for  the  original  charge  having  thus 
effectually  disposed  of  it,  the  charge  itself  reappeared  in  an 
other  form,  to  this  effect,  namely,  that  a  certain  draft  was 


338  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

negotiated  at  the  house  of  Morton,  Bliss,  &  Co.,  in  1871,  through 
Thomas  A.  Scott,  then  president  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  for  the  sum  of  $64,000,  and  that  175,000  of  the  bonds 
of  the  Little  Rock  and  Forth  Smith  Railroad  Company  were 
pledged  as  collateral ;  that  the  Union  Pacific  Company  paid  the 
draft  and  took  up  the  collateral ;  that  the  cash  proceeds  of  it 
went  to  me,  and  that  I  had  furnished,  or  sold,  or  in  some  way 
conveyed  or  transferred  to  Thomas  A.  Scott  these  Little  Rock 
and  Fort  Smith  bonds  which  had  been  used  as  collateral ;  that 
the  bonds  in  reality  had  belonged  to  me  or  some  friend  or  con 
stituent  of  mine  for  Avhom  I  was  acting.  I  endeavor  to  state 
the  charge  in  its  boldest  form  and  in  all  its  phases. 

I  desire  here  and  now  to  declare  that  all  and  every  part  of 
this  story  that  connects  my  name  with  it  is  absolutely  untrue, 
without  one  particle  of  foundation  in  fact,  and  without  a  tittle 
of  evidence  to  substantiate  it.  I  never  had  any  transaction  of 
any  kind  with  Thomas  A.  Scott  concerning  bonds  of  the  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  road  or  the  bonds  of  any  other  railroad, 
or  any  business  in  any  way  connected  with  railroads,  directly 
or  indirectly,  immediately  or  remotely.  I  never  had  any  busi 
ness  transaction  whatever  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  or  any  of  its  officers  or  agents  or  representatives,  and 
never  in  any  manner  received  from  that  company,  directly  or 
indirectly,  a  single  dollar  in  money,  or  stocks,  or  bonds,  or  any 
other  form  of  value.  And  as  to  the  particular  transaction  re 
ferred  to,  I  never  so  much  as  heard  of  it  until  nearly  two  years 
after  its  alleged  occurrence,  when  it  was ,  talked  of  at  the  time 
of  the  Credit  Mobilier  investigation  in  1873.  But,  while  my 
denial  ought  to  be  conclusive,  I  should  greatly  regret  to  be  com 
pelled  to  leave  the  matter  there.  I  am  fortunately  able  to  sus 
tain  my  own  declaration  by  the  most  conclusive  evidence  that 
the  case  admits  of  or  that  human  testimony  can  supply.  If  any 
person  or  persons  know  the  truth  or  falsity  of  these  charges,  it 
must  be  the  officers  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  I 
accordingly  addressed  a  note  to  the  president  of  that  company, 
a  gentleman  who  has  been  a  director  of  the  company  from  its 
organization,  I  believe,  and  who  has  a  more  thorough  acquaint 
ance  with  its  business  transactions  probably  than  any  other 
man.  The  correspondence  which  I  here  submit  will  explain 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  339 

itself,  and  leaves  nothing  to  be  said.     I  will  read  the  letters  in 
their  proper  order.     They  need  no  comment : 


WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  April  13,  1876. 

DEAR  SIR  :  You  have  doubtless  observed  the  scandal  now  in  circulation 
in  regard  to  my  having  been  interested  in  certain  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock 
and  Fort  Smith  road,  alleged  to  have  been  purchased  by  your  company  in 
1871. 

It  is  due  to  me,  I  think,  that  some  statement  in  regard  to  the  subject 
should  be  made  by  yourself  as  the  official  head  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail 
road  Company. 

Very  respectfully, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
SIDNEY  DILLON,  Esq., 

President  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

OFFICE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  COMPANY, 

NEW  YORK,  April  15,  187G. 

DEAR  SIR:  I  have  your  favor  of  the  13th  instant,  and  in  reply  desire 
to  say  that  I  have  this  day  written  Col.  Thomas  A.  Scott,  who  was  presi 
dent  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  at  the  time  of  the  transaction 
referred  to,  a  letter  of  which  I  send  a  copy  herewith.  On  receipt  of  his 
reply  I  will  enclose  it  to  you. 

Very  respectfully, 

SIDNEY  DILLON,  President. 
Hon.  JAMES  G.  BLAINE, 

Washington,  D.C. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  COMPANY, 

NEW  YORK,  April  15,  1876. 

DEAR  SIR  :  The  press  of  the  country  are  making  allegations  that  cer 
tain  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad,  purchased  by  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  1871,  were  obtained  from  Hon.  James 
G.  Blaine,  of  Maine,  or  that  the  avails  in  some  form  went  to  his  benefit, 
and  that  the  knowledge  of  these  facts  rests  with  the  officers  of  the  com 
pany  and  with  yourself. 

These  statements  are  injurious  both  to  Mr.  Blaine  and  to  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company.  There  were  never  any  facts  to  warrant  them, 
and  I  think  that  a  statement  to  the  public  is  due  both  from  you  and  myself. 
I  desire,  as  president  of  the  company,  to  repel  any  such  inference  in  the 
most  emphatic  manner,  and  would  be  glad  to  hear  from  you  on  the  subject. 

Very  respectfully, 

SIDNEY  DILLON,  President. 
Col.  THOMAS  A.  SCOTT, 

Philadelphia,  Penn. 


340  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

OFFICE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  COMPANY, 

NEW  YORK,  April  22,  1876. 

DEAR  SIR:  As  I  advised  you  some  days  ago,  I  wrote  Col.  Thomas 
A.  Scott,  and  beg  leave  to  enclose  you  his  reply. 

I  desire  further  to  say  that  I  was  a  director  of  the  company  and  a  mem 
ber  of  the  executive  committee  in  1871,  and  to  add  my  testimony  to  that  of 
Colonel  Scott's  in  verification  of  all  that  he  has  stated  in  the  enclosed 
letter. 

Truly  yours, 

SIDNEY  DILLON,  President. 
Hon.  JAMES  G.  ELAINE, 

Washington,  D.C. 

PHILADELPHIA,  April  21,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  your  letter,  under  date  New  York,  April  15, 
1876.  .  .  . 

In  reply,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that,  much  as  I  dislike  the  idea  of  entering 
into  any  of  the  controversies  that  are  before  the  public  in  these  days  of 
scandal,  from  which  but  few  men  in  public  life  seem  to  be  exempt,  I  feel 
it  my  duty  to  state  : 

That  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  bonds  purchased  by  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  1871  were  not  purchased  or  received  from 
Mr.  Blaine,  directly  or  indirectly,  and  that  of  the  money  paid  by  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  or  of  the  avails  of  said  bonds,  not  one 
dollar  went  to  Mr.  Blaine,  or  to  any  person  for  him,  or  for  his  benefit  in 
any  form. 

All  statements  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Blaine  ever  had  any  transactions 
with  me,  directly  or  indirectly,  involving  money  or  valuables  of  any  kind, 
are  absolutely  without  foundation  in  fact. 

I  take  pleasure  in  making  this  statement  to  you,  and  you  may  use  it  in 
any  manner  you  deem  best  for  the  interest  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company. 

Very  truly  yours, 

THOMAS  A.  SCOTT. 

SIDNEY  DILLON,  Esq., 

President  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  New  York. 

This  closes  the  testimony  I  have  wished  to  offer. 

Several  newspapers  —  some  of  them,  doubtless,  from  friendly 
motives  —  have  urged  that  I  should  ask  for  a  committee  to  in 
vestigate  these  charges.  I  might  have  done  that  and  awaited 
the  delay  and  slow  progress  that  inevitably  attend  all  congres 
sional  investigations.  Three  and  a  half  years  ago  F  moved  a 
committee  to  investigate  the  Credit  Mobilier  charges,  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  341 

though  every  particle  of  proof,  in  complete  exculpation  of  my 
self,  was  before  the  committee  in  thirty-six  hours  after  its  first 
meeting,  I  was  compelled  to  wait  for  more  than  two  months, 
indeed  seventy  full  days,  before  I  got  a  public  report  exonerat 
ing  and  vindicating  me  from  the  charges.     If  I  had  asked  for 
a  committee  to  investigate  the  pending  matter,  I  should  have 
been  compelled  to  wait  its    necessarily  slow  action,  with  the 
charge  all  the  while  hanging  over  me,  undenied  and  unanswered  ; 
and,  pending  the  proceedings  of  an  investigation  which  I  had 
myself  asked,  propriety  would  have   forbidden   my  collecting 
and  publishing  the  decisive  proofs  which  I  have  now  submitted. 
For  these  reasons  I  have  deemed  that  the  shortest  and  most  ex 
peditious  mode  of  vindication  was  the  one  which  I  was  bound 
to  choose  by  every  consideration  of  myself  personally  and  of  my 
official  relations.     I  have  not  omitted  the  testimony  of  a  single 
material  witness   to  the  transaction    on   which  the   accusation 
against  me  is  based,  and  unlesss  I  misapprehend  the  scope  and 
force  of  the  testimony  it  leaves  no  charge  against  me.     In  any 
and  all  events,  I  am  ready  to  submit  the   whole  matter  to  the 
candid   judgment  of  the  House   and  the   country;  and  if  the 
House  thinks  the  matter  should  be  further  inquired  into,  I  beg 
to  express  my  entire  readiness  to  give  all  the  assistance  in  my 
power  to  make  the  investigation  as   thorough,  as  rigid,  and  as 
impartial  as  possible. 

To  give  a  seeming  corroboration  or  foundation  to  the  story 
which  I  have  disproved,  the  absurd  rumor  has  lately  appeared 
in  certain  newspapers  that  I  was  the  owner  of  from  $150,000  to 
$250,000  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  bonds, 
which  I  received  without  consideration,  and  that  it  was  from 
these  bonds  that  Thomas  A.  Scott  received  his  #75,000.  The 
statement  is  gratuitously  and  utterly  false.  No  responsible 
author  appears  anywhere  for  this  unfounded  story,  but  in  dis 
missing  it  I  desire  to  make  the  following  explicit  statement : 
More  than  twenty-three  years  ago,  in  the  closing  days  of^Mr. 
Fillmore's  administration,  the  government  granted  to  the  State 
of  Arkansas  some  public  lands  within  its  own  limits  to  be  ap 
plied  to  the  construction  of  railroads  in  that  State.  The  Legis 
lature  of  Arkansas  incorporated  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
Railroad  Company  the  same  year,  and  gave  to  the  company  a 


342  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

portion  of  the  lands  it  had  received  from  the  general  govern 
ment  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  road — about  live  thou 
sand  acres  to  the  mile,  I  think.  But  the  company  were  unable 
to  raise  any  money  for  the  enterprise,  though  they  made  the 
most  strenuous  efforts,  and  when  the  war  broke  out  in  1861- 
eight  years  after  the  State  had  given  the  lands  to  the  company 
—  not  a  mile  of  the  road  was  built.  Of  course  nothing  was 
done  during  the  Avar.  After  the  war  all  the  grants  of  land 
previously  made  to  the  Southern  States,  were  renewed  in  gross 
in  the  session  of  1865-66.  The  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
Company  again  received  a  grant  from  the  State,  and  again  tried 
to  raise  money  to  build  their  road ;  but  1865,  1866,  and  1867 
passed  without  their  getting  a  dollar.  Finally,  toward  the  close 
of  1868,  a  company  of  Boston  gentlemen,  representing  consider 
able  capital,  undertook  its  construction.  In  raising  the  requisite 
means  they  placed  the  bonds  of  the  road  on  the  New  England 
market  in  the  summer  of  1869,  offering  them  on  terms  which 
seemed  very  favorable  to  the  purchaser,  and  offering  them  at  a 
time  when  investments  of  this  kind  were  fatally  popular.  In 
common  with  hundreds  of  other  people  in  New  England  and 
other  parts  of  the  country,  I  bought  some  of  these  bonds,  —  not 
a  very  large  amount, —  paying  for  them  at  precisely  the  same 
rate  that  others  paid.  I  never  heard,  and  do  not  believe,  that 
the  Little  Rock  Company  —  which  I  know  is  controlled  by 
highly  honorable  men  —  ever  parted  with  a  bond  to  any  person 
except  at  the  regular  price  fixed  for  their  sale.  The  enterprise, 
though  apparently  very  promising,  proved  unsuccessful,  as  so 
many  similar  projects  did  about  the  same  time.  I  lost  a  con 
siderable  sum  of  money  (over  $20,000)  by  my  investment,  and 
I  presume  New  England  made  a  net  loss  of  $2,000, 000  in  com 
pleting  that  road  for  Arkansas,  as  she  has  lost  over  one  hundred 
million  by  similar  ventures  West  and  South  Avithin  the  last 
twelve  years.  In  addition  to  my  investment  in  the  bonds  I 
uitited  with  others  in  raising  some  money  for  the  company  when 
it  met  its  first  financial  troubles.  Proceedings  are  now  pending 
in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  in  Arkansas,  to  which  I  am 
a  party  of  record,  for  the  reimbursement  of  the  money  so 
advanced.  All  the  bonds  which  I  ever  purchased  I  continued 
to  hold ;  and  when  the  company  was  reorganized  in  1874,  I 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  343 

exchanged  them  for  stock  and  bonds  in  the  new  concern,  which 
I  still  own.  My  whole  connection  with  the  road  has  been  open 
as  the  day.  If  there  had  been  anything  to  conceal  about  it  I 
should  never  have  touched  it.  Wherever  concealment  is  desir 
able  avoidance  is  advisable,  and  I  do  not  know  any  better  test 
to  apply  to  the  honor  and  fairness  of  a  business  transaction. 

As  to  the  question  of  propriety  involved  in  a  member  of 
Congress  holding  an  investment  of  this  kind,  it  must  be  re 
membered  that  the  lands  were  granted  to  the  State  of  Arkansas, 
and  not  to  the  railroad  company,  and  that  the  company  derived 
its  life,  franchise,  and  value  wholly  from  the  State.  And  to  the 
State  the  company  is  amenable  and  answerable,  and  not  in  any 
sense  to  Congress.  Since  I  purchased  the  bonds  but  one  act  of 
Congress  has  passed  in  any  way  touching  the  subject,  and  that 
was  merely  to  rectify  a  previous  mistake  in  legislation.  I  take 
it,  when  any  security,  from  government  bonds  to  town  script, 
is  offered  at  public  sale  to  any  one  who  can  pay  for  it,  every 
American  citizen  is  free  to  buy.  If  you  exclude  a  Representa 
tive  from  the  investment  on  the  ground  that  in  some  secondary 
or  remote  way  the  legislation  of  Congress  has  affected  or  may 
affect  the  value  of  the  article,  then  you  exclude  every  man  on 
this  floor,  not  only  from  holding  a  government  bond  or  a  share 
in  a  national  bank,  but  also  from  owning  a  flock  of  sheep,  or  a 
field  of  hemp,  or  a  tobacco  plantation,  or  a  cotton-mill,  or  an 
iron-furnace ;  all  for  these  interests  are  vitally  affected  by  the 
tariff  legislation  on  Avhich  we  vote  at  every  session,  and  of  which 
an  important  measure  is  even  now  pending  in  the  Committee 
of  the  Whole.  In  the  seven  intervening  years  since  the  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  bonds  were  placed  on  the  market,  I  know 
few  investments  that  have  riot  been  more  affected  by  the  legis 
lation  of  Congress.  But  this  case  does  not  require  to  be 
shielded  by  any  such  comparisons  or  citations,  for  I  repeat 
that  the  Little  Rock  road  derived  all  it  had  from  the  State  of 
Arkansas,  and  not  from  Congress.  It  was  in  the  discretion  of 
Congress  to  give  or  withhold  from  the  State,  but  it  was  solely 
in  the  discretion  of  the  State  to  give  or  withhold  from  the 
Little  Rock  Railroad  Company. 

When  the  Little  Rock  road  fell  into  the  financial  troubles 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  there  were  certain  interests  connected 


344  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

with  it  that  were  under  peculiarly  pressing  embarrassment  and 
that  needed  relief.  There  had  been  at  different  times  very  con 
siderable  talk  about  inducing  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  road  - 
which  on  its  southern  branch  was  to  be  a  connecting  line  east 
and  west  witli  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith,  and  the  Mis 
souri,  Kansas,  and  Texas  road,  which  would  be  a  connecting 
line  both  north  and  south  at  the  point  of  junction —  to  aid  the 
Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  enterprise  by  taking  some  of  its 
securities,  —  a  practice  very  common  among  connecting  roads. 
To  both  these  roads  the  completion  of  the  Little  Rock  road  was 
of  very  great  importance.  Accordingly,  in  the  spring  of  1871, 
when  only  one  coupon  had  been  passed  by  the  Little  Rock 
Company  on  one  series  of  its  bonds  and  none  passed  on  the 
other,  and  when  there  was  sanguine  hope  of  getting  the  enter 
prise  on  its  feet  again,  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Company  took 
one  hundred  thousand  of  its  bonds  and  one  hundred  thousand 
of  its  stock  for  the  gross  sum  of  179,000 ;  and  the  Missouri, 
Kansas,  and  Texas,  if  I  remember  correctly,  took  half  the 
amount  at  the  same  rate.  This  was  done  not  for  the  corpora 
tion  itself,  but  for  an  interest  largely  engaged  in  the  construc 
tion  of  the  road.  With  the  circumstances  attending  the 
negotiation  with  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  road  I  was  entirely 
familiar,  and  with  several  of  its  officers  I  have  long  been  well 
acquainted.  I  also  knew  all  about  the  negotiation  with  the 
Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas  road,  though  I  never  to  my  knowl 
edge  saw  any  of  its  officers,  and  never  had  an  interview  with 
any  of  them  on  any  subject.  But  in  the  case  of  both  roads,  I 
desire  to  say  that  the  bonds  sold  to  them  did  not  belong  to  me, 
nor  did  I  have  one  dollar's  pecuniary  interest  in  the  whole 
transaction  with  either  company. 

The  infamous  insinuation,  made  in  certain  quarters,  that  I 
engaged  to  use  my  influence  in  Congress  for  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  road  and  also  for  the  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas  in 
consideration  of  their  purchasing  these  securities,  hardly  merits 
notice.  The  officers  and  directors  of  both  companies,  so  far  as 
I  have  known  the  one  and  heard  of  the  other,  are  high-minded, 
honorable  gentlemen,  and  they  would  have  justly  spurned 
me  from  their  presence  had  I  been  willing  to  submit  an  offer 
so  dishonorable  and  mutually  degrading.  I  had  no  pecuniary 


BIOGEAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  345 

stake  in  the  negotiation,  and  I  should  have  loved  infamy  for 
infamy's  sake  had  I  bartered  my  personal  and  official  honor  in 
the  transaction.  And  I  am  sure  that  every  man  connected  with 
either  company  would  repel  the  dishonoring  suggestion  as 
warmly  as  I  do  myself.  The  whole  affair  had  no  more  connec 
tion  with  congressional  legislation  than  any  one  of  the  ten 
thousand  similar  transactions  that  are  constantly  occurring  in 
the  business  world. 

Of  a  like  character  with  the  insinuation  just  answered  is  that 
which,  in  an  irresponsible  and  anonymous  way,  attempts  to  con 
nect  the  ownership  of  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  bonds  with 
the  legislation  of  last  winter  respecting  the  State  government  of 
Arkansas.  There  are  some  accusations  which  it  is  difficult  to 
repel  with  sufficient  force  because  of  their  mixture  of  absurdity, 
depravity,  and  falsehood.  I  never  heard  this  stupid  slander 
until  within  a  few  days,  and  I  venture  to  say  there  is  not  a 
responsible  man  in  the  country  of  the  slightest  sense  who  can 
discern  the  remotest  connection  between  the  two  things  that 
are  alleged  to  have  an  intimate  and  infamous  relation 

Let  me  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  briefly  summarize  what  I  have  pre 
sented  : 

First,  that  the  story  of  my  receiving  $ 64,000  or  any  other  sum 
of  money  or  other  thing  of  value  from  the  Union  Pacific  Rail 
road  Company,  directly  or  indirectly,  or  in  any  form,  for  myself 
or  for  another,  is  absolutely  disproved  by  the  most  conclusive 
testimony. 

Second,  that  110  bond  of  mine  was  ever  sold  to  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific,  or  the  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas  Railroad  Com 
pany,  and  that  not  a  single  dollar  of  money  from  either  of  those 
companies  ever  went  to  my  profit  or  benefit. 

Third,  that  instead  of  receiving  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and 
Fort  Smith  road  as  a  gratuity,  I  never  had  one  except  at  the 
regular  market  price,  and  that  instead  of  making  a  large  fortune 
out  of  that  company  I  have  incurred  a  severe  pecuniary  loss 
from  my  investment  in  its  securities  which  I  still  retain. 

I  can  hardly  expect  that  any  statement  from  me  will  stop  the 
work  of  those  who  have  so  industriously  circulated  these  calum 
nies.  For  months  past  the  effort  has  been  energetic  and  contin 
uous  to  spread  these  stories  in  private,  circles.  Emissaries  of 


346  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

slander  have  visited  the  editorial  rooms  of  leading  Republican 
papers  from  Boston  to  Omaha,  and  whispered  of  revelations  to 
come  that  were  too  terrible  even  to  be  spoken  in  loud  tones. 
And  at  last  the  revelations  have  been  made  ! 

I  am  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  a  not  inac 
tive  service  in  this  hall.  I  have  taken  and  have  given  blows. 
I  have,  no  doubt,  said  many  things  in  the  heat  of  debate  which 
I  would  now  gladly  recall.  I  have,  no  doubt,  given  votes 
which  in  fuller  light  I  would  gladly  change.  But  I  have  never 
done  anything  in  my  public  career  for  which  I  coiild  be  put 
to  the  faintest  blush  in  any  presence,  or  for  which  I  cannot 
answer  to  my  constituents,  my  conscience,  and  the  great 
Searcher  of  hearts. 

To  all  right-thinking  men,  the  answer  was  sufficient ;  the  case 
was  concluded.  The  most  captious  reformer  was  constrained 
to  admit  that  "  Mr.  Blaine  stands  fully  acquitted  before  the  peo 
ple,"  venturing  to  add  only  the  suggestion  that  it  would  have 
"  greatly  strengthened  Mr.  Blaine's  explanation  and  denial  if  lie 
could  have  submitted  facts  showing  precisely  to  whom  or  for 
what  purpose  the  sum  of  $ 64,000  for  some  worthless  Arkansas 
railroad  bonds  was  paid." 

But  as  doubt  was  not  the  beginning  of  the  attack,  refutation 
was  not  necessarily  the  end.  The  point  was  not  to  dismiss 
charges  which  could  not  be  proved,  but  to  keep  alive  charges 
which  had  been  disproved,  until  after  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Republican  Convention  in  June,  which  was  to  nominate  a  can 
didate  for  the  presidency.  This  might  be  accomplished  by  the 
mere  institution  of  a  congressional  investigation,  which  there 
was  no  difficulty  in  procuring  from  a  Democratic  House.  On 
May  2  a  resolution  was  adopted  instructing  the  judiciary  com 
mittee  to  inquire  if  any  such  transaction  took  place,  and  if 
so,  whether  the  transaction  was  from  corrupt  design,  and  who 
were  the  guilty  persons.  Mr.  Tarbox,  of  Massachusetts,  who 
fathered  the  resolution,  had  previously  distinguished  himself  by 
surreptitiously  obtaining  and  using  in  the  House  the  text  of  Mr. 
Blaine's  speech  on  the  currency  before  it  was  delivered,  to  the 
great  displeasure  of  all  honorable  men,  especially  among  his 
Democratic  allies. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  347 

The  investigation  was  opened  on  May  15th.  It  may  be 
mentioned  as  indicative  of  the  level  of  Mr.  Elaine's  opponents 
that  on  the  same  morning  the  old  charge  of  Credit  Mobilier 
days  regarding  the  Kansas  Pacific  bonds,  which  had  been  aban 
doned  as  "  a  case  of  brothers,"  reappeared  in  long  columns  of 
the  newspapers,  rearranged  as  a  fresh  and  fatal  discovery.  A 
development  of  the  fatuity  of  malice  it  proved  to  be,  for  Mr. 
Stuart  trampled  it  to  a  second  death  five  days  after. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  present  at  the  investigation,  surrounded  by 
watchful  and  alert  friends,  as  well  as  by  eager  political  oppo 
nents  ;  but  he  permitted  nothing  to  escape  him.  Every  weak 
point  was  brought  out  by  skilful  question  or  pregnant  remark. 
All  the  material  facts  which  he  had  stated  to  the  House  were 
repeated  as  sworn  testimony  before  the  committee.  Mr.  Morton, 
of  the  firm  of  Morton,  Bliss,  &  Co.,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Dillon,  the 
president,  took  oath  to  the  purport  of  their  letters,  and  swore 
that  they  had  never  heard  Mr.  Elaine's  name  in  connection  with 
the  164,000. 

Mr.  Rollins,  who  had  been  made  responsible  for  the  story,  sup 
ported  his  letter  by  his  oath,  but  admitted  that  he  might  at 
some  time  long  ago  have  said  that  the  bonds  were  Mr.  Elaine's, 
though  he  had  no  remembrance  of  saying  so,  and  not  the 
slightest  reason  for  thinking  so. 

Mr.  John  Scott  C.  Harrison  under  oath  knew  nothing  but  what 
Mr.  Rollins  had  told  him.  Mr.  Carnegie,  a  member  of  the 
Union  Pacific  and  of  the  executive  committee,  who  transacted 
a  great  deal  of  President  Scott's  business  for  him,  testified  that 
he  had  never  heard  Mr.  Elaine's  name  in  connection  with  the 
$64,000. 

Crowning  all  this  conclusive,  sufficient,  but  negative  testi 
mony  came  positive  testimony  in  the  sworn  statement  of  Mr. 
Thomas  A.  Scott,  that  the  §64,000  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
bonds  were  his,  that  he  had  received  them  from  Mr.  Josiah  Cald- 
well,  who  ivas  constructing  the  road,  and  that  he  had  sold  them  to 
the  company  at  a  higher  than  the  market  price,  as  compensation 
for  extraordinary  services  rendered  the  road  as  its  president ! 

At  this  point  Mr.  Elaine  claimed  that  he  was  entitled  to 
have  judgment  on  the  $64,000  bonds.  Mr.  Lawrence,  the  only 


348  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

member  of  the  sub-committee  who  had  not  been  in  the  rebel 
ranks,  declared  that  the  investigation  had  utterly  failed  to  put 
guilt  on  Mr.  Elaine,  and  that  110  suspicion  attached  to  him. 

All  in  vain.  The  New  York  convention,  which  had  met  at 
Syracuse  on  the  25th  of  March,  had  developed  a  suspicion  that 
it  held  two  Elaine  votes  for  every  Conkling  vote.  New  Hamp 
shire  had  spoken  unmistakably  for  Elaine.  The  delegations 
continued  to  "  come  in  for  Elaine."  The  investigation  must 
go  on. 

The  evidence  was  in.  All  that  remained  was  babble,  which 
can,  doubtless,  be  found  in  the  chronicles  of  that  day  by  all 
who  desire  it.  To  most  of  this  Mr.  Elaine  listened  with 
varying  degrees  of  disgust  and  contempt,  which  he  was  not 
always  careful  to  conceal.  The  testimony  before  the  committee 
was  so  frivolous  on  the  one  side,  so  conclusive  on  the  other, 
that  110  reason  appeared  for  not  bringing  in  the  report,  and  Mr. 
Elaine  was  publicly  congratulated  on  his  successful  defence, 
exactly  as  if  a  just  report  had  been  rendered. 

There  remained  only  two  weeks  to  the  national  convention. 
The  Illinois  convention  was  overwhelmingly  for  Elaine ; 
there  was  a  spontaneous  outburst  for  him  in  Missouri,  and 
on  June  1st  Iowa  declared  for  Elaine. 

There  began  to  be  whisperings  in  the  underworld  that  Mr. 
Elaine  might  be  implicated  in  corrupt  legislation  with  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  Mr.  Elaine  answered  simply  :  "  From 
first  to  last  in  all  the  legislation  touching  Pacific  railroads,  I 
never  had  an  interest  of  a  penny  in  one  of  them  nor  in  any  of 
their  branches,  directly  or  indirectly." 

Idle  words  for  beasts  of  prey. 

A  final  deadly  blow  was  heralded.  An  incriminating  letter 
existed.  Witnesses  were  coming  from  Eoston  who  would  show 
not  only  that  Mr.  Elaine  was  implicated  in  Northern  Pacific 
bribery,  but  that  he  had  been  the  owner  of  the  164,000  bonds. 
These  witnesses  proved  to  be  Mr.  Elisha  Atkins,  Mr.  Warren 
Fisher,  and  Mr.  James  Mulligan.  Mr.  Atkins  was  a  director  of 
the  Union  Pacific  road.  With  Mr.  Fisher  Mr.  Elaine  had 
been  connected  in  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  and  some  other 
investments.  Their  relations  had  been  friendly  until  the  ter 
mination  of  the  business  connection,  which  had  long  ceased 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  349 

to  be  satisfactory  to  Mr.  Blaine.  Mr.  Mulligan  had  once  been 
the  clerk  of  Mr.  Elaine's  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Jacob  Stanwood, 
in  Boston,  and  afterwards  of  Mr.  Fisher.  With  Mulligan  Mr. 
Blaine  was  so  slightly  and  remotely  associated,  that  when  on 
May  29  a  telegram  from  Boston  told  him  that  Mulligan  was 
on  the  way  to  Washington  with  hostile  intentions,  and  a 
member  of  his  family  asked  him  what  the  telegram  meant,  he 
only  answered  carelessly,  "  I  am  sure  I  do  not  know  !  " 

It  was  soon  reported  that  Mr.  Mulligan  had  private  letters 
from  Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Fisher  during  the  time  when  they  had 
common  interests.  Mr.  Blaine  was  incredulous,  as  there  had 
been  the  understanding,  frequent  at  the  closing  of  business 
transactions,  that  correspondence  should  be  destroyed.  It  was 
of  no  special  importance,  and  Mr.  Blaine  had  left  the  arrange 
ment  to  complete  itself.  He  promptly  sent  a  servant  to  their 
hotel  asking  Mr.  Fisher  and  Mr.  Mulligan  to  come  to  his 
house.  Mr.  Fisher  came  alone,  and  upon  questioning  him  Mr. 
Blaine  learned  that  an  indefinite  number  of  his  letters  had  not 
been  destroyed,  and  were  in  Mulligan's  possession  by  Mr. 
Fisher's  own  act. 

The  three  witnesses  appeared  before  the  committee.  The 
testimony  of  Mr.  Atkins  and  Mr.  Fisher  was  entirely  negative. 
Neither  knew  of  any  such  transactions  as  were  alleged.  Mr. 
Mulligan  was  equally  uninformed,  except  that  he  had  understood 
Mr.  Atkins  to  say  that  seventy-five  bonds  went  from  Mr. 
Blaine  to  Mr.  Scott  and  were  "  worked  off  upon  the  Union 
Pacific  ; "  but  he  knew  nothing  about  it  himself.  Mr.  Atkins 
testified  without  delay  that  he  never  said  it  to  Mr.  Mulligan, 
but  that  Mr.  Mulligan  said  it  to  him  !  Mr.  Atkins  testified 
also  that  Mr.  Mulligan  had  a  grudge  against  Mr.  Blaine  — • 
thought  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  treat  him  right  many  years  ago  in 
the  settlement  of  the  estate  of  his  brother-in-law,  Stanwood; 
said,  "  Mr.  Blaine  went  back  on  him." 

While  the  committee  was  hearing  this  testimony,  as  it  must 
be  called,  Mr.  Blaine  sat  in  the  committee-room,  lost  in 
thought,  communicating  with  no  one,  every  feature  drooping, 
presenting  to  the  observer  an  appearance  of  deep  melancholy. 
It  was  an  attitude  perfectly  familiar  to  his  intimates,  and  meant 
only  abstraction.  Often  when  thinking,  his  soul  seemed 


350  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

drawn  away,  leaving  his  face  inert,  vacant.  He  was  utterly 
unable  to  pose  for  effect,  or  to  consider  how  he  was  appearing. 
In  a  committee  crowded  with  alert  foes  and  newsgatherers,  this 
change  from  his  usual  intent  attention  was  almost  embarrassing 
to  his  friends. 

In  truth  Mr.  Elaine  was  not  so  much  interested  in  the  testi 
mony  or  in  the  committee,  as  in  his  own  letters  so  treacherously 
manipulated. 

As  soon  as  he  had  decided  what  to  do,  he  quietly  secured  an 
adjournment.  His  course  was,  as  always,  the  straightforward 
one.  As  Mulligan  would  not  come  to  him,  he  went  to  Mul 
ligan,  and  asked  from  him  the  surrender  of  the  letters.  Mr. 
Mulligan  refused.  Mr.  Blaine  attempted  reasoning,  but  to 
that  Mr.  Mulligan  was  impervious.  He  took  the  position  that 
the  private  letters  of  a  public  man  are  public,  and  doggedly 
insisted  that  he  should  retain  the  letters  and  publish  them  at 
his  pleasure  either  before  or  after  the  investigation.  Mr.  Blaine 
suggested  that  Mulligan  return  them  to  Mr.  Fisher,  who  was 
present,  and  who  alone  besides  himself  had  right  to  them.  But 
Mr.  Fisher  declined  to  receive  them,  and  directed  Mulligan  to 
give  them  to  Mr.  Blaine.  Mulligan  declared  that  "  he  would 
not  give  them  up  to  God  Almighty  or  His  Father." 

Whereupon,  without  further  parley,  Mr.  Blaine  took  the  let 
ters,  calling  upon  Mr.  Fisher  and  Mr.  Atkins  to  witness  his  act. 

Returning  home  he  at  once  sent  for  two  friends  from  the 
House  and  requested  their  inspection  of  the  letters. 

The  next  morning  Mr.  Mulligan  appeared  before  the  com 
mittee  and  gave  them  an  account  of  the  interview,  reducing  it 
to  his  own  level  in  the  narration.  The  Democratic  element  in 
the  committee  tried  to  get  at  the  contents  of  the  letters.  Mr. 
Blaine  demanded  to  be  heard  before  they  went  into  his  private 
letters.  Mr.  Frye,  of  the  minority,  protested  that  there  was  no 
rule  of  law  by  which  the  witness  could  be  interrogated  at  this 
point  regarding  the  contents  of  the  letters.  Mr.  Hunton  (of 
Virginia)  was  frank  enough  to  admit  that  "  this  committee  is 
not  governed  by  the  ordinary  rules  of  law,"  and  Mr.  Mulligan 
was  induced  to  swear  that  the  bonds  which  Mr.  Caldwell  sold  to 
Mr.  Scott  were  the  bonds  that  he  had  received  from  Mr.  Blaine, 
and  that  Mr.  Blaine  had  acknowledged  it  in  his  own  letter. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    JiLAINE.  351 

When  at  length  Mr.  Elaine  was  permitted  to  testify,  he  gave 
a  full  account  of  the  circumstances  attending  his  seizure  of  the 
letters,  pronounced  Mulligan's  detention  of  them  illegal,  took 
his  stand  on  his  rights  as  a  citizen,  and  declined  to  yield  the  let 
ters  to  the  committee.  He  informed  them  that  he  had  consulted 
friends,  should  submit  the  letters  to  counsel,  and  be  guided  by 
their  advice  ;  but  at  present  he  refused  to  yield  the  letters. 

The  next  morning  he  submitted  the  written  opinion  of  the 
Hon.  J.  S.  Black,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  Democrat,  and  Senator 
Matt.  H.  Carpenter,  of  Wisconsin,  a  Republican,  and  it  was 
read  in  committee. 

WASHINGTON,  June  2,  1876. 

The  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine  has  laid  before  us  fifteen  letters  written  by 
him  to  Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  between  the  years  1864  and  1872  inclusive,  and 
three  other  papers  in  the  same  package  —  making  eighteen  papers  in  all  — 
which  he  informs  us  he  received  from  James  Mulligan  on  the  31st  of  May, 
1876,  at  the  Riggs  House,  in  the  city  of  Washington.  We  have  carefully 
examined  these  letters  and  papers  at  Mr.  Elaine's  request,  with  intent  to 
ascertain  whether  they  relate  to  the  subject-matter  which  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  are  authorized  to  inquire  into 
by  resolution  of  the  House,  passed  May  2,  1876. 

We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  letters  and  papers  aforesaid  have  no 
relevancy  whatever  to  the  matter  under  inquiry.  We  have  no  doubt  the 
committee  itself  would  decide  the  question  of  their  relevance  the  same 
way.  As  a  result  of  this  it  follows  that  Mr.  Elaine  having  the  letters  and 
papers  in  his  possession  is  not  bound  to  surrender  them.  Referring  to  Mr. 
Elaine's  private  aft'airs,  and  being  wholly  beyond  the  range  of  the  investi 
gation  which  the  committee  is  authorized  to  make,  it  would  be  most  unjust 
and  tyrannical  as  well  as  illegal  to  demand  their  production.  We  advise 
Mr.  Elaine  to  assert  his  right  as  an  American  citizen,  and  resist  any  such 
demand  to  the  last  extremity. 

(Signed)  J.  S.  ELACK, 

MATT.  PI.  CARPENTER, 

Counsellors  at  Law. 

The  committee  were  at  their  wits'  end.  Not  only  were  the  let 
ters,  from  which  they  had  expected  so  much,  in  Mr.  Elaine's  actual 
and  legal  possession,  with  no  means  in  sight  by  which  he 
could  be  dispossessed,  but  there  was  this  irrefutable  evidence 
that  the  letters  were  not  relevant.  The  sub-committee  referred 
the  situation  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  on  Saturday,  June 
3d.  After  much  vain  attempt  to  grapple  with  it  themselves, 


352  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Mr.  Scott  Lord  proposed  to  bring  it  before  the  House  for  deci 
sion  ;  but  his  proposition  was  vigorously  rejected,  one  member 
remarking  that  though  they  did  not  know  what  to  do,  they 
knew  what  not  to  do,  and  that  was, "  not  to  have  Blaine  cavort 
ing  round  on  the  floor  of  the  House."  After  protracted  and 
perplexed  discussion,  the  matter  was  postponed  to  Tuesday, 
June  6th.  But  the  committee  gave  no  sign  that  they  would 
render  a  report.  The  three  witnesses  —  Atkins,  Mulligan,  and 
Fisher  —  were  discharged,  and  by  night  it  became  known  that 
the  committee  would  not  bring  the  question  before  the  House. 

Then  Mr.  Blaine  determined  that  he  would.  The  committee 
had  postponed  all  consideration  of  the  matter  till  Tuesday, 
June  6th.  Mr.  Blaine  resolved  to  consider  it  on  Monday,  June 
5th.  After  the  morning  hour,  the  Geneva  Award  bill  was 
in  order,  but  Mr.  Blaine  claimed  the  floor  on  a  question  of 
privilege. 

As  soon  as  the  word  "  Blaine  is  up  "  went  through  the  Capi 
tol  the  galleries,  the  aisles,  the  floor  of  the  House,  the  corri 
dors  filled.  All  the  door-ways  were  bulging  out  with  men  who 
by  no  possibility  could  hear  anything  more  than  the  tones  of  a 
voice  and  the  swell  of  applause ;  but  the  spirit  of  the  occasion 
held  them  fast. 

Mr.  BLAINE. — If  the  morning  hour  has  expired,  I  will  rise 
to  a  question  of  privilege. 

The  SPEAKER  (pro  tempore).  —  -  The  morning  hour  has 
expired. 

Mr.  BLAIXE.  —  Mr.  Speaker,  on  the  2d  day  of  May  this 
resolution  was  passed  by  the  House : 

Whereas  it  is  publicly  alleged,  and  is  not  denied  by  the  officers  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  that  that  corporation  did,  in  the  year 
1871  or  1872,  become  the  owner  of  certain  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and 
Fort  Smith  Railroad  Company,  for  which  bonds  the  said  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  paid  a  consideration  largely  in  excess  of  their  actual 
or  market  value,  and  that  the  board  of  directors  of  said  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company,  though  urged,  have  neglected  to  investigate  said 
transaction:  Therefore, 

Be  it  resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  be  instructed  to  in 
quire  if  any  such  transaction  took  place,  and,  if  so,  what  were  the  circum 
stances  and  inducements  thereto,  from  what  person  or  persons  said  bonds 
were  obtained  and  upon  what  consideration,  and  whether  the  transaction 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  353 

was  from  corrupt  design  or  in  furtherance  of  any  corrupt  object ;  and  that 
the  committee  have  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers. 

That  resolution  on  its  face,  and  in  its  fair  intent,  was 
obviously  designed  to  find  out  whether  an}"  improper  thing  had 
been  done  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company;  and  of 
course,  incidentally  thereto,  to  find  out  with  whom  the  transac 
tion  was  made.  The  gentleman  who  offered  that  resolution 
offered  it  when  I  was  not  in  the  House,  and  my  colleague  (Mr. 
Frye),  after  it  was  objected  to,  went  to  the  gentleman  and 
stated  that  he  would  have  no  objection  to  it,  as  he  knew  I 
would  not  have,  if  I  were  present  in  the  House.  The  gentle 
man  from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Tarbox),  to  whom  I  refer,  took 
especial  pains  to  say  to  my  colleague  that  the  resolution  was 
not  in  any  sense  aimed  at  me.  The  gentleman  will  pardon  me 
if  I  say  that  I  had  a  slight  incredulity  upon  that  assurance 
given  by  him  to  my  colleague. 

No  sooner  was  the  sub-committee  designated  than  it  became 
entirely  obvious  that  the  resolution  was  solely  and  only  aimed 
at  me.  I  think  there  had  not  been  three  questions  asked  until 
it  was  obvious  that  the  investigation  was  to  be  a  personal  one 
upon  me,  and  that  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  or  any  other 
incident  of  the  transaction  was  secondary,  insignificant,  and 
unimportant.  I  do  not  complain  of  that ;  I  do  not  say  that  I 
had  any  reason  to  complain  of  it.  If  the  investigation  was  to 
be  made  in  that  personal  sense,  I  was  ready  to  meet  it. 

The  gentleman  on  whose  statement  the  accusation  rested, 
Mr.  Harrison,  was  first  called.  He  stated  what  he  knew  from 
rumor.  Then  there  were  called  Mr.  Rollins,  Mr.  Morton,  and 
Mr.  Millard,  from  Omaha,  a  government  director  of  the  Union 
Pacific  road,  and  finally  Thomas  A.  Scott.  The  testimony  was 
completely  and  conclusively  in  disproof  of  the  charge  that 
there  was  any  possibility  that  I  could  have  had  anything  to 
do  with  the  transaction. 

I  expected  (and  I  so  stated  to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia, 
the  honorable  chairman  of  the  sub-committee)  that  I  should 
have  an  early  report ;  but  the  case  was  prolonged,  and  pro 
longed,  and  prolonged ;  and  when  last  week  the  witnesses  had 
seemed  to  be  exhausted,  I  was  somewhat  surprised  to  be  told 


354  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

that  the  committee  would  now  turn  to  investigate  a  transaction 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  on  a  newspaper 
report  that  there  had  been  some  effort  on  my  part  with  a  friend 
in  Boston  to  procure  for  him  a  share  in  that  road,  which  effort 
had  proved  abortive,  the  money  having  been  returned.  I  asked 
the  honorable  gentleman  from  Virginia  on  what  authority  he 
had  made  that  investigation  —  not  that  I  cared  about  it ;  I  begged 
him  to  be  assured  I  did  not ;  and  the  three  witnesses  that  he 
called  could  not  have  been  more  favorable  to  me  within  any 
possibility.  But  I  wanted  to  know  on  what  authority  I  was  to 
be  arraigned  before  the  country  upon  an  investigation  of  that 
kind  ;  and  a  resolution  offered  in  this  House  on  the  31st  of 
January  by  the  gentleman  from  California  (Mr.  Luttrell)  was 
read  as  the  authority  for  investigating  that  little  transaction 
in  Boston.  I  ask  the  House  to  bear  with  me  while  I  read  a 
somewhat  lengthy  resolution : 

Whereas,  the  several  railroad  companies  hereinafter  named,  to  wit :  the 
Northern  Pacific,  the  Kansas  Pacific,  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Central  Branch 
of  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Western  Pacific,  the  Southern  Pacific,  the  Sioux 
City  and  Pacific,  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Texas  and  Pacific,  and  all  the 
Pacific  roads  or  branches  to  which  bonds  or  other  subsidies  have  been 
granted  by  the  government,  have  received  from  the  United  States,  under 
the  act  of  Congress  of  July  1,  1862,  the  act  of  March  *o,  1874,  and  the 
several  acts  amendatory  thereof,  money  subsidies  amounting  to  over 
$64,000,000,  land  subsidies  amounting  to  over  220,000,000  acres  of  the 
public  domain,  bond  subsidies  amounting  to  $ —  — ,  and  interest  amount 
ing  to  $ ,  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  their  several  roads  ;  and  whereas 

it  is  but  just  and  proper  that  the  government  and  people  should  understand 
the  status  of  such  roads  and  the  disposition  made  by  such  companies  in  the 
construction  of  their  roads  of  the  subsidies  granted  by  the  government: 
Therefore, 

Be  it  resolved,  That  the  Judiciary  Committee  be  and  are  hereby  in 
structed  and  authorized  to  inquire  into  and  report  to  this  House,  first, 
whether  the  several  railroad  companies  hereinbefore  named,  or  any  of 
them,  have,  in  the  construction  of  their  railroads  and  telegraph  lines,  fully 
complied  with  the  requirements  of  law  granting  money,  bonds,  and  land 
subsidies  to  aid  such  companies  in  the  construction  of  their  railroads  and 
telegraph  lines ;  second,  whether  the  several  railroad  companies  or  any  of 
them  have  formed  within  themselves  corporate  or  construction  companies 
for  the  purpose  of  subletting  to  such  corporate  or  construction  companies 
contracts  for  building  and  equipping  said  roads  or  any  portion  thereof, 
and,  if  so,  whether  the  money,  land,  and  bond  subsidies  granted  by  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  855 

government  have  been  properly  applied  by  said  companies  or  any  of  them 
in  the  construction  of  their  road  or  roads ;  third,  whether  the  several  rail 
road  companies  or  any  of  them  have  forfeited  their  land  subsidies  by  failing 
to  construct  and  equip  their  road  or  roads  or  any  portion  of  them  as  re 
quired  by  law ;  and,  fourth,  that,  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  thorough 
investigation  of  the  several  Pacific  railroads  or  any  of  them,  the  Judiciary 
Committee  shall  have  full  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  and,  after 
thorough  investigation  shall  have  been  made,  shall  report  to  this  House 
such  measure  or  bill  as  will  secure  to  the  government  full  indemnity  for 
all  losses  occasioned  by  fraudulent  transactions  or  negligence  on  the  part  of 
said  railroad  companies  or  any  of  them,  or  on  the  part  of  any  corporate  or 
construction  company, -in  the  expenditures  of  moneys,  bonds,  or  interest, 
or  in  the  disposition  of  land  donated  by  the  government  for  the  construction 
of  the  roads  or  any  of  them  or  any  portion  thereof,  and  for  the  non-pay 
ment  of  interest  lawfully  due  the  government,  or  any  other  claim  or  claims 
the  United  States  may  have  against  such  railroad  company  or  companies. 

That  resolution  embraces  a  very  wide  scope.  It  undoubtedly 
embraces  a  great  many  things  which  it  is  highly  proper  for  the 
government  to  look  into  ;  but  I  think  the  gentleman  from 
California  who  offered  that  resolution  will  be  greatly  surprised 
to  find  that  the  first  movement  made  under  it  to  investigate 
what  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  has  done  Avas  to 
bring  the  whole  force  of  that  resolution  to  find  out  the  circum 
stances  of  a  little  transaction  in  Boston  which  never  became  a 
transaction  at  all.  I  asked  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  how 
he  deduced  his  power.  Well,  he  said,  it  would  take  three 
months  to  go  through  the  whole  matter,  but  in  about 
three  months  it  would  reach  this  point,  and  that  he  might  as 
well  begin  on  me  right  there.  He  began ;  and  three  witnesses 
testified  precisely  what  the  circumstances  Avere.  I  had  no 
sooner  got  through  Avith  that,  than  I  was  advised  that  in  another 
part  of  the  Capitol,  Avithout  the  slightest  notice  in  the  Avorld 
being  giAren  to  me,  Avith  no  monition,  no  Avarning  to  me,  I  Avas 
being  arraigned  before  a  committee  knoAvn  as  the  Real  Estate 
Pool  Committee,  Avhich  Avas  originally  organized  to  examine 
into  the  affairs  of  the  estate  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  and  Avhose 
poAvers  were  enlarged  on  the  third  day  of  April  by  the  follow 
ing  resolution  : 

Whereas,  on  the  24th  day  of  January,  A.D.  1876,  the  House  adopted  the 
following  resolution : 


356  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    XL  A  IN  E. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  special  committee  of  five  members  of  this  House,  to 
be  selected  by  the  Speaker,  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  nature  and 
history  of  said  real-estate  pool  and  the  character  of  said  settlement,  with 
•  the  amount  of  property  involved,  in  which  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  were  in 
terested,  and  the.  amount  paid  or  to  be  paid  in  settlement,  with  power  to 
send  for  persons  and  papers  and  report  to  this  House.'1  Therefore, 

Be  it  resolved,  That  said  committee  be  further  authori/ed  and  directed  to 
likewise  investigate  any  and  all  matters  touching'  the  official  misconduct 
of  any  officer  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  or  of  any  member  of 
the  present  Congress  of  the  United  States  which  may  come  to  the  knowl 
edge  of  said  committee :  Provided,  That  this  resolution  shall  not  affect  any 
such  matter  now  being  investigated  by  any  other  committee  under  authority 
of  either  House  of  Congress ;  and  for  this  purpose  said  committee  shall 
have  the  same  powers  to  send  for  persons  and  papers  as  conferred  by  said 
oriirinal  resolution. 


They  began  an  investigation,  which,  I  am  credibly  informed, 
and  I  think  the  chairman  of  that  committee  Avill  not  deny,  was 
specifically  aimed  at  me.  I  had  no  notice  of  it,  not  the  remot 
est  ;  no  opportunity  to  be  confronted  with  witnesses.  I  had  no 
idea  that  any  such  thing  was  going  on,  not  the  slightest.  So 
that  on  three  distinct  charges  I  was  being  investigated  at  the 
same  time,  and  having  no  opportunity  to  meet  any  one  of 
them ;  and  I  understand,  though  I  was  not  present,  that  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia  has  this  morning  introduced  a  fourth, 
to  find  out  something  about  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad,  a 
transaction  fifteen  years  old,  if  it  ever  existed,  and  has  summoned 
numerous  witnesses. 

Now,  I  say  —  and  I  state  it  boldly  —  that,  under  these 
general  powers  to  investigate  Pacific  railroads  and  their  trans 
actions,  the  whole  enginery  of  this  committee  is  aimed  person 
ally  at  me ;  and  I  want  that  to  be  understood  by  the  country. 
I  have  no  objection  to  it ;  but  I  want  you  by  name  to  organize 
a  committee  to  investigate  James  G.  Blaine.  I  want  to  meet 
the  question  squarely.  That  is  the  whole  aim  and  intent ;  and 
the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Hunton)  and  the  gentleman 
from  Kentucky  (Mr.  Knott)  will  pardon  me  for  saying  that 
when  this  investigation  was  organized  I  felt  that  such  was  the 
whole  purpose  and  object.  I  will  not  further  make  personal 
references,  for  I  do  not  wish  to  stir  up  any  blood  on  this  ques 
tion  ;  but  ever  since  a  certain  debate  here  in  January  it  has 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  357 

been  known  that  there  are  gentlemen  in  this  hall  whose  feelings 
Avere  peculiarly  exasperated  toward  me.  And  I  beg  the  gentle 
man  from  Kentucky,  the  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee, 
to  remember  that  when  this  matter  affecting  me  went  to  his 
committee,  while  there  were  seven  Democratic  members  of  that 
committee,  he  took  as  the  majority  of  the  sub-committee  the 
two  who  were  from  the  South  and  had  been  in  the  rebel  army. 

Then  when  the  investigation  began,  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia  who  conducted  it  insisted  under  that  resolution, 
which  was  obviously  on  its  face  limited  to  the  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollar  transaction  —  the  transaction  with  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  —  he  insisted  on  going  into  all  the 
affairs  of  the  Fort  Smith  Railroad  as  incidental  thereto,  and 
pursued  that  to  such  an  extent  that  finally  I  had  myself, 
through  my  colleague,  Mr.  Frye,  to  take  an  appeal  to  the  whole 
committee,  and  the  committee  decided  that  the  gentleman  had 
no  right  to  go  there.  But  when  he  came  back  and  resumed  the 
examination,  he  began  again  exactly  in  the  same  way,  and  was 
stopped  there  and  then  by  my  colleague  who  sits  in  front,  not 
as  my  attorney,  but  as  my  friend. 

When  the  famous  witness,  Mulligan,  came  here  loaded  with  in 
formation  in  regard  to  the  Fort  Smith  road,  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia  drew  out  what  he  knew  had  no  reference  whatever  to 
the  question  of  investigation.  He  then  and  there  insisted  on 
all  of  my  private  memoranda  being  allowed  to  be  exhibited  by 
that  man  in  reference  to  business  that  had  no  more  connection, 
no  more  relation,  no  more  to  do  with  that  investigation,  than 
with  the  North  Pole. 

And  the  gentleman  tried  his  best,  also,  —  though  I  believe 
that  has  been  abandoned,  — to  capture  and  use  and  control  my 
private  correspondence.  This  man  had  selected,  out  of  corre 
spondence  running  over  a  great  many  years,  letters  which  he 
thought  would  be  peculiarly  damaging  to  me.  He  came  here 
loaded  with  them.  He  came  here  for  a  sensation.  He  came 
here  primed.  He  came  here  on  that  particular  errand.  I  was 
advised  of  it,  and  I  obtained  those  letters  under  circumstances 
which  have  been  notoriously  scattered  throughout  the  United 
States,  and  are  known  to  everybody.  I  have  them.  I  claim  I 
have  the  entire  right  to  those  letters,  not  only  by  natural  right, 


358  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

but  upon  all  the  precedents  and  principles  of  law,  as  the  man 
who  held  those  letters  in  possession  held  them  wrongfully.  The 
committee  that  attempted  to  take  those  letters  from  that  man 
for  use  against  me  proceeded  wrongfully.  They  proceeded  in 
all  boldness  to  a  most  defiant  violation  of  the  ordinary  private 
and  personal  rights  which  belong  to  every  American  citizen,  and 
I  was  willing  to  stand  and  meet  the  Judiciary  Committee  on 
this  floor.  I  wanted  them  to  introduce  it.  I  wanted  the  gen 
tleman  from  Kentucky  and  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  to 
introduce  that  question  upon  this  floor,  but  they  did  not  do  it. 

Mr.  KNOTT  (in  his  seat). —  I  know  you  did. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  --  Very  well. 

Mr.  KNOTT.  —  I  know  you  wanted  to  be  made  a  martyr  of. 
[Laughter.] 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  And  you  did  not  want  to,  and  there  is  the 
difference.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  I  go  a  little  further; 
you  did  not  dare  to. 

Mr.  KNOTT.  --  We  will  talk  about  that  hereafter. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  wanted  to  meet  that  question.  I  wanted 
to  invoke  all  the  power  you  had  in  this  House  on  that  question. 
I  repeat,  the  Judiciary  Committee,  I  understand,  have  aban 
doned  that  issue  against  me.  I  stood  up  and  declined,  not  only 
on  the  conclusion  of  my  own  mind,  but  by  eminent  legal 
advice.  I  was  standing  behind  the  rights  which  belong  to 
every  American  citizen,  and  if  they  wanted  to  treat  the  ques 
tion  in  my  person  anywhere  in  the  legislative  halls  or  judicial 
halls  I  was  ready.  Then  there  went  forth  everywhere  the 
idea  and  impression  that  because  I  would  not  permit  that 
man,  or  any  man  whom  I  could  prevent,  from  holding  as  a 
menace  over  my  head  my  private  correspondence,  there  must  be 
something  in  it  most  deadly  and  destructive  to  my  reputation. 
I  would  like  any  gentleman  on  this  floor  —  and  all  gentlemen 
on  this  floor  are  presumed  to  be  men  of  affairs,  whose  business 
has  been  varied,  whose  intercourse  has  been  large  —  I  would 
like  any  gentleman  to  stand  up  here  and  tell  me  that  lie  is 
willing  and  ready  to  have  his  private  correspondence  scanned 
over  and  made  public  for  the  last  eight  or  ten  years.  I  would 
like  any  gentleman  to  say  that.  Does  it  imply  guilt  ?  Does  it 
imply  wrong-doing?  Does  it  imply  any  sense  of  weakness  that 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    O.    ELAINE.  359 

a  man  will  protect  his  private  correspondence  ?  No,  sir  ;  it  is 
the  first  instinct  to  do  it,  and  it  is  the  last  outrage  upon  any 
man  to  violate  it. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  say  that  I  have  defied  the  power  of  the 
House  to  compel  me  to  produce  those  letters.  I  speak  with  all 
respect  to  this  House.  I  know  its  powers,  and  I  trust  I  respect 
them.  But  I  say  this  House  has  no  more  power  to  order  what 
shall  be  done  or  not  done  witli  my  private  correspondence  than 
it  has  with  what  I  shall  do  in  the  nurture  and  education  of  my 
children  ;  not  a  particle.  The  right  is  as  sacred  in  the  one  case 
as  it  is  in  the  other.  But,  sir,  having  vindicated  that  right, 
standing  by  it,  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice  in  the  defence  of  it, 
here  and  now,  if  any  gentleman  wants  to'  take  issue  with  me  on 
behalf  of  this  House,  I  am  ready  for  any  extremity  of  contest 
or  conflict  in  behalf  of  so  sacred  a  right.  And  while  I  am  so,  I 
am  not  afraid  to  show  the  letters.  Thank  God  Almighty, 
I  am  not  afraid  to  show  them.  There  they  are  (holding  up  a 
package  of  letters).  There  is  the  very  original  package.  And 
with  some  sense  of  humiliation,  with  a  mortification  that  I  do 
not  pretend  to  conceal,  with  a  sense  of  outrage  which  I  think 
any  man  in  my  position  would  feel,  I  invite  the  confidence  of 
forty-four  million  of  my  countrymen  while  I  read  those  letters 
from  this  desk. 

He  was  hardly  permitted  to  finish  the  sentence.  The  tense  listen 
ing  broke  into  applause  prolonged,  insuppressible  —  applause 
that  widened  in  great  waves  through  the  land  as  the  wires 
flashed  the  words,  "  Blame  is  reading  the  letters." 

It  was  afterwards  remembered  as  characteristic  of  Mr.  Blaine 
that  in  taking  his  countrymen  into  his  confidence  he  had  not 
reckoned  them  according  to  the  last  census,  but  had  allowed  for 
the  subsequent  increase  of  the  population  ! 

A  slight  explanation  prefaced  the  reading  of  each  letter. 
Referring  only  to  matters  long  past,  of  no  present  or  public  in 
terest,  their  unsensational  character  gave  a  distinct  relief  to  the 
strained  attention  of  the  audience.  But  it  was  noted  that  the 
letters  revealed  one  thing  which  Mr.  Blaine  had  withheld.  He 
had  told  the  truth,  but  not  the  whole  truth.  He  had  said 
enough  to  justify  himself,  but  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to 


360  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

glorify  himself.  The  letters  certified  more  than  his  honesty  or 
his  honor,  —  his  magnanimity.  They  showed  that  when  the 
Fort  Smith  enterprise  proved  unsuccessful  he  not  only  met  his 
own  loss,  but  assumed  the  losses  of  "  those  innocent  persons 
who  invested  on  my  request."  Two  of  his  friends,  Hon.  Abner 
Coburn  and  Mr.  Charles  B.  Uaseltine,  a  staunch  Democrat, 
refused  to  accept  reimbursement,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a 
financial  venture  and  that  each  man's  risk  was  his  own.  But 
Mr.  Blaine  would  not  himself  apply  that  principle. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  reading  he  went  on  : 

" 1  do  not  wish  to  detain  the  House,  but  I  have  one  or  two  more 
observations  to  make.  The  specific  charge  that  went  to  the  com 
mittee  of  which  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Virginia  is  chair 
man,  so  far  as  it  affects  me,  was  whether  I  was  a  party  in  interest 
to  the  sixty-four  thousand  dollar  transaction  ;  and  I  submit  that 
up  to  this  time  there  has  not  been  one  particle  of  proof  before  the 
committee  sustaining  that  charge.  Gentlemen  have  said  what 
they  had  heard  somebody  else  say,  and  generally  when  that 
somebody  else  was  brought  on  the  stand  it  appeared  that  he  did 
not  say  it  at  all.  Col.  Thomas  A.  Scott  swore  very  positively 
and  distinctly  under  the  most  rigid  cross-examination  all  about  it. 
Let  me  call  attention  to  that  letter  of  mine  which  Mulligan  says 
refers  to  that.  I  ask  your  attention,  gentlemen,  as  closely  as  if 
you  were  a  jury,  while  I  show  the  absurdity  of  that  statement. 
It  is  in  evidence  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  fraction, 
the  bonds  which  were  sold  to  parties  in  Maine  were  first-mort 
gage  bonds.  It  is  in  evidence  over  and  over  again  that  the 
bonds  which  went  to  the  Union  Pacific  road  were  land-grant 
bonds.  Therefore  it  is  a  moral  impossibility  the  bonds  taken 
up  to  Maine  should  have  gone  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 
They  were  of  different  series,  different  kinds,  different  colors, 
everything  different,  —  as  different  as  if  not  issued  within  a 
thousand  miles  of  each  other.  So  on  its  face  it  is  shown  it 
could  not  be  so. 

"  There  has  not  been,  I  say,  one  positive  piece  of  testimony  in 
any  direction.  They  sent  to  Arkansas  to  get  some  hearsay 
about  bonds.  They  sent  to  Boston,  to  get  some  hearsay.  Mul 
ligan  was  contradicted  by  Fisher,  and  Atkins  and  Scott  swore 
directly  against  him.  Morton,  of  Morton,  Bliss,  &  Co.,  never 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  361 

heard  my  name  in  the  matter.  Carnegie,  who  negotiated  the 
note,  never  heard  my  name  in  that  connection.  Rollins  said 
it  was  one  of  the  intangible  rumors  he  spoke  of  as  floating  in 
the  air.  Gentlemen  who  have  lived  any  time  in  Washington 
need  not  be  told  that  intangible  rumors  get  considerable  circu 
lation  here ;  and  if  a  man  is  to  be  held  accountable  before  the 
bar  of  public  opinion  for  intangible  rumors,  who  in  the  House 
will  stand? 

"Now,  gentlemen,  those  letters  I  have  read  were  picked  out  of 
correspondence  extending  over  fifteen  years.  The  man  did  his 
worst,  the  very  worst  he  could,  out  of  the  most  intimate  busi 
ness  correspondence  of  my  life.  I  ask,,gentlemen,  if  any  of 
you  —  and  I  ask  it  with  some  feeling  —  can  stand  a  severer 
scrutiny  of  or  more  rigid  investigation  into  your  private  cor 
respondence  ?  That  was  the  worst  he  could  do." 

He  paused.     The  silence  was  expectant. 

u  There  is  one  piece  of  testimony  wanting.  There  is  but  one 
thing  to  close  the  complete  circle  of  evidence.  There  is  but  one 
witness  whom  I  could  not  have,  to  whom  the  Judiciary  Com 
mittee,  taking  into  account  the  great  and  intimate  connection 
he  had  with  the  transaction,  was  asked  to  send  a  cable  de 
spatch,  —  and  I  ask  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  if  that 
despatch  was  sent  to  him  ?  " 

"  Who  ?  "  suggested  Mr.  Frye,  in  an  undertone. 

"  Josiah  Caldwell." 

Mr.  Knott  responded  blandly,  « I  will  reply  to  the  gentleman 
that  Judge  Hunton  and  myself  have  both  endeavored  to  get 
Mr.  Caldwell's  address,  and  have  not  yet  got  it." 

Then  came  the  unexpected  and  upsetting  question  from  Mr. 
Elaine,  «  Has  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  received  a  despatch 
from  Mr.  Caldwell?" 

The  House  was  breathless. 

"I  —  will  explain  that  — directly,"  replied  Mr.  Knott. 

"  I  want  a  categorical  answer,"  demanded  Mr.  Elaine. 

u  I  have  received,"  gasped  Mr.  Knott,  "  a  despatch  purporting 
to  be  from  Mr.  Caldwell." 

"  You  did  !  " 

"  How  did  you  know  I  got  it  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Knott  in  the  very 
fatuity  of  surprise. 


362  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

"  Wlien  did  you  get  it  ?  "  questioned  Mr.  Blaine,  sternly.  "  I 
want  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  to  answer  when  he  got  it." 

"  Answer  my  question  first,"  parried  Mr.  Knott. 

"  I  never  heard  of  it  until  yesterday." 

"  How  did  you  hear  it?" 

Mr.  Blaine  thrust  aside  the  frivolous  questioning,  and  for  all 
answer  towered  down  the  aisle,  holding  high  a  despatch  in  his 
uplifted  hand,  and  standing  in  the  open  space  in  front  of  the 
Speaker,  in  full  view  of  the  whole  assembly,  in  the  very  face  of 
Mr.  Knott  he  pronounced  with  deliberate  intense  distinctness : 

"  You  got  a  despatch  last  Thursday  morning  at  eight  o'clock 
from  Josiah  Caldwell  completely  and  absolutely  exonerating 
me  from  this  charge,  —  and  you  have  suppressed  it !  " 

There  was  one  instant  of  silence.  Then  went  up  from  the 
great  congregation  such  a  sound  as  never  those  halls  had  heard 
before.  It  was  not  a  shout,  not  a  cheer,  but  rather  a  cry,  the 
primal  inarticulate  voice  of  all  souls  fused  in  one,  a  victorious 
voice  of  horror,  anger,  exultation,  triumph;  rising,  swelling, 
sinking,  renewing  in  an  ecstasy  that  could  not  end. 

The  House  simply  went  to  pieces.  The  vast  audience  dis 
solved  into  individual  human  beings  abandoned  to  individual 
expression.  For  fifteen  minutes  nothing  else  was  done.  It 
seemed  as  if  nothing  else  ever  would  be  done.  The  Speaker  is 
reported  to  have  called  to  order,  but  only  the  reporters  heard 
him.  He  is  said  to  have  complained  piteously  that  he  was  not 
responsible,  that  the  door-keepers  had  let  in  upon  the  floor  twice 
as  many  visitors  as  there  were  members,  and  that  the  House 
would  be  cleared  if  the  applause  was  repeated ;  but  the  applause 
was  repeated  at  will,  and  no  one  left  till  he  chose  to  go. 

Mr.  Blaine  at  length  rose  and  offered  a  resolution,  the  most 

extraordinary  perhaps  that  was   ever  offered  in  <  a   Legislative 

assembly,  or  that  an  investigating  committee  ever  encountered, 

—  a  resolution  which,  in  fact,  put  the  investigating  committee 

under  investigation  by  the  accused  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  be  instructed  to  report 
forthwith  to  the  House  whether  in  acting  under  the  resolution  of  the  House 
of  May  2,  relative  to  the  purchase  by  the  Pacific  Railroad  Company  of 
seventy-five  land-grant  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad, 
it  has  sent  any  telegram  to  one  Josiah  Caldwell,  in  Europe,  and  received 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

a  reply  thereto.  And,  if  so,  to  report  said  telegram  and  reply,  with  the 
date  when  said  reply  was  received,  and  the  reasons  why  the  same  has  been 
suppressed. 

"  And  after  that,"  suggested  Mr.  Blaine,  rapidly,  "  add  4  or 
whether  they  have  heard  from  Josiah  Caldwell  in  any  way.' 
Just  add  those  words,  'and  what.'  Give  it  to  me  and  I  will 
modify  it ;  "  and  seizing  a  pen  he  swiftly  scratched  in  the  words, 
called  the  previous  question  on  the  resolution,  and  with  another 
wild,  long-continued  applause  from  floor  and  gallery,  the  House 
adjourned  and  the  audience  slowly  melted  away. 


364  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

From  V. : 

WASHINGTON,  April  13,  1874. 

I  have  just  returned  from  the  funeral  of  Charles  Sunnier  at  the  Senate 
Chamber.  The  body  was  lying  in  the  rotunda.  There  was  a  procession, 
or  file,  three  or  four  deep,  extending  from  the  coffin,  around  the  outer 
circle,  to  the  door,  waiting  to  take  a  farewell  look.  As  we  were  with  a 
Senator,  we  were  allowed  to  cross  directly  to  the  coffin  without  waiting. 
There  was  a  pained  look  on  the  face,  and  the  head  seemed  to  be  almost  bent 
forward  and  the  face  shortened.  The  coffin  was  loaded  with  flowers. 
The  face  was  far  more  natural  than  I  feared  to  find  it.  We  went  im 
mediately  into  the  Senate  gallery.  What  met  the  eye  was  very  impressive 
—  what  met  the  ear  was  less  so.  Nothing  of  the  latter  was  so  forceful  to 
me  as  the  subdued  manner  in  which  the  unanimous  "  ay  !  "  was  pronounced 
by  the  Senators  when  the  few  motions  of  adjournment  were  put.  The 
Senators  and  members  of  Congress  were  all  in  badges  of  mourning.  The 
Speaker  and  the  escort  wore  broad  white  silk  scarfs  across  the  shoulder 
and  breast,  falling  behind.  When  the  President  pro  tcm.  announced  "  The 
House  of  Representatives,11  all  the  Senators  arose.  Mr.  Blaine  and  the 
clerk,  Mr.  McPherson,  headed  the  procession.  Mr.  Blaine^  look  and  bear 
ing  were  very  fine.  He  is  always  dignified  upon  occasion  —  being 
naturally  so.  He  mounted  to  the  side  of  the  President  of  the  Senate  and 
the  House  filed  in ;  then  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  associate  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  were  announced  and  walked  in  with  their  floating  heavy 
silk  gowns  ;  then,  "  The  President  and  the  Cabinet ; "  then,  preceded  by  the 
ministers  and  the  pall-bearers,  Charles  Sumner  came  into  the  Senate  Cham 
ber  for  the  last  time.  Although  the  whole  coffin-lid  was  glass,  the  flowers 
chiefly  covered  it.  As  I  looked  down  from  the  gallery  I  could  see  the 
lower  part  of  his  face  and  his  folded  hands.  The  greatness  was  in  the 
man,  and  nothing  could  minish  aught  thereof,  but  .  .  .  voice  and  soul 
did  what  they  could.  However,  Sumner  lay  there  undisturbed  and  grand. 
When  "  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  consigns  the  body  of  Charles 
Sumner  to  the  sergeant-at-arms,1'  etc.,  Carpenter's  words  were  good 
though  his  manner  was  not  weighty.  I  could  not  help  thinking  how 
Sumner's  own  voice  would  have  spoken  like  the  voice  of  an  archangel. 
Then  they  filed  out  as  they  had  filed  in,  except  the  President,  who  slipped 
through  a  side-door  followed  by  the  Cabinet.  ...  It  was  not  till 
after  Mr.  Blaine  had  left  for  the  Capitol,  Wednesday,  that  a  servant  came 
up  and  told  us  that  Mr.  Sumner  had  been  sick  all  night,  and  was  thought 
to  be  dying.  From  time  to  time  reports  of  his  death  came,  but  they  proved 
to  be  false,  till  the  last  one  at  about  3  P.M.  Mr.  Blaine  was  in  in  the 
forenoon.  He  said  Mr.  Sumner  lay  with  his  eyes  closed,  the  muscles  of 
his  face  much  contracted  as  if  he  suffered,  breathing  heavily,  and  every 
now  and  then  clutching  his  breast  over  his  heart.  They  sent  for  Carl 
Schurz  quite  early  in  the  morning.  He  went  over,  stayed  awhile,  then 
came  back  and  told  his  wife  it  seemed  so  sad  to  have  no  woman  there,  he 
wished  she  would  go  over,  and  she  went  back  with  him  directly.  They 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  365 

found  the  parlors  below  full  of  black  women  crying,  the  only  white  person 
being  Dr.  Mary  Walker,  walking  around  in  her  demoniac  old  trousers. 
Mr.  Blaine  said  it  was  as  quiet  and  orderly  as  possible  when  he  was  there. 
Before  Mrs.  Schurz's  arrival  so  many  gentlemen  had  come  down  from  the 
Capitol  that  it  was  not  thought  best  for  her  to  enter  the  room,  and  she 
went  home  again.  Mr.  Hooper  and  Judge  Hoar  were  in  close  attendance. 
Crowds,  many  of  them  colored  people,  surrounded  the  house  during  the 
day.  One  of  the  most  touching  sights  to-day  was  the  long  procession  of 
colored  men,  shabby,  but  all  decent,  five  deep,  following  immediately  after 
the  hearse,  to  the  station,  of  their  own  freewill  and  gratitude.  The  hearse 
was  drawn  by  four  milk-white  horses.  Do  you  remember  seeing  that 
almost  his  last  words,  often  repeated,  were,  "  I  am  so  tired.  I  want  rest "  ? 
Mr.  Hoar  said  his  brother,  looking  over  his  papers  after  his  death,  found 
one  of  his  earliest  papers,  a  college  oration,  for  aught  I  know,  in  which  he 
said,  "  How  should  a  man  ask  rest  except  in  the  grave  !  "  Mrs.  Fish  was  in 
yesterday,  and  as  she  was  going  out  she  said  that  Mr.  Fish  had  not  been 
out  since  Tuesday.  He  had  something  of  a  cold,  and  the  death  of  Sumner, 
and  the  remembrance  of  their  early  friendship,  and  their  late  estrange 
ment,  gave  him  so  much  grief  and  shock  that  he  was  really  ill.  He  was 
at  the  Senate  to-day,  but  he  looked  very  pale.  Sumner  was  in  the  Senate 
only  the  day  before  he  died,  remaining  long  enough  to  be  present  at  the 
presentation  of  the  vote  rescinding  his  censure.  Won't  Whittier  be  glad  ? 
I  suppose  it  is  chiefly  owing  to  him  that  the  censure  was  taken  back. 
.  .  Mr.  Blaine  appointed  a  colored  member  to  go  to  Boston.  .  .  . 
At  dinner,  Monday  night,  Secretary  Fish  began  to  say  something  about 
Mr.  Blaine  being  President  —  indirectly,  of  course.  I  stopped  him,  play 
fully  of  course ;  told  him  I  could  not  help  common  people  talking  about  it, 
but  he  should  not ;  that  while  I  had  no  objections  to  the  presidency,  I  had 
decided  objections  to  Mr.  Blaine's  going  through  life  as  a  disappointed 
candidate.  After  the  company  was  gone,  one  of  the  outside  waiters 
came  into  the  parlors  to  ask  Mr.  Blaine,  "  How  did  you  like  the  dinner,  sah  ? 
Hope  to  serve  you  a  better  one  in  the  White  House,  sah,"  with  the  broadest 
of  grins.  At  Governor  Buckingham's,  Mr.  Fish  was  telling  a  gentleman 
how  I  had  lectured  him  here  ;  so  I  told  him  the  negro  story,  that  he  might 
see  what  good  company  he  was  in.  He  declared  that  that  was  the  rising 
race,  held  the  balance  of  power,  and  he  was  wise  to  be  on  their  side.  .  .  . 

WASHINGTON,  May  20,  1874. 

.  .  .  We  dined  at  Mr.  Chandler's  last  night.  .  .  .  M.  and  Q., 
Lulu,  L.  C.,  and  the  little  D.  had  a  small  table  in  the  corner  of  the  same 
room,  with  L.''s  nurse  to  wait  on  them,  and  it  was  very  cunning.  They 
were  still  all  the  first  part  of  the  time,  but  after  a  while  their  little  voices 
began  to  bubble  quite  freely.  Mr.  Blaine  and  L.  sat  nearly  back  to  back, 
and  Mr.  Blaine  would  turn  around  and  pinch  his  cheek  once  in  a  while, 
and  make  him  laugh.  Towards  the  last,  L.  pulled  Mr.  Elaine's  sleeve,  and 
whispered,  "  I've  had  a  yight  nice  time."  .  .  , 


366  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

From  Walker : 

DENVER,  July  19,  1874. 

DEAREST  MOTHER  :  .  .  .  Thursday  evening  we  drove  out  to  see  the 
war-dance  of  the  Ute  Indians.  It  took  place  at  their  camp  some  two  or 
three  miles  from  the  city,  out  on  the  prairie.  The  contrast  was  very  strong 
between  the  civilization  of  this  city,  and  the  wild,  savage,  somewhat  bac 
chante  scene  presented  by  the  Indian  dance.  Indeed,  this  seems  to  me  the 
country  of  contrasts. 

Perhaps  the  handsomest  man  I  have  seen  anywhere  out  here —  a  mild, 
peaceable  face,  handsome  as  the  creation  of  an  artist  —  was  at  the  same 
time  the  worst  specimen  in  dress  and  manner  of  a  border  ruffian.  I  can 
understand  now  the  parts  of  Bret  Harte's  stories  which  have  hitherto 
seemed  defects,  in  which  this  contrast  is  so  sharply  displayed.  We  drove 
out  there,  arriving  at  their  camp  about  seven  o'clock.  The  evening  was 
charming.  In  the  background,  the  Rocky  mountains,  with  purple  ame 
thyst  tints,  lit  into  gold  by  the  sunset's  last  beams.  In  the  foreground  the 
Ute  tents,  round  wigwams,  their  ponies  straying  here  and  there,  and  the 
warriors,  some  of  them  gathered  in  small  groups,  around  the  scattered 
camp-fires.  Several  carriages  and  barouches  filled  with  ladies  and  gentle 
men  were  drawn  up  near  to  the  circle  which  the  dancers  made.  The  occa 
sion  of  this  dance  wras  the  obtaining  of  three  scalps  by  the  Utes  from  the 
Cheyennes.  How  many  the  Utes,  not  as  good  fighters  as  the  Cheyennes, 
lost  in  obtaining  them,  I  know  not.  Nearly  all  the  Ute  warriors  were 
drawn  up  in  a  semicircle,  and  were  saying  a  rude  barbaric  chant,  which 
nevertheless  had  more  of  harmony  in  it  than  I  expected.  They  accom 
panied  their  song  —  if  one  may  so  call  it — by  beating  on  a  sort  of  drum. 
The  squaws  and  maidens  danced  around  within  this  semicircle,  in  a  sort  of 
concentric  circle.  The  steps  were  of  two  kinds, —  one  a  shuffle,  advancing 
the  front  foot  and  then  bringing  the  back  foot  up  to  it,  the  other  a  hop, 
holding  the  two  feet  close  together  and  taking  short  jumps.  The  warriors 
all  the  time  beat  time  with  drums,  and  all  the  people  joined  in  the  rude 
chant.  The  three  scalps  were  carried  around  by  as  many  women,  and  were 
held  aloft  on  poles.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  song,  which  ended  in  a  sort  of 
yelp  or  cat-call  such  as  you  may  hear  the  boys  in  a  theatre  indulge  in,  they 
trailed  the  scalps  in  the  dust,  symbolical,  as  I  understood  it,  of  the  abase 
ment  of  their  foes.  The  attire  of  the  Indians  was  varied.  I  found  great 

O 

difficulty  in  distinguishing  the  women  from  the  men,  but,  like  all  the 
daughters  of  Eve,  I  found  that  they  wrore  a  sort  of  skirt.  In  features  they 
differed  little  from  those  of  the  opposite  sex.  One  woman  wore  a  magnifi 
cent  tiara  made  of  eagle's  feathers.  They  were  sewed  on  a  strip  of 
blanket,  and  reached  nearly  to  her  feet.  Some  of  the  leggins  worn  by  the 
men  were  embroidered  magnificently  with  beads.  The  attire,  however, 
was  very  diverse.  One  of  the  chief  warriors  was  exceedingly  proud  of  an 
old  beaver  hat  which  he  wore;  and  one  of  the  young  children  was 
wrapped  up  in  an  old  red  print  tablecloth.  The  children  were  the  best- 
looking  portion  of  the  whole  tribe.  They  wore  very  little  clothing  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  367 

were  all  handsomely  formed ;  but  in  feature  —  bah  !  One  old  Indian  wore  a 
large  silver  medal,  on  one  side  of  which  was  a  medallion  of  Washington, 
and  on  the  other,  two  clasped  hands  and  the  pipe  of  peace.  The  old 
Indian  had  obtained  it  from  some  Cheyenne  to  whom  it  had  been  presented 
by  the  simple  process  of  slaying  its  former  owner  in  battle. 

From  Mr.  Elaine's  uncle,  Hon.  Jno.  H.  Ewing  : 

WASHINGTON,  PA.,  August  27,  1874. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  AND  KINSMAN  :  Your  favor  was  duly  received,  en 
closing  draft  of  one  thousand  dollars1  donation  to  Washington  and  Jefferson 
College,  for  which  you  have  the  sincere  thanks  of  the  trustees  and  faculty, 
and  your  many  warm  friends  here,  and  I  hope  most  sincerely  that  ere  long 
we  shall  have  the  pleasure  to  manifest  our  good  feeling  to  you  in  a  more 
honorable  and  substantial  manner.  The  course  of  our  State  convention  will 
have  a  good  effect  in  one  respect,  yet  it  was  ill-advised ;  it  will  show  that 
Pennsylvania  is  not  in  favor  of  third  term.  He  had  better  rest  on  his 
honors. 

I  feel  that  your  prospects  are  very  good  for  the  succession,  if  nothing 
should  arise  prior  to  the  time  for  next  nomination.  If  Grant  sees  that  he 
has  no  chance,  he  will  go  in  for  you ;  but  he  must  first  be  satisfied  of  that 
fact.  It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  commit  yourself  on  any  of  the  great 
leading  questions  of  currency.  The  prosperity  of  the  country  will  depend 
much  more  upon  good  crops  than  any  legislation. 

The  country  must  have  time  to  right  herself:  she  has  overtraded  and 
speculated  too  much,  with  too  little  work.  The  desire  to  get  rich  in  haste 
has  ruined  the  country ;  she  must  get  back  to  the  old-fashioned  way  of 
making  a  living  by  honest  labor.  Take  care  of  the  leading  men  of  the 
country :  the  mass  will  follow. 

I  shall  at  all  times  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you.  My  best  and  warmest 
friendship  to  your  boys,  who  endeared  themselves  to  all  of  us  while  here. 

From  Hon.  M.  C.  Kerr  : 

NEW  ALBANY,  IND.,  November  21,  1874. 

Absence  from  home  for  a  few  days  prevented  a  more  prompt  acknowl 
edgment  of  your  very  kind  letter  of  the  13th  inst.  Accept  my  sincere 
thanks  for  your  congratulations  and  the  kindly  reference  to  the  speakership 
in  connection  with  my  name.  Permit  me  to  say  in  all  frankness  that  I  do 
not  look  upon  the  event  to  which  yon  refer  as  at  all  probable.  It  is  no 
doubt  possible,  and  if  it  should  happen,  I  am  sure  no  reflection  would  give 
me  more  disquiet  than  that  which  makes  rne  realize  the  essential  difficulty 
there  would  be  in  an  untried  hand  attempting  to  preside  over  such  a  body 
after  one  who  had  performed  that  duty  with  such  signal  ability  and  success 
as  you  have  done.  Without  reference  to  that  matter,  however,  I  shall  be 
very  glad  to  meet  you  in  the  44th,  and  there  renew  our  service  together. 


368  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

BOSTON,  December  3,  1874. 

Just  as  we  were  finishing  dinner,  or  supper,  at  7.30,  Q.  started  off,  on 
leave  as  I  found  from  Emmons,  to  look  at  Boston  by  gas-light.  A.  and  the 
girls  went  out  separately  to  do  some  little  shopping.  As  soon  as  T  found  Q. 
was  gone,  I  was  ready,  and  made  Emmons  start  out  one  direction,  while  I 
went  the  other.  I  went  up  Tremont,  and  he  down,  and  up  near  the  Park- 
street  church  I  met  the  little  toad,  as  quietly  looking  at  the  sights  as  any 
body.  T  never  let  him  know  I  had  been  uneasy,  and  he  and  I  had  a  good 
long  walk  after  we  met  Emmons.  Mons  is  now  out  calling.  Q.  said  he 
had  been  "  round  the  square,"  a  very  comprehensive  term.  No  news.  Of 
course  I  feel  very  badly  about  going  away.  I  am  pursued  here  by  tele 
grams,  and  I  can  be  ill  spared.  But  I  am  doing  my  duty,  and  that  always 
squares  matters. 

To  Mr.  Elaine : 

OHIO,  January  27,  1875. 

I  want  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket  this  year,  and  therefore  I  want  to 
see  you  the  candidate.  There  are  a  great  many  people  about  here  who  feel 
the  same  way.  I  have  talked  with  four  or  five  leading  men,  and  they  all 
prefer  you  to  Governor  Hayes.  .  .  .  I  find  no  State  or  sectional  feeling 
at  all.  There  is  no  real  Hayes  movement,  and  the  nomination  of  Morton  is 
positively  dreaded  by  the  best  men  in  the  party.  But  M.  is  working  like 
a  nailer. 

I  suppose  you  see  General  Garfield  often.  I  would  like  to  suggest,  if 
you  will  not  think  it  impertinent,  that  you  should  talk  a  little  with  him 
about  the  advisability  of  your  coming  out  here  for  a  little  visit  to  me. 
There  are  several  of  us  who  are  willing  to  give  a  good  deal  of  time  for  you, 
if  we  only  knew  how.  We  could  learn  more  by  talking  with  you  an  hour 
or  so  than  in  any  other  way.  General  Garfield  knows  this  district 
thoroughly,  and  can  tell  you  all  you  want  to  know  about  the  advisability 
of  a  visit.  .  .  .  The  amnesty  debate  has  left  you  stronger  than  before, 
and  has  strengthened  the  Republican  party  in  an  unexpected  manner. 

WASHINGTON,  January  29,  1875. 

A  mild,  rainy  day.  Mr.  Blaine  came  home  from  the  House  at  six  this 
morning,  and  is  still  in  bed,  at  2  P.M.  They  are  filibustering  —  the  mi 
nority  staving  off  the  civil  rights  bill,  and  the  majority  determined  to  fight 
it  out  and  to  show  that  the  rules  of  the  House  need  to  be  altered  so  that  a 
minority  shall  not  be  able  to  block  legislation.  They  have  been  in  contin 
uous  session  since  Wednesday  noon,  but  have  now  adjourned  over  till  to 
morrow.  Report  says  that  Mr.  Blaine  distinguished  himself  last  night  by 
the  wisdom  and  decision  of  his  rulings.  Butler  and  his  allies  were  trying 
all  the  while  to  bring  the  new  rule  into  disrepute,  and  to  have  Mr.  Blaine 
arrogate  a  quorum  where  no  quorum  voted  —  but  in  vain. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLA1NE.  369 

From  Walker  : 

MARCH  1,  1875. 

.     .     .     I  wish  I  could  have  been  in  Washington  during  the  last  two 

weeks.     Have  you  observed  the  very  great  change  in  the ,  and  the 

tone  of  compliment  it  now  so  habitually  assumes  in  speaking  of  the 
ex-Speaker?  And,  speaking  of  speakers,  this  is  the  last  letter  I  shall  ever 
address  to  Speaker  Elaine.  I  hope  that  the  "  paternal's  "  valedictory  is  a 
good  one.  I  should  dislike  to  see  six  years  of  such  good  service  terminate 
in  any  poor  speech,  though  I  know  father's  must  be  good. 

From  V.: 

WASHINGTON,  March  2,  1875. 

.  .  .  Mr.  Elaine  did  not  get  home  from  the  House  till  1.30  this 
morning;  said  he  was  crazy  at  having  to  stay  so.  Everything  was  going  on 
smoothly,  but  every  one  said  he  must  not  go ;  and  sure  enough,  at  the  very 
last  Butler  slipped  in  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  Mr.  Elaine  slipped  it 
out  again,  and  felt  paid  for  staying. 

WASHINGTON,  March  4,  1875. 

We  are  no  longer  Speaker.  ...  It  has  been  an  "ovation."  Mr. 
Elaine  was  at  the  House  all  night,  came  home  about  half-past  eight,  took 
bath  and  breakfast,  returned  directly,  Congress  re-assembling  at  half-past 
nine.  He  sent  the  carriage  back  for  us,  and  we  all,  down  even  to  Q.,  went 
up.  Q.  knew  beforehand  that  he  was  going,  and  must  needs  add  to  his 
delight  by  tormenting  T.  with  the  fact  that  he  was  going  and  she  wasn't. 
Then,  "  T.,  do  you  know  your  papa  isn't  going  to  be  Speaker  any  more? 
He  is  going  to  stop  being  Speaker.  Aren't  you  sorry  ?  " —  "  Well,"  said  T., 
"  he  isn't  going  to  stop  being  papa."  Mrs.  Dawes  was  in  the  Speaker's 
seat,  and  all  the  Maine  ladies,  Mrs.  Frye,  Eurleigh,  and  Hale.  M.  went  on 
the  floor  with  E.  F.  and  Q.  also  under  charge  of  Mr.  Sherman  and  J.  S. 
Legislation  went  on  until  almost  the  minute  hand  was  on  twelve.  The 
crowd  increased  every  moment  —  galleries,  aisles,  steps,  slowly  darkening, 
and  the  open  spaces  on  the  floor  finally  filled  up  till  it  was  just  one  great 
sea  of  blackness.  Messengers  were  coming  in  from  the  Senate,  stopping 
near  the  door,  then  handing  bills  to  others  who  passed  up  the  centre  aisle 
to  deliver  them  at  the  desk.  Mr.  Elaine  and  the  clerk  of  the  House  were 
rapidly  signing  bills,  which  were  snatched  by  waiting  messengers,  who 
rushed  down  the  front  aisle  on  the  full  run  to  carry  them  to  the  Senate,  and 
suddenly  down  came  the  gavel,  and  Mr.  Dawes  rose  and  reported  that  the 
committee  appointed  to  wait  upon  the  President  to  ask  if  he  had  any  further 
message  for  the  House  reported  that  he  had  none.  Then  Mr.  Elaine  again 
struck  the  gavel,  three  times  slowly,  and  the  great  assemblage  hushed 
to  perfect  stillness.  In  a  clear  voice,  audible  to  the  farthest  corner  of  the 
House,  the  Speaker  made  his  closing  address,  which  you  will  have  read 
before  you  see  this.  It  was  perfect,  —  terse,  deliberate,  simple,  touching, 


370  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

manly,  closing  with,  "the  House  of  Representatives  is  adjourned  with 
out  day.11  Everybody  was  moved,  and  the  very  clerks  at  the  desk  wiped 
their  eyes.  At  the  close,  there  came  such  a  clapping  of  applause,  again 
and  again  repeated,  and  no  one  stirred  from  his  place  except  Mr.  Elaine, 
who  immediately  left  the  chair;  but  the  applause  kept  on,  and  he  turned 
partly  back  and  bowed  his  acknowledgments,  and  as  still  they  did  not  stop, 
he  went  up  to  the  clerk's  desk  in  front  of  his  own  and  lower,  and  bowed 
again,  and  still  they  applauded,  till  finally  he  sat  down.  Then  there  was  a 
moving,  and  he  stood  at  the  edge  of  the  raised  platform,  and  people  went 
up  and  by,  and  shook  hands.  Every  one  says,  nothing  like  it  ever  happened 
before.  Then,  though  very  slowly,  the  vast  congregation  melted  away. 
One  lady,  whom  I  did  not  know,  behind  me,  asked  me  if  Mr.  Blaine  had 
been  up  all  night.  She  thought  it  was  so  wonderful.  She  did  not  know  him, 
but  she  could  not  help  crying  herself:  she  never  heard  anything  so  touching. 
Mr.  Ramsdell  was  quite  carried  away  with  enthusiasm.  First  he  came 
under  our  gallery,  looked  up  and  clapped,  then  met  us  on  the  stairs. 
"Oh  !  it  was  splendid,11  he  said,  *'  nothing  ever  like  it  before —  never  was 
such  a  speech  nor  such  a  reception.11  I  said,  "  Splendid,  indeed,  to  have  the 
Speaker  lose  his  chair.11  "  Oh !  "  he  said,  "he  only  lost  it  to  get  something 
higher  and  better.11  However,  Mr.  Blaine  is  well  warned  at  home  to  care 

O 

for  none  of  these  things ;  but  it  is  gratifying  to  retire  from  six  years1  ser 
vice  with  such  plaudits,  and  they  came  from  both  sides.  The  other  night 
after  one  of  his  rulings  against  B.,  and  in  accordance  with  law,  a  South 
erner  and  a  Democrat  sent  up  a  note  to  him.  "  By  G — d,  I  am  proud  of 
you.  .  .  .  You  looked  magnificent.  (Jod  bless  you !" 

The  whole  town  is  ringing  with  Mr.  Blaine's  speech  and  reception. 
Meeting  Mr.  Phelps  walking,  he  said  he  had  never  seen  the  English 
language  used  with  more  force.  J.  S.  comes  in  and  says  every  one  is 
talking  about  it  —  that  he  wanted  to  cry  and  to  cheer  himself,  and  he  went 
out  and  found  G.  wiping  his  eyes.  Tn  fact,  we  have  already  got  to  laugh 
ing  about  it,  and  Mr.  Chandler  has  just  sent  in  a  note  saying  he  has  but 
just  got  over  his  crying;  but  it  was  no  laughing  matter  at  the  time.  In 
deed,  Mr.  Blaine  felt  a  good  deal  himself,  and  could  not  quite  control  his 
voice  at  first,  though  I  did  not  detect  it  at  all ;  but  those  who  were  near  him 
said  he  did  hesitate  a  moment,  and  he  admits  that  he  felt  a  twitter  in  his 
knees.  It  is  a  very  easy  thing  to  write  about,  but  one  must  be  on  the  spot 
to  feel  it  —  the  immense  concourse,  the  incessant  noise  suddenly  closing 
with  the  three  slow  knocks,  and  then  a  silence  so  vast,  and  tho  sense  of 
sympathy  and  separation  —  and  the  clear  voice  and  strong,  simple  words  of 
a  man  himself  so  simple  and  so  strong.  ...  I  have  written  at  a  hand- 
gallop,  but  hope  you  will  make  it  out. 

• 

To  Mr.  Blaine : 

LITTLE  ROCK,  ARK.,  March  5,  1875. 

DEAR  SIR  :  With  this  I  take  great  pleasure  in  forwarding  to  you  a  true 
copy  of  a  joint  resolution  just  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  this  State.  It  is 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  371 

but  a  feeble  although  a  most  heartfelt  testimonial  of  a  suffering  people  to 
the  noble  stand  yourself  and  others  took  in  their  defence. 

As  Congress  had  adjourned  when  this  resolution  was  adopted,  the  Legis 
lature  deemed  it  proper  to  have  the  same  forwarded  to  you  as  the  late 
Speaker,  and  I  now  perform  that  duty  with  feelings  of  the  deepest  sensi 
bility,  and  express  the  hope  that  you  may  live  long  to  serve  and  honor  our 
common  country.  With  great  respect, 

I  am,  most  truly, 

A.  II.  GARLAND, 

Governor  of  Arkansas. 

SENATE  CONCURRENT  RESOLUTION,  No.  36. 

Whereas,  in  the  recent  contest  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
to  overthrow  the  present  State  government,  it  is  evident  that  the  true  ex 
pression  of  the  sentiment  of  the  people  of  this  State  was  recognized  and 
endorsed  in  Congress  by  the  Conservative  Representatives,  without  regard 
to  party, 

Therefore,  be  it  resolved,  by  the  senate  of  the  State  of  Arkansas,  the 
House  of  Representatives  concurring,  that  while  the  thanks  of  the  people 
of  this  State  are  due  to  those  in  Congress  who  vindicated  their  rights,  they 
are  especially  due  to  the  Republicans  of  that  body  who  remained  true  to 
our  StPte,  and  that  they  may  not  be  mistaken,  and  have  cause  to  regret 
their  action,  Arkansas  is  hereby  pledged  to  a  fair,  just,  and  faithful  enforce 
ment  of  the  laws,  to  the  end  that  all  people  may  still  have  their  rights,  and 
that  her  course  shall  be  "  Charity  to  all  and  malice  toward  none." 

Resolved  further,  That  the  Governor  is  hereby  directed  to  forward  a 
copy  of  these  resolutions  to  the  Hon.  James  G.  Blaine,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

Approved  March  4,  1875. 

A.  H.  GARLAND, 

Governor  of  Arkansas. 

From  G.  : 

WASHINGTON,  March  23,  1875. 

...  Mr.  Blaine  criticised  the  expression,  "  Touching  the  Almighty," 
etc.  I  said,  "But  it  is  Bible."  —  "  Is  it  Bible  ?  "  —  "  I  think  so.1'  —  "  Won't 
believe  it  till  I  see  it."  I  went  for  my  Concordance.  lie  found  the  verse 
and  was  silent  a  long  while,  so  I  called  out,  "  How  is  it?" —  "  The  scamps 
have  put  in  '  touching^  but  it  is  in  italics  —  'twasnt  in  the  original  Hebrew 
as  /read  the  Bible." 


To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  John  H.  Ewing : 

WASHINGTON,  PENN.,  May  4,  1875. 

I  have  learned  with  much  pleasure  from  Dr.  Hays  that  you  have  agreed 
to  meet  with  us  at  our  next  college  commencement  on  the  last  of  June.     I 


372  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

ain  gratified  to  know  that  we  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  your  company 
upon  that  occasion,  and  personally  I  feel  that  your  presence  will  afford  us 
much  pleasure,  to  meet  once  more  one  who  is  so  nearly  identified  with  my 
family.  Those  feelings  of  early  life  grow  stronger  as  we  advance  in  life. 
You  will  make  my  house  your  home  while  you  are  here.  .  .  .  And  do 
not  forget  my  good  boys,  who  gave  us  so  much  interest  when  here  last 
with  you,  that  all  our  young  people  were  so  delighted  with,  and  ask  me 
frequently  when  they  will  be  here  again. 

You  will  come  directly  to  my  house.  Mrs.  Ewing  and  myself  will  take 
no  denial,  as  we  all  feel  that  we  have  claims  upon  you  that  none  others 
here  can  have. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

NEW  YORK,  June  13,  1875. 

My  telegram  will  have  relieved  you  from  any  uneasiness  that  might  be 
created  by  the  newspaper  accounts  of  the  railroad  accident,  although  I 
do  not  know  what  those  accounts  may  be.  The  car  I  was  in  was  thrown 
down  headlong  from  the  track  and  rolled  clear  over,  and  there  we  were,  an 
indistinguishable  mass  of  men,  women,  chairs,  sofas,  carpet-bags,  umbrellas, 
and  so  forth. 

I  was  sitting  in  the  next  chair  to  Annie  Louise  Gary,  when  the  fearful 
crash  came,  and  as  soon  as  motion  ceased,  I  found  that  she  was  not  hurt, 
except  a  slight  bruise  on  the  shoulder ;  but  on  attempting  to  rise  myself,  I 
found  my  right  side  so  lame  and  so  painful,  that  I  certainly  thought  some 
ribs  were  broken.  We  all  managed  in  the  course  of  ten  or  fifteen  minutes, 
with  the  aid  of  the  people  outside,  to  get  out  of  the  car,  and  into  the 
station  (Tremont),  about  ten  miles  from  New  York.  Here  we  had  to 
wait  in  the  utmost  discomfort  for  more  than  two  hours  for  a  wrecking 
train  to  come  up  from  New  York  and  relieve  us. 

I  reached  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  about  quarter  of  two.  I  had  Dr. 
Kuppaner  summoned  immediately,  and  on  close  examination  he  found  no 
ribs  broken,  but  a  severe  contusion  along  my  right  side,  with  lesser  bruises 
on  different  parts  of  my  body.  He  had  me  well  rubbed  with  chloroform 
liniment,  and  I  got  to  sleep  in  the  course  of  an  hour,  and  slept  till  nine 
o'clock. 

I  am  very  stiff  to-day,  and  full  of  aches  and  pains ;  but  have  great  cause 
for  thankfulness  that  I  got  off  without  any  real  injury.  I  have  not  a  parti 
cle  of  fever,  thus  showing  I  sustained  no  internal  injury  whatever.  Vice- 
President  Wilson  was  in  the  next  car  and  got  off  without  a  scratch.  The 
train  was  running  thirty-five  miles  an  hour,  in  the  dark  and  rain,  so  that  no 
element  was  lacking  to  make  the  accident  fearful. 

Secretary  Robeson  is  here,  and  has  been  to  see  me  twice  to-day  —  and 
madam,  also  here,  has  sent  her  maid  to  do  anything  she  can  for  me,  —  a 
kind  service,  but  not  needed. 

I  shall  hope  to  be  up  to-morrow,  though  possibly  it  may  not  be  prudent 
to  move  round  much  for  a  day  or  two.  ...  I  could  see,  in  this 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  373 

accident,  how  utterly  impossible  it  is  for  passengers  to  escape  from  a  car 
that  takes  fire.  Had  this  car  taken  fire,  I  don't  see  how  any  one  of  us 
could  ever  have  got  out;  but,  fortunately,  there  was  no  kerosene,  —  the 
Boston  line  using  these  large  candles. 

From  Walker: 

NEW  HAVEN,  Tuesday,  June  15,  1875. 

I  have  been  so  busy  lately  in  my  preparations  for  the  "  annuals  * 
that  I  have  had  no  time  to  write.  Indeed,  almost  every  moment  has  been 
spent  either  in  exercise  or  in  reading  physics.  I  bristle  all  over  with 
physics,  and  should  you  come  near  me  you  would  be  in  danger  of  an 
electric  discharge,  or  of  seeing  the  solar  spectrum  plainly  visible  upon 
my  brow. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes : 

FREMONT,  OHIO,  June  16,  1875. 

Thanks  for  your  note.  Maine  hurt  us  badly  by  a  big  loss  eight  years 
ago  in  the  pinch  of  our  suffrage  fight.  Since,  she  has  done  us  "  a  power  of 
good "  on  several  occasions  by  handsome  gains.  I  am  glad  you  can 
promise  well  this  year.  After  it  is  done,  come  over  and  help  us.  We 
shall  need  it.  The  secret  of  our  enthusiastic  convention  is  the  school 
question.  The  Democrats  take  the  hint  and  are  on  the  retreat.  They  will 
probably  adopt  a  good  sound  plank  on  that  subject.  If  they  can  get  the 
people  to  trust  them  on  that  topic,  their  chance  of  success  is  good.  Other 
wise,  otherwise. 

We  have  been  losing  strength  in  Ohio  for  several  years  by  emigration 
of  Republican  farmers,  and  especially  of  the  young  men  who  were  in  the 
army.  In  their  places  have  come  Catholic  foreigners.  Last  year  on  a 
tolerably  full  vote  they  had  17,000  majority  —  the  vote  being  larger  than 
when  Allen  beat  Noyes  by  a  scratch.  In  the  cities  this  spring  we  are  still 
more  decisively  beaten.  Whether  the  reaction  has  spent  its  force  is  the 
question.  We  shall  crowd  them  on  the  school  and  other  State  issues.  By 
the  time  your  election  is  over,  we  shall  need  help,  and  fresh  men,  with 
general  topics.  Let  me  know  if  we  may  reckon  on  your  help.  Thanking 
you  for  your  encouragement.  .  .  . 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  J.  II.  Ewing : 

WASHINGTON,  PENN.,  June  22,  1875. 

I  learn  by  the  papers  that  you  met  with  an  accident  on  railroad  near 
New  York,  but  have  been  unable  to  learn  the  character  of  your  injuries, 
and  whether  they  are  of  so  serious  a  character  as  to  prevent  your  being 
with  us  on  the  30th  inst.,  at  our  college  commencement.  It  will  be  a  great 
disappointment  to  your  friends  should  you  not  be  able  to  be  present.  Will 
you  let  me  hear  from  you  as  early  as  possible  ? 


374  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

JUNE  24,  1875. 

.  .  .  Mr.  Blaine  was  bruised  and  mauled,  not  seriously  injured,  but 
the  accident  was  a  frightful  one  —  near  midnight ;  the  car  wabbled  and 
jerked  and  was  finally  thrown  off  at  right  angles  from  the  track  —  thirty 
feet  away  —  and  left  on  its  side  ;  cut  two  telegraph  poles  off  clean,  broke 
every  chair  off,  and  the  people  and  everything  were  hurled  and  huddled 
into  a  heap.  The  long  sofa  struck  Mr.  Blaine  in  the  side,  but  the  doctor 
says  the  hurt  is  purely  muscular.  His  clothes  were  torn  oft'  him.  He 
keeps  his  hat  as  a  memento.  He  says  he  can  never  in  his  thought  face 
death  more  closely  than  he  did  then.  He  says  he  did  not  think  of  his  sins 
at  all.  Dear  old  soul,  he  has  not  any  to  think  of,  —  none  to  speak  of  cer 
tainly  ;  but  he  thought,  "So  this  is  the  end  of  it  all,  and  what  a  blow  it 
would  be  to  them  at  home,  and  most  of  all  how  badly  Walker  would  feel 
that  he  had  not  telegraphed  him  to  come  to  the  station  in  New  Haven  and 
have  the  last  look  at  him  ! " 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  E.  C.  Ingersoll : 

JUNE  24,  1875. 

Now  that  you  are  out  of  danger,  I  congratulate  you  upon  your  recovery, 
and  upon  your  escape  from  death.  I  suppose  your  escape  will  be  accounted 
providential,  but  to  my  mind  it  would  have  been  more  providential  not  to 
have  happened.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  I  am  awfully  glad  that  you  got  off 
as  well  as  you  did. 

The  political  outlook  is  improving  eacli  day,  and  you  are  gaining 
strength  constantly.  I  meet  men  from  all  portions  of  the  country  daily,  and 
they  talk  of  you  in  a  way  that  makes  my  heart  feel  glad  and  strong. 


From  G. : 

JUNE  28,  1875. 

Dr.  Smith  sounded  Emmons's  praise  for  engineering  that  party 
through  Harvard  class-day ;  said  he  could  not  do  it  himself,  and  gave  up 
early  in  the  fray.  .  .  .  Emmons  went  away  gay  as  a  lark  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  I  suppose  he  has  his  faults,  and  will  come  to  nothing  like 
the  rest  of  us ;  but  at  present  he  seems  perfect.  ...  I  cannot  help 
comforting  myself  with  reflecting  that  there  are  people  who  require  more 
provocation  to  be  "  confined  to  bed  "  than  the  beloved  ex-Speaker. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Elisha  H.  Allen : 

HONOLULU,  July  23,  1875. 

.     .     .     For  the  kind  interest  which  you  have  taken  in  our  island  affairs 
you  are  held  in  grateful  remembrance. 


BIOGEAPIIY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  375 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Z.  Chandler : 

DETROIT,  August  15,  1875. 

The  campaign  of  76  is  now  being  fought  in  Ohio,  and  while  the  outlook 
is  admirable,  we  should  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  make  assurance  doubly 
sure.  Either  inflation,  repudiation,  and  d— n — n  are  to  win  in  Ohio,  or  hon 
esty  and  coin  at  an  early  day.  I  want  you  to  go  to  Ohio  and  make  as  many 
speeches  as  you  can  at  an  early  day.  Elevate  the  standard  as  high  as  you 
would  in  any  Eastern  State.  The  gage  of  battle  has  been  thrown  down, 
and  we  must  accept,  whether  we  would  or  not.  If  timid  souls  fear  the  loss 
of  a  few  votes,  elevate  it  higher,  and  my  word  for  it  we  shall  gain  ten 
votes  where  we  lose  one. 

From  Messrs.  J.  Y.  Calhoun  and  W.  E.  Gapen : 

BLOOMINGTON,  ILL.,  August  21,  1875. 

We  write  you  as  "  native  Pennsylvanians,"  coming  here  from  the  local 
ity  where  you  were  born. 

Mr.  Calhoun  you  will  no  doubt  remember  as  a  college-mate  at  Wash 
ington  College.  He  wishes  to  renew  the  old  acquaintance  and  revive  the 
memories  of  "  Auld  Lang  Syne.1' 

Mr.  Gapen  was  "  born  and  raised1'  in  Fredericktown  on  the  Mononga- 
hela  river  in  Washington  county ;  and  while  he  never  met  you  but  once 
(which  was  in  Washington  city  during  your  first  term  in  Congress) ,  he 
knew  your  relatives  —  the  Bells,  Gillespies,  and  E  wings  —  and  also  your 
friends  Judge  William  McKennan  and  the  other  lawyers  at  Washington 
—  George  V.  Lawrence  and  others. 

Of  course  we  are  both  familiar  with  your  political  history,  and  are  grati 
fied  at  your  success  ;  and  we  congratulate  you  on  having  achieved  the  diffi 
cult  task  of  spending  such  a  long  time  in  active  political  life  without 
having  given  cause  of  offence  to  any  one. 

And  this  brings  us  to  say  that  in  view  of  our  early  associations  it  is  a 
great  pleasure  to  us  to  see  the  attention  .of  the  people  turned  to  you  as  their 
candidate  for  President. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  for  us  to  add  that  we  are  in  favor  of  your  nomi 
nation  and  election,  and  that  we  desire  to  do  all  we  can  to  accomplish  those 
ends. 

Mr.  Calhoun  has  not  heretofore  been  identified  with  the  Republican 
party.  Mr.  Gapen  has  always  been  a  Republican,  and  was  one  of  the  dele 
gates  (with  the  late  Hon.  Andrew  Stewart,  of  Fayette  county,  and  Alex 
ander  Murdock,  of  Washington  county)  from  his  congressional  district 
in  Pennsylvania  to  the  Chicago  convention  in  1860  that  nominated  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

Of  course  you  know  better  than  we  how  political  matters  should  be  con 
ducted  ;  but  a  suggestion  occurs  to  us  which  we  will  make  —  and  that  is : 


376  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

wouldn't  it  be  well  for  you  to  make  a  visit  to  the  State  of  Illinois  some 
time  during  the  fall  or  winter  and  make  an  address  at  some  prominent 
point,  —  say  at  Chicago,  Springfield,  or  this  city,  —  on  some  occasion  of 
general  public  interest  (not  on  politics,  of  course),  and  thus  become  per 
sonally  acquainted  with  our  people?  And  if  such  an  occasion  should 
occur,  would  you  come? 

From  Mr.  Samuel  L.  Clemens  to  Mr.  Blaine : 

HARTFORD,  October  7,  1875. 

.  .  .  Mr.  N.  sends  me,  at  this  late  day,  certified  copies  of  his  creden 
tials.  Among  them  I  find  one  from  you  dated  Washington,  January  14,  VI, 
in  which  you  recommend  this  Mr.  N.  to  the  Secretary  of  State  as  a  proper 
person  to  bear  despatches  to  London.  You  say  have  "  known  him  for  some 
time  as  a  most  estimable  and  worthy  man,  devoted  to  the  Union  cause  in 
Virginia  at  the  hazard  of  life  and  the  loss  of  property."  You  also  say, 
"And  I  have  no  hesitation  in  commending  him  as  strictly  trustworthy." 
Please  write  me  quickly  an  answer  to  the  following  questions : 

1.  Is  that  a  genuine  document? 

2.  If  so,  do  you  still  regard  Mr.  N.  as  you  did  in  71  ? 

All  who  have  met  him  here  think  the  man  a  fraud,  but  if  he  isn't,  I  want 
to  right  the  wrong  I  have  done  him. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Clemens  : 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  October  9,  1875. 

Infandumjubes  renovare  dolorem,  0  dementia  ! 

After  the  late  cruel  war  was  over,  Washington  was  for  several  years  the 
resort  of  those  suffering  patriots  from  the  South,  who  through  all  rebel 
persecutions  had  been  true  to  the  Union  ;  and  the  number  was  so  great  that 
the  wonder  often  was  where  the  Richmond  government  found  soldiers 
enough  to  fill  its  armies.  Of  these  Union  heroes  and  devotees  was  N.  He 
appeared  there  about  1868  or  1869.  He  had  fled  from  oppression  in  the 
land  of  his  birth,  only  to  find  still  more  grievous  tyranny  in  the  land  of  his 
adoption.  He  looked  as  though  he  had  been  at  once  the  victim  of  kingly 
vengeance  and  the  object  of  concentrated  rebel  malignity.  His  mug  was 
like  that  of  Oliver  Twist,  and  he  evoked  your  pity  even  if  its  first  of  kin, 
contempt,  went  along  with  it.  He  obtained  some  very  small  place  in  one 
of  the  departments,  and  held  it,  I  think,  for  a  year  or  two.  He  fastened  on 
me  as  his  last  hope,  and  continually  brought  me  notes  of  commendation, 
letters  of  introduction,  and  rewards  of  merit.  But  he  never  insulted  me 
with  a  reference  to  his  being  a  candidate  for  anything.  He  uses  that  card 
only  with  green  people  in  the  country,  for  in  Washington,  candidates  go  for 
nothing.  It's  only  the  chaps  that  are  elected  that  count. 

The  idea  finally  occurred  to  N.  that  a  good  way  to  be  avenged  at  once  on 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  377 

all  his  enemies,  to  make  Queen  Victoria  and  Jeff.  Davis  both  feel  bad  at 
the  same  time,  would  be  to  have  a  commission  as  bearer  of  despatches  to 
England.  As  carrying  a  mail-bag  across  the  Atlantic  on  a  Canard  steamer 
seemed  a  cheap  and  convenient  way  of  exhibiting  triumph  over  the  dead 
confederacy  and  hurling  defiance  at  England  at  the  same  time,  I  gave  N.  a 
letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  though  I  had  no  idea  that  I  wrote  quite  so 
gushingly  as  the  quotations  you  send  me  imply.  But  it  is  quite  possible 
that  seeing  N.  before  me  the  impersonation  of  fidelity  to  the  Union  and 
honest  hatred  of  the  Britishers,  I  was  carried  beyond  the  bounds  of  discre 
tion  and  indulged  in  some  eccentricities  of  speech.  But,  alas  !  my  real  con 
victions  are  that  N.  in  all  his  pitiful  poverty  belongs  to  that  innumerable 
caravan  of  dead  beats  whose  headquarters  are  in  Washington.  It  does  my 
very  soul  good  to  know  that  Hartford  is  getting  its  share.  Your  evident 
impatience  under  the  affliction,  your  lack  of  sympathy  and  compassion  for 
the  harmless  swindler,  show  how  ill-fitted  you  would  be  for  the  stern  duties 
of  a  Representative  in  Congress.  And  if  the  advent  of  N".  teaches  you 
Hartford  saints  no  other  lesson,  let  it  deeply  impress  on  your  minds  a  newer, 
keener,  fresher  appreciation  of  the  trials  and  the  troubles,  the  beggars,  the 
bores,  the  swindlers,  and  the  scalawags  wherewith  the  average  Congress 
man  is  evermore  afflicted. 

Excuse  my  brief  note.  If  I  had  time,  I  would  give  you  a  full  account 
of  N. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar  : 

CONCORD,  September  7,  1875. 

.  .  .  If  you  should  get  the  nomination  for  the  presidency  next  year, 
which  I  should  be  glad  to  believe,  and  would  gladly  aid,  you  may  depend 
upon  my  lifting  up  my  voice  like  a  pelican  in  the  wilderness,  or  a  sparrow 
on  the  housetops,  in  support  of  such  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished. 

From  Walker : 

NEW  HAVEN,  October  31,  1875. 

.  .  .  I  fear  I  have  made  no  mention  of  your  letter  including  one  from 
Mons  concerning  his  Harvard  affairs.  (So  the  young  "  swell  "  is  furnishing 
his  room  a  la  Eastlake.  ...  I  wish  that  you  would  send  me  Hil- 
dreth's  "  History  of  the  United  States.1'  I  will  treat  the  books  carefully.  I 
am  taking  a  course  of  lectures  in  the  post  graduate  department  from  Pro 
fessor  Sumner  on  the  political  and  financial  history  of  the  United  States, 
and  Hildreth's  History  is  good  reading  to  accompany  the  course.  I  have 
been  devouring  Thackeray's  "Virginians"  (the  meal  is  not  yet  quite  fin 
ished,  Heaven  be  praised!),  and  am  now  ready  to  vote  Thackeray  the  most 
delightful  of  authors. 

.  .  .  Let  me  hear  from  you  often.  You  can  have  no  idea  how  much 
I  enjoy  the  letters  from  home.  More  and  more  every  year  home  becomes 
nearer  and  dearer  to  me. 


378  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  W.  E.  Niblack  : 

DECEMBER  19,  1875. 

Yon  perhaps  remember  that  I  told  you  last  spring  after  the  adjournment 
that  you  ought  to  resign  and  retire  on  the  laurels  you  had  won  as  Speaker. 
That  on  the  floor  you  would  constantly  be  running  risks  in  votes  that  you 
would  be  called  upon  to  give,  and  in  various  other  ways. 

I  was  reminded  of  what  I  had  said  to  you  by  your  failure  to  vote  on  the 
anti-third  term  resolution  the  other  day.  To  make  the  matter  worse,  how 
ever,  it  was  telegraphed  West  Friday  night,  that  when  Grant  was  informed 
of  your  failure  to  vote  on  that  resolution,  he  remarked,  "Elaine  is  not  in 
anybody's  way,  so  he  need  not  be  so  d  —  d  careful."  This  to  my  mind 
serves  to  illustrate  the  force  of  the  suggestion  I  made  as  to  the  antago 
nism  you  will  have  to  meet  in  various  ways  while  you  are  in  your  present 
position.  I  do  not  doubt  your  ability  to  hold  your  own  as  well  as  any  one 
else  could  under  the  circumstances,  and  I  sincerely  wish  you  personal  suc 
cess  in  your  present  position,  as  well  as  in  all  others  to  which  you  may  be 
called. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Mr.  Samuel  L.  Clemens : 

.  .  .  Now  that  I  have  started  after  this  youth,  I  shall  not  feel  content 
until  1  shall  have  destroyed  his  Hartford  market  for  him. 

A  couple  of  his  most  prominent  endorsers  are  dead.  I  wish  I  knew 
whether  they  endorsed  N.  before  they  died  or  after. 

P.S.  —  I  wish  you  would  let  me  publish  your  entire  letter  just  as  it 
stands ;  it  is  just  what  I  want. 

From  V. : 

WASHINGTON,  January  15,  1876. 

At  Mrs.  Fish's  reception  last  night  .  .  .  Mr.  Blaine  received  an 
other  "perfect  ovation."  Everybody  was  congratulating  him  and  Mrs. 
Blaine.  General  Garfield  could  not  contain  himself.  lie  nearly  hugged 
Mrs.  Blaine.  "Oh!  your  glorious  old  Jim."  It  was  the  first  time  I  ever 
heard  any  one  call  him  Jim ;  but  I  forgave  Mr.  Garfield  on  the  spot.  Gen 
eral  Garfield  says  that  in  the  whole  thirteen  years  he  has  been  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  he  never  saw  so  brilliant  a  victory  as  that  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  yesterday.  Mr.  Randall  first  brought  up  his  amnesty  bill.  Mr. 
Blaine  brought  up  his  amendment  to  have  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty  who 
were  to  receive  amnesty  first  take  an  oath,  and  to  exclude  Jeff.  Davis. 
They  tried  in  every  way  to  keep  him  from  speaking,  but  he  has  always 
spoken  when  he  designed  to  speak.  He  laid  out  the  ground  on  Monday. 
Mr.  Cox  replied  in  a  very  weak  manner,  mere  jest  and  in  no  respect  meet 
ing  Mr.  Elaine's  points.  His  own  friends  were  extremely  dissatisfied,  but 
he  could  not  help  it.  He  had  no  heart  in  it.  Tuesday  Mr.  Hill,  of  Georgia, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  379 

spoke  —  very  bitter  and  extreme,  but  far  better  adapted  to  the  subject 
because  not  frivolous.  Wednesday  General  Garfield  proved  more  at 
length,  and  conclusively,  what  Mr.  Elaine  had  alleged,  that  Jefferson 
Davis  was  responsible  for  the  infamy  of  Andersonville.  I  never  heard 
him  speak  better.  He  had  one  thing  to  do,  and  did  it  well.  Thursday 
Mr.  Blaine  closed  debate  with  another  speech,  less  symmetrical  than 
the  first,  because  he  had  only  to  meet  the  points  that  came  up,  and 
could  not  lay  it  out  quite  so  squarely,  but  very  effective.  It  ended 
without  a  vote  by  the  bill  being  referred  to  the  judiciary,  where  it  was 
supposed  it  would  lie  indefinitely,  awaiting  its  turn  with  seven  hundred 
others.  Yesterday  morning  Governor  Holden,  of  North  Carolina,  sent  him 
a  letter,  which  he  said  at  breakfast  he  would  have  given  its  weight  in 
diamonds  for  the  day  before,  that  he  might  produce  it  in  the  discussion. 
That  morning  I  walked  up  to  the  Capitol  with  him,  and  had  hardly  got 
home  before  a  note  came  to  send  up  Governor  Holden's  letter  instantly. 
It  seems  that  the  Democrats,  having  no  work  blocked  out,  got  hold  of  the 
bills  and  drew  this  one  out,  and  were  going  to  have  a  vote  at  once  with 
Banks's  amendment — accepting  the  oath,  and  Jeff.  Davis  with  it.  Our 
people  pulled  in  all  the  men  from  the  lobby  and  outside  to  fill  the  vote 
against  it.  They  got  the  negro  members  in  a  room  by  themselves  and 
labored  with  them,  and  finally  they  got  them  compacted,  and  really  got 
seven  more  votes,  I  think  it  was,  than  were  needed  to  defeat  the  bill,  which 
requires  a  two-thirds  vote.  Then  Mr.  Blaine  moved  to  reconsider.  What 
he  wanted  was  a  record  on  the  Jefferson  Davis  amendment  separately.  He 
said  that  such  was  the  temper  of  the  House  that  they  could  probably  get  their 
amnesty  bill  through,  but  he  wished  every  one  who  wanted  Davis  in  to 
record  hi*  vote,  ay  or  no.  This  the  Democrats  did  not  wish  to  do.  They 
wished  to  record  on  the  amnesty  bill,  but  had  no  relish  for  being  advertised 
through  the  country  as  advocates  for  Davis.  So  then  Mr.  Blaine  withdrew 
his  motion  to  reconsider,  which  effectually  killed  the  bill.  The  Democrats 
were  completely  surprised  and  dismayed.  One  of  the  morning  papers  says, 
"  People  are  beginning  to  think  that  Mr.  Ex-Speaker  Blaine,  by  himself 
alone,  constitutes  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives."  The 
papers  give  you  no  idea  of  it.  They,  indeed,  are  generally  oflish,  and  damn 
with  faint  praise  :  but  it  has  been  a  wonderful  battle  and  a  splendid  victory. 
He  is  perfect  master  of  the  situation.  He  knows  the  parliamentary  rules  by 
instinct.  He  is  absolutely  without  fear  or  nervousness,  and  talks  with  just 
as  much  freedom  as  by  our  own  table  in  Hamilton,  and  in  precisely  the 
same  way.  His  impetuosity  is  overpowering.  The  only  difference  is  that 
instead  of  a  few  admiring  women  he  has  a  crowd  of  angry  and  ballled  men 
in  front  of  him ;  and  sometimes  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  sixty  rebels  on 
the  other  side  were  on  their  feet  at  once,  and  he  just  defying  them  all. 
Old  members  here  say  that  they  never  saw  anything  so  superbly  done. 
Professor  Seelye  spoke  once  —  very  well  too,  but  illogically —  agreeing  to 
the  oath,  but  thinking  best  to  let  Jeff.  Davis  alone.  Mr.  Blaine  addressed 
him  in  his  second  speech  to  refute  him,  but  interjected  "whose  cooperation 
I  crave."  Professor  Seelye  shook  hands  with  him  afterwards  very  cordially, 


380  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

and  said,  "  You  know  I  don't  exactly  agree  with  you,  but  you  have  been 
a  conquering  hero  through  this  whole  debate." 

From  Hon.  J.  W.  Webb  to  Mr.  Elaine : 

JANUARY  15, 1876. 
HON.  J.  G.  BLAINE: 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  When  a  public  man  ably  and  fearlessly  discharges  his 
whole  duty  in  defence  of  the  right,  he  ordinarily  tinds  his  reward  in  the 
approbation  of  the  people,  indicated  through  the  public  press  of  the 
country  ;  but  when  a  portion  of  that  press,  to  which  he  naturally  looks  for 
approval  when  right,  openly  misrepresents  his  motives,  mistakes  his 
actions,  and  seeks  to  build  up  public  opinion  against  him,  by  assuming 
that  the  people  are  passing  an  adverse  sentence  upon  his  conduct,  it  be 
comes  the  duty  of  all  who  have  taken  part  in  public  affairs  to  come  to  the 
rescue. 

At  seventy-four  I  may  justly  claim  to  have  retired  from  political  life  ; 
but  the  time  has  been  when  I  had  a  right  to  be  heard,  both  as  a  judge  and  a 
representative  of  public  opinion  ;  and  I  feel  it  incumbent  upon  me  to  say  to 
you,  that,  in  common  with  the  Republican  sentiment  of  the  country,  and  of 
the  convictions  of  all  honest  and  patriotic  men,  of  all  parties  and  of  all 
sections  of  the  country,  I  most  cordially  approve  of  your  course  in  object 
ing  to  amnestying  the  infamous  leader  of  the  late  Rebellion.  What  you 
said  and  did  was  a  duty  and,  therefore,  a  necessity;  and  whatever  the 
consequences,  you  richly  merit  the  thanks  and  gratitude  of  all  right- 
minded  persons  ;  and  I  am  proud  to  say  that  you  are  reaping  your  reward. 
But  it  is  said  by  your  traducers,  that  you  have  not  only  injured  the  Repub 
lican  party,  but  that  you  have  virtually  destroyed  your  prospects  of  a 
nomination  to  the  presidency,  by  having  dared  to  be  true  to  your  princi 
ples  and  to  the  principles  and  feelings  of  those  who  not  only  put  down  the 
Rebellion,  but  crushed  out  human  slavery,  and  stamped  with  infamy  all 
concerned  in  the  horrors  of  Andersonville. 

Now,  in  regard  to  candidates  for  the  presidency  and  with  "  president 
making1'  I  have  probably  had  as  much  to  do  as  any  man  living;  and  as 
you  know,  I  have  rarely  been  mistaken  in  regard  to  results.  Your  talents 
and  your  public  services  and  prominent  position  made  you  a  candidate  all 
too  soon,  and  you  were  gradually  sinking  into  the  position  which  was 
always  fatal  to  Webster  and  Clay,  —  conceded  merits  and  ability,  and  the 
absence  of  an  exciting  cause  or  excuse  for  every  man's  feeling  that  they 
were  called  upon  to  fight  a  battle  in  your  behalf.  Such  a  condition  ever 
has  been  and  ever  will  be  fatal  to  the  success  of  public  men  under  our 
institutions,  and  from  this,  thank  God,  you  have  escaped. 

I  have  been  too  long  absent  from  the  country  to  judge  what  were  your 
chances  for  a  nomination  and  election  to  the  presidency  last  week ;  but  I 
do  know,  as  assuredly  as  I  know  that  I  am  now  writing  to  you,  that  what 
ever  your  chances  then  were,  they  have  been  increased  an  hundredfold 
by  your  course  on  the  amnesty  bill.  Men  and  women  who  only  respected 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  381 

you  before,  absolutely  admire  and  love  you  now.  You  have  struck  the 
chord  to  which  all  the  better  feelings  of  their  nature  respond ;  and  be 
assured  that  thousands  everywhere,  who  cared  very  little  one  week  ago 
who  received  the  nomination  from  the  Republican  convention,  now  offer 
up  prayers  for  your  success ;  and  by  the  frank  and  earnest  expression  of 
their  feelings  will  do  much  to  accomplish  their  triumph.  .  .  .  During 
the  week  there  have  been  nightly,  social  gatherings ;  and  I  am  happy  to 
say  that  I  have  not  met  with  a  solitary  individual  who  has  not  approved 
of  your  course,  and  condemned  in  very  decided  terms  the  conduct  of  my 
old  friend  Samuel  Bowles,  in  the  "  Republican.11  But  I  need  not  tell  you 
that  the  so-called  "  Independent  Press,11  .  .  .  have  become  and  are 
thorough-going  Democratic  papers.  Alas  for  the  independence  of  the 
press!  It  has  vanished;  and  all  because  the  purpose  of  newspapers  has 
been  lost  sight  of.  Nowadays  they  are  made  to  sell.  When  you  and  I 
were  editors  we  did  not  follow,  but  made,  public  sentiment ;  and  we  also 
made  presidents.  But  things  have  changed  now. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips: 

JANUARY  16,  1876. 

Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  your  triumph.  Such  the  country  re 
gards  it.  I  thank  you  most  heartily  for  the  check  you've  given  to  this 
ridiculous  gush  which  threatens  to  wash  away  half  the  landmarks  of  our 
war-gain,  —  one-third  of  it  devilish  craft;  one-third  hypocrisy;  the  rest, 
perhaps,  honest  stupidity. 

Such  a  protest  was  needed  just  now  to  stun  this  drunken  people  into  a 
sober  estimate  of  their  position  and  danger.  You  were  most  emphatically 
the  man  to  make  it.  Thanks  for  your  fidelity,  and  hearty  congratulations 
on  your  admirable  success. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  W.  G.  Brownlow  (of  Tennessee)  : 

WASHINGTON,  January  16,  1876. 

.  .  .  St.  John  said,  "  We  know  that  we  have  passed  from  death 
unto  life  because  we  love  the  brethren.11  Mr.  Hill  has  always  been  a  very 
devout  brother  Methodist  of  mine,  and  I  judge  him  by  this  rule  in  reading 
his  utterances  in  the  House  in  view  of  his  professed  desire  for  reconcili 
ation.  ...  If  you  meet  the  enemy  again  this  session,  I  can  only  wish 
you  the  success  which  has  already  crowned  your  efforts. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith  : 

ALBANY,  January  18,  1876. 

I  must  congratulate  you  upon  your  brilliant  fight  and  splendid  success 
in  the  House.  It  was  magnificent.  Its  effects  are  being  felt  everywhere. 


382  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Republicans  are  stirred  and  enkindled,  the  opposition  confounded  and 
overwhelmed.  ...  I  made  it  a  part  of  my  business  to  follow  you 
closely,  to  publish  your  speech  in  full,  and  to  have  my  say,  as  enclosed. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  school  question.  .  .  .  You  compel  the  whole 
country  to  follow  you  with  interest. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mrs.  Ellen  Ewing  Sherman  : 

ST.  Louis,  February  4,  1876. 

Mr  DEAR  COUSIN  :  Here  I  am  fighting  Catholic  editors,  and  going  forth 
daily  armed  "cap-a-pie  "  in  your  defence,  wherever  there  may  be  a  mis 
creant  bold  enough  to  assail  you  —  arid  you  have  not  condescended  to 
answer  my  letter.  ...  I  am  for  you  always  —  and  as  a  family  we  all 
are  —  the  general  included  ;  for  we  know  that  you  would  fill  the  position 
of  President  with  honor  and  dignity,  and  add,  by  your  administration,  a 
lustre  and  a  glory  to  the  country. 

But  shall  we  have  that  satisfaction  ?  Your  demonstration  regarding  the 
State  Constitutions  and  school  laws  will  play  sad  havoc  with  your  interests 
among  our  Irish  friends  and  Catholics  ;  but  time  may  change  this.  At  any 
rate,  you  have  my  heart-felt  and  heart-strong  wishes  for  the  attainment  of 
your  ambitious  ends  here,  and  for  what  is  so  much  beyond,  as  to  make 
this,  indeed,  be,  as  St.  Paul  says,  dross  and  dirt.  .  E.  has  told  me 

of  your  great  kindness  to  her.  May  Heaven  bless  you,  my  dear  yrand- 
cousin !  I  am  very  proud  of  you. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Benson  J.  Lossing : 

DOVER  PLAINS,  N.Y.,  February  14,  1876. 

.  .  .  The  "  Southern  Historical  Society  "  have  expressed  a  desire  to 
have  "all11  the  Confederate  archives  in  the  hands  of  our  government, 
"  published."  I  think  such  publication  would  arraign  Mr.  Davis  as  a  crim 
inal  in  a  stronger  light  than  you  have  placed  him.  There  is  a  paper 
among  them  that  shows  that  he  was  willing  to  have  the  drama  of  Guy 
Fawkes  repeated  in  our  country.  It  is  a  communication  from  a  Southern 
man,  or  a  sympathizer  with  the  Confederates,  to  blow  up  the  Capitol  at 
Washington,  while  Congress  was  in  session,  in  the  summer  of  1861.  The 
proposition  seems  to  have  been  favorably  entertained  by  Davis,  who,  by 
an  endorsement  on  the  back  of  the  paper,  referred  it  to  the  proper  depart 
ment  to  act  in  the  matter.  This  fact  was  communicated  to  me  by  the  late 
Francis  Lieber,  LL.D.,  who  was  employed  by  our  government  to  arrange 
the  Confederate  archives. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  greatest  boon  which  the  leaders  in  that  wretched 
Rebellion  can  pray  for  is  to  be  forgotten.  They  have  injured  the  Southern 
people  a  thousandfold  more  than  they  have  us  of  the  North.  ...  I 
am  willing  to  forgive  all  the  injury  that  men  have  inflicted  upon  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 


383 


Nation,  but  it  is  neither  wise  nor  wholesome  for  us  to  forget  them.  There 
was  great  wisdom  and  truth  in  the  remark  of  Cicero  against  Cataline, 
"Mercy  toward  traitors  is  cruelty  to  the  State." 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Chicago : 

FEBRUARY  23,  1876. 

At  the  Republican  conference  meeting  held  here  yesterday,  there  were 
about  fifty  of  the  captains,  lieutenants,  and  sergeants  of  the  party  at  roll- 
call,  from  all  parts  of  the  State.  In  fact  it  was  a  State  convention,  except 
in  form.  The  presidential  expression  was  quite  generally  in  your  favor. 

.  .  When  you  made  your  two  speeches  on  the  amnesty  question,  the 
Eastern  papers  denounced  you,  and  said  you  had  ruined  yourself  politically. 
I  did  not  think  so.  We  followed  up  the  Andersonville  Jeff.  Davis  business, 
until  the  responsive  echoes  came  back  from  the  old  guard.  As  the  West 
warmed  up,  the  East  began  to  catch  a  little  of  the  heat.  Your  currency 
speech  was  well  received,  and  strengthened  you  much  with  the  "  honest- 
money  "  classes,  who  don't  care  a  great  deal  about  party  politics.  .  .  . 
Wisconsin  spoke  out  quite  plainly  in  your  favor,  and  so  will  the  rest  of  the 
Western  States  in  due  time. 

From  G. : 

WASHINGTON,  February  26,  1876. 

Before  he  sat  down,  Mr.  Curtis  (G.  W.)  gave  a  long  look  around  the 
(round)  table,  the  flowers,  and  the  company,  and  said  to  me  softly,  "  I  often 
hear  people  speak  of  a  '  beautiful  dinner,1  but  this  is  indeed  a  beautiful 
dinner/1  Or  you  may  choose  what  Senator  O.  said  to  Mr.  Blaine  after 
wards,  "  Why,  it  was  a  devil  of  a  time!11  .  .  .  Sir  Edward  Thornton 
thought  Mr.  Blaine  was  mistaken  about  a  man's  being  expelled  from  the 
House  some  years  ago,  and  offered  to  bet  a  gold  sovereign  against  a  half 
eagle.  Mr.  Blaine  took  it,  and  Sir  Edward  has  just  sent  in  the  sovereign, 
with  a  very  handsome  letter.  .  .  .  Judge  Hoar  was  invited,  being 
here  on  a  visit,  but  was  engaged  elsewhere,  and  came  in  after  dinner, 
bright,  and  full  of  cordiality.  He  says  in  a  letter  this  (Monday)  morning, 
that  the  President  (or  as  he  says,  "  the  individual  in  question11)  assured 
him  that  he  should  do  nothing  to  oust  Bristow.  This,  however,  you  need 
not  proclaim.  Also  that  the  President  said  to  Mr.  Blaine  the  other  day,  he 
should  support  the  nominee  of  the  Cincinnati  convention,  and  had  no  idea 
who  it  would  be,  but  said,  "  Mr.  Blaine,  if  I  wanted  to  ruin  you,  I  should 
come  out  for  you.  On  whomsoever  the  weight  of  this  administration  falls, 
it  will  crush  him ;"  and  I  rather  pitied  him,  for  it  cannot  be  a  pleasant 
thing  to  know. 

From  Walker : 

NEW  HAVEN,  February  28,  1876. 

I  hear  and  read  on  every  hand  all  sort  of  rumors  and  prophe 
cies,  but  am  keeping  my  mind  well  off  the  subject  by  going  deep  into 


384  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

history.     Saturday  brought  the  nicest  letter  from  father  I  ever  remember 
to  have  received,  a  letter  which  I  shall  certainly  preserve. 

WASHINGTON,  March  2,  1876. 

The  other  day  when  Washington  Territory  elected  Elaine  delegates, 
Mr.  Elaine  came  in  flourishing  his  telegram,  "  Well,  Maine  is  for  me,  and 
Washington  Territory  is  for  me  ;  the  little  gap  between  it  is  for  my  friends 
to  fill  up!" 

From  Judge  Noah  Davis : 

NEW  YORK,  March  10,  1875. 

I  beg  leave  to  add  a  single  globule  to  the  flood  of  congratulations  you 
are  receiving. 

Of  all  "  the  Speakers,"  you  are  the  most  fortunate  in  your  retiracy,  for 
no  one  ever  left  the  chair  with  approbation  so  universal  and  so  wholly 
free  from  partisanship ;  and  while  this  is  true,  no  one  can  say  you  have 
not  been  at  all  times  faithful  to  the  principles  of  your  party,  and  earnestly 
alive  to  its  integrity. 

I  can  only  hope  that,  in  the  new  role  of  leader  of  the  minority  in  the 
House,  you  may  be  able  to  win  for  yourself  the  same  meed  of  credit,  and 
largely  to  contribute  to  restore  the  (almost)  lost  prestige  of  Republicanism. 
I  do  not  despair  of  the  future.  I  have  faith  still,  that  Republican  princi 
ples  may  triumph  in  the  centennial  contest.  But  it  must  be  through  an 
openly  avowed  determination  to  abandon  errors,  undo  wrongs,  and  make 
the  party  what  it  formerly  was,  the  champion  of  right. 

I  think  no  man  in  the  country  has  in  larger  measure  the  popular  confi 
dence  than  yourself,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  no  one  can  bring  back  so 
great  a  number  of  the  doubting,  fearing,  and  almost  despairing  Republi 
cans  as  you. 

I  hope  this  will  find  you  well,  happy,  and  hopeful. 

From  Walker : 

NEW  HAVEN,  March  16,  1876. 

After  vacation  there  are  only  ten  weeks  more  in  Yale.  I  hope  to  be 
an  A.E.,  and  have  what  is  called  by  courtesy  an  education. 

Wasn't  New  Hampshire  a  faithful  State?  I  suppose  now  they  will  try 
to  fight  out  the  battle  in  Connecticut.  Governor  English  is  personally  so 
popular,  and  such  a  good  governor,  that  I  think  there  is  very  little  pros 
pect  of  his  defeat;  but  Mr.  Robinson,  the  Republican  candidate,  who  is  a 
strong  man,  will  make  a  good  run,  and  materially  reduce  the  majority  of 
'75,  thus  giving  only  a  normal  victory  to  the  Democrats.  If  Governor 
English  is  beaten,  I  would  stake  everything  I  had  that  the  Republicans 
will  win  the  next  presidential  election.  Aren't  you  getting  tired  of  hearing 
Aristides  continually  called  the  just  ?  I  am.  It  reminds  me  of  what  1 
heard  that  an  old  letter  of  Jno.  Adams  contained,  written  in  '98,  when 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  385 

there  were  prospects  of  foreign  complications,  and  the  great  G.  W.  was 
made  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  and  some  one  wrote  to  Jno.  Adams 
congratulating  him  on  having  the  cooperation  of  the  father  of  his  country. 
"I  would  have  you  know,"  wrote  back  Jno.  Adams,  "that  there  were 
other  gentlemen  who  fought  for  this  country  than  Mr.  Washington.  I  am 
getting  tired  of  hearing  continually  of  Mr.  Washington,"  etc.  T  begin  to 
have  something  the  same  feeling.  But  I  am  growing  cross  and  crabbed  ; 
so  with  love  to  all. 


From  Walker: 

NEW  HAVEN,  March  26,  1876. 

DEAREST  MOTHER  :  Since  you  were  so  kind  as  to  have  no  objection  to 
my  bringing  on  a  fellow  to  spend  the  spring  vacation,  I  have  invited  my 
chum  to  come  on,  and  he  has  accepted.  ...  As  Mark  Twain  lectured 
that  evening  before  the  Law  School  Club,  and  as  I  had  never  heard  him,  I 
was  led  away  from  hearing  the  general.  However,  I  called  on  him  that 
evening,  and  he  thought  I  had  heard  him,  which  did  quite  as  well. 
The  general  talked  somewhat  on  politics,  thought  father  could  carry  New 
York  were  he  nominated,  and  said  that  he  Avas  opposed  to  a  pledged  delega 
tion  from  that  State,  though  he  was  personally  a  friend  and  admirer  of 
Senator  Conkling.  He  was  very  complimentary  to  father  personally,  though 
somewhat  doubtful  of  Republican  success  in  the  national  campaign  next 
fall.  Polite  to  the  utmost  verge  as  usual.  .  .  .  Then  Friday  evening 
I  went  out  to  a  little  party,  where  I  had  a  pleasant  evening,  though  they 
insisted  on  playing  twenty  questions,  a  game,  a  subtle  invention  of  the 
adversary  to  bore  one  nearly  to  death.  The  party  was  made  up  of  all 
ages,  and  I  would  have  been  much  better  entertained  had  I  been  let  alone. 
Why  don't  people  learn  that  when  two  or  three  people  are  gathered  to 
gether,  they  can  best  be  entertained  by  being  allowed  to  entertain  them 
selves  ?  .  .  .  I  am  beginning  to  count  time  in  small  numbers  until  my 
graduation  now,  as  there  are  only  ten  weeks  after  the  next  vacation. 

From  V.: 

MARCH  29,  1876. 

.  .  .  Mrs.  Bancroft  told  me  that  at  the  Syracuse  convention  a  gen 
tleman  said  to  G.  W.  Curtis,"!  understand  you  dined  with  Mr.  Blaine, 
and  that  he  offered  you  the  English  mission." — "  All ! "  said  Mr.  Curtis, 
"  my  price  has  risen.  I  thought  T  was  bought  by  the  dinner  alone." 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Judge  Noah  Davis : 

NEW  YORK,  April  25,  1876. 

I  have  just  read  your  vindication  of  yesterday.  It  is  clear,  explicit,  and 
complete.  I  have  never  had  a  doubt  of  the  utter  falsity  of  the  charges 


386  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

against  you  —  and  hereafter,  no  honorable  man  can  have  one.  I  am  glad 
you  have  taken  the  mode  you  have  to  meet  the  slanderers ;  for  I  am  sure 
your  vindication  will  be  universally  regarded  as  the  frank  and  bold  utter 
ances  of  innocence  and  truth.  Thanks  and  congratulations. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  A.  P.  Gould : 

THOMASTON,  ME.,  April  25,  1876. 

Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  upon  your  complete  vindication  of  your 
self  in  the  House  yesterday.  I  wish  to  express  my  gratification  that  slan 
der  is  likely,  in  this  instance,  to  recoil  upon  the  heads  of  its  promoters. 
The  charge  was  an  improbable  one ;  but  in  these  days  of  general  corrup 
tion  almost  any  charge  against  a  public  man  is  credited  by  many.  I  trust 
that  the  attempt  to  defeat  your  nomination  by  such  foul  means  will  ad 
vance  your  prospects,  as  it  ought.  I  am  of  that  number  of  Democrats 
who  would  prefer  your  success  to  that  of  any  other  person  yet  named  as 
the  probable  nominee  of  the  Republican  party.  Tf  we  cannot  have  a  Dem 
ocratic  President  (which  I  trust  we  may) ,  I  prefer  a  man  of  political  expe 
rience  and  naturally  conservative  tendencies,  such  as  T  know  you  possess, 
unless  you  have  very  much  changed  from  what  you  were  when  I  knew  you 
best. 

From  John  G.  Whittier  : 

AMESBURY,  18th,  5th  mo.,  1876. 

J  was  not  knowingly  a  candidate  for  the  Cincinnati  convention. 
I  do  not  feel  able  to  go  through  such  a  labor.     The  complete  vindication 
of    Mr.    Blame  from  the  Democratic  charges  is  very  satisfactory  j  to   all 
Republicans. 

To  Mr.  Blaine  from  Col.  John  Hay : 

MAY  26,  1876. 

I  hope  your  health  is  prospering  as  well  as  your  affairs.  T  think  you 
should  give  all  your  time  now  to  your  own  constitution,  so  as  to  be  ready  to 
protect  the  other  one  next  year. 

I  spent  a  week  or  two  in  Illinois  just  before  the  convention  met,  but 
soon  found  I  was  calling  the  righteous  to  repentance.  I  was  astonished, 
after  all  the  Chicago  Tribune's  shouting,  to  find  absolutely  no  Bristow  sen 
timent;  in  fact  very  little  of  anything  but  Blaine.  Of  course  there  is  still 
the  danger  of  some  midnight  trade,  though  it  is  hard  to  see  where  the 
elements  of  it  are  at  present. 

Anyhow,  I  shall  take  this  opportunity  to  congratulate  you  on  your 
immense  success  before  the  people. 

From  V. : 

WASHINGTON,  May  25,  1876. 

.  .  .  The  conventions  yesterday  went  very  handsomely  for  Mr.  Blaine, 
as  you  have  doubtless  seen.  People  here  are  jubilant  over  it.  Telegram 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  387 

after  telegram  coming  in  "  solid  for  Blame."  Many  think  it  is  a  foregone 
conclusion.  I  should  think  so  myself,  if  it  depended  upon  popular  feeling. 
I  think  the  country  is  noticeably  for  him  even  to  enthusiasm  —  quite 
unusually  so  for  a  contested  nomination.  Why  I  am  not  on  the  whole 
confident  is  that  there  are  so  many  ways  by  which  the  will  of  the  people  is 
defeated.  Those  who  know  "the  ropes"  can  "pull  the  wires  "  and  get 
the  machinery  into  their  hands.  Mr.  Blaine  knows  "the  machine"  as 
well  as  any  one,  but  the  trouble  with  him  is  that  there  are  some  things  he 
will  not  do,  and  one  of  them  is  to  truck  and  dicker.  Whatever  can  be  got 
by  organizing  forces,  by  foresight  and  combination  and  sagacity,  he  will  do. 
He  does  not  affect  to  be  indifferent.  He  will  do  anything  that  an  honorable 
man  should  ;  but  there  he  stops.  Of  one  thing  you  may  be  sure  :  it  is  no 
small  compliment  to  receive  the  suffrage  of  so  many  conventions.  What 
ever  happens,  it  is  very  gratifying  to  see  State  after  State  coming  in  for 
him.  .  .  .  Just  here,  another  telegram  from  Missouri.  "We  count 
for  you  a  clear  majority."  You  must  remember,  too,  that  this  is  done  in 
the  face  of  all  the  scandal  which  they  are  persistently  bringing  up  against 
him,  and  is  therefore  the  more  satisfactory.  I  don't  pin  any  faith  in  the 
future,  but  I  exult  now,  just  as  A.  always  sounds  victory  at  croquet  as  soon 
as  her  ball  bobs  through  the  first  wicket.  The  investigation  is  an  outrage, 
and  many  Democrats  are  coming  to  think  so.  Governor  Connor,  of  Maine, 
told  II .  that  the  Democrats  down  in  Maine  were  as  mad  about  it  as  the 
Republicans.  S.  writes  that  Deacon  H.  of  their  church  turned  round  to 
E.  last  Sunday  while  the  minister  was  pronouncing  the  benediction,  and 
said,  "  Did  you  see  Colonel  Scott's  splendid  vindication  of  Mr.  Blaine?" 
loud  enough  for  all  the  neighbors  to  hear.  He  was  so  happy  he  could 
not  wait.  ...  If  Mr.  Blaine  should  not  be  nominated,  I  think  we 
shall  go  home  about  June  20th.  If  he  is,  we  shall  be  delayed. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Rev.  Dr.  Webb : 

BOSTON,  May  29,  187G. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BLAINE  :  Good  deal  like  the  day  of  judgment,  isn't  it  ? 
Everything  you  ever  did,  and  most  of  the  things  you  ever  refused  to  do, 
mustered  and  massed  and  hurled  at  you  with  the  force  of  jealousy, 
malignity,  and  enraged  malice.  Only  in  that  day  the  Judge  is  not  a  man 
that  he  should  lie,  nor  are  his  accusers  to  be  savages  with  tomahawk  and 
scalping-knife,  to  hack  and  scalp,  and  then  try  afterwards.  .  .  . 

But  what  I  want  is  to  preach  a  little  to  you  as  my  old  parishioner :  ask 
Mrs.  Blaine  if  she  don't  believe  in  the  total,  and  unlimited,  and  absolute 
depravity  of  some  men?  .  .  . 

Secondly.  Do  you  keep  calm,  and  sleep  nine  hours  every  night ;  and  if 
you  can't  keep  calm,  keep  as  calm  as  you  can.  The  strain  upon  you  must 
be  something  fearful.  It  frightens  me  to  see  reports  of  your  illness.  The 
stake  is  large,  but  your  life  is  not  to  be  endangered.  You  may  not  be 
conscious  of  the  tension.  This  "  secondly"  is  the  main  thing  which  I  want 
you  to  notice  and  profit  by,  —  restrain  your  feelings,  restrain  your  mental 


388  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

action,  put  brain  and  heart  regularly  to  rest.  A  little  more  trust  in  God, 
my  brother,  a  resting  on  His  providence,  this  will  help  you  just  now. 
And  may  God  bless  you!  Ainen. 

WASHINGTON,  May  29,  1876. 

.  .  .  Judge  Allen  was  also  in,  a  Maine  man,  now  judge  in  Hawaiian 
Islands.  He  had  just  come  from  Bangor,  and  said  he  had  a  solemn 
message  which  he  was  commissioned  to  deliver  from  Judge  Appleton, 
and  many  others  in  Maine,  that  they  wanted  to  assure  Mr.  Elaine  in 
the  most  emphatic  manner  that  their  confidence  in  him  was  absolute  and 
unimpaired ;  that  they,  who  had  known  him  and  loved  him  and  watched 
him  from  his  youth,  were  following  him  still  with  unwavering  devotion  and 
trust ;  that  all  the  attacks  upon  him  only  endeared  him  to  them  the  more  ; 
that  no  words  could  express  the  indignation  of  Maine,  Democrat  as  well  as 
Republican,  at  the  persecution  of  which  he  is  the  object,  and  which  only 
shows  how  formidable  he  is  to  the  enemy ;  that  they  know  how  open  and 
above-board  were  all  these  business  transactions  which  the  scoundrels 
are  trying  to  make  capital  out  of ;  that  they  were  familiar  with  them  at 
the  time,  and  know  there  was  no  breath  of  impropriety  in  them,  etc. 
Indeed,  Judge  Allen  in  giving  the  message  to  H.  for  Mr.  Blaine,  told  her 
that  she  could  not  use  language  too  strong ;  and  the  tears  came  into  his 
eyes,  and  H.  could  not  speak,  and  he  was  so  excited  that  he  would  hold  her 
hand,  then  start,  then  take  it  again  and  begin  new.  .  .  .  However, 
it  will  only  last  a  fortnight,  unless  he  is  nominated,  in  which  case  I  sup 
pose  they  will  keep  it  up  till  November,  and  may  the  Lord  have  mercy 
on  their  souls !  I  don't  think  I  should  if  I  could  get  at  them.  .  .  .  The 
over-sanguine  think  it  is  a  foregone  conclusion  for  Mr.  Blaine,  but  I  do  not 
by  any  means.  The  popular  voice  is  unmistakably  for  him,  but  it  is  useless 
to  underrate  the  power  of  desperate  men  with  strong  machinery  in  their 
hands,  and  the  Democrats  will  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  prevent  the  nomi 
nation  of  the  strongest  candidate.  Two  weeks  will  satisfy  all  curiosity. 

.  .  .  We  are  invited  to  go  to  Mount  Vernon  to-day  with  the  emperor 
and  empress,  and  also  to  meet  them  at  Lady  Thornton's  this  evening. 
.  .  .  I  do  not  believe  Mr.  Blaine  will  have  time  for  the  second. 
As  the  time  draws  near,  the  fight  waxes  hotter  and  hotter,  and  the  devil 
and  all  his  angels  seem  to  have  taken  the  field.  If  the  issue  depended 
upon  people  who  know  Mr.  Blaine,  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  its  char 
acter  ;  but  it  seems  hardly  possible  that  the  great  outside  world  should  not 
think  in  all  these  repeated  attacks  there  is  no  smoke  without  some  fire. 
One  gentleman  said  this  morning  that  all  this  would  do  Mr.  Blaine  no 
harm,  but  that  he  had  never  yet  known  the  strongest  candidate  win,  and 
that  Mr.  Blaine,  being  the  strongest,  would  inevitably  lose. 

From  Walker : 

NEW  HAVEN,  June  2,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER  :  I  have  just  read  the  statement  of  Mulligan  and 
your  own  of  yesterday.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that  the  principle  which 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  389 

you  have  laid  down  about  private  correspondence  is  one  of  the  most  valu 
able  that  can  be  impressed  upon  public  law  with  reference  to  political 
investigations.  That  a  committee  which  has  been  given  limited  powers 
should°assert  unlimited  power  threatens  everybody.  The  Court  of  Star 
Chamber  did  not  assert  or  really  grasp  more  arbitrary  power  than  the 
American  House  of  Representatives  has  been  doing  all  winter  and  is  doing 
to-day.  The  precedents  for  the  case  of  Hallett  Kilbourn  are  to  be  found  in 
the  assertions  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  that  of  these  investigating 
committees  in  the  Star  Chamber  of  the  Stuarts.  Dispassionately  I  think 
that  the  principle  you  have  laid  down  is  one  worth  the  contending  for,  and 
I  would  not  give  up  those  letters  in  any  event. 

I  trust  to  see  in  to-morrow's  papers  that  you  have  produced  the  testimony 
of  lawyers  to  sustain  you  in  your  point.  If  the  public  has  got  to  know  all 
the  purely  personal  secrets  of  a  man's  private  life,  why  then  I  am  an  aris 
tocrat  or  a  Helot,  I  care  not  which.  I  want  to  be  counted  as  against  such  a 
public.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  one  thing  which  now  is  needful. 
Personally,  however  little  you  may  care  for  the  nomination  at  Cincinnati, 
you  need  it  more  and  more  for  these  brutal  lying  attacks.  Nothing  suc 
ceeds  like  success,  and  the  very  men  who  in  newspapers  shout  to-day  that 
Elaine  is  ruined,  to-morrow,  should  you  be  a  candidate  and,  as  would  be 
undoubtedly  true,  elected,  would  hurl  their  hats  to  the  sky  in  your  honor. 
**  How  proud  you  must  be,'1  said  a  friend  to  Cromwell  when  he  returned 
from  his  campaign  in  Ireland,  "  to  see  the  crowds  of  people  that  have 
turned  out  to  honor  you !  "—  "  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  but  how  many  more 
would  have  turned  out  to  see  me  hanged!"  The  public  press  and  the 
canaille  will  shout  and  deride,  and  praise  and  huzza  in  the  same  breath  the 
same  man. 

But  however  painful  the  attacks  of  perjuring  witnesses  and  more-than- 
perjuring  newspapers  may  be,  however  distressing  an  investigation  con 
ducted  for  partisan  ends  and  purposes  and  with  partisan  bitterness  and  hate, 
may  prove,  there  is  one  Tribunal  which  will  need  to  pass  no  judgment,  and 
to  whom  the  testimony  of  suborned  and  lying  witnesses  is  of  no  possible 
account.  Your  children,  those  who  may  read  and  reason  now,  and  those 
who  will  learn  to  do  so  hereafter,  will  need  no  distinction  to  make  a  father's 
name  dearer,  and  no  praise  of  men  or  good  repute  to  make  his  honor 
greater.  "  I  have  learned,"  once  said  Horace  Binney,  "  that  the  honors  of 
a  public  life  are  but  barren,  and  the  distress  and  anxiety  great ;  but  the 
esteem  of  friends  and  the  love  of  kindred  is  a  solace  that  never  fails,  and 
a  pleasure  that  never  proves  delusive."  Of  the  latter  you  are  certainly 
assured. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  William  M.  Evarts : 

WINDSOR,  VT.,  June  3,  1876. 

I  have  never  been  in  much  danger  of  becoming  enamored  of  politics, 
but  I  confess  I  am  greatly  shocked  at  the  wretches  who  are  pursuing  you 


390  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

when  and  because  you  are  winning  the  race.  I  see  the  instruments  of  this 
envy  and  malice  are  New  England  born,  which  distresses  me  the  more. 
Still  there  is  a  hope  that  Mulligan  may  turn  out  Irish  in  birth  as  well  as 
race. 

I  dare  say  you  have  more  letters  of  respect  and  sympathy  than  you  care 
to  read,  but  I  thought  you  would  not  impute  this  to  a  desire  for  a  "  consul 
ship,"  and  so  send  it. 

From  Walker : 

SOUTH  COLLEGE,  June  4,  1876. 

I  wrote  father  a  note  Friday  afternoon,  and  I  am  afraid  that  you  may 
have  got  a  wrong  idea  as  to  what  I  meant.  I  did  not  intend  to  say  that  I 
thought  public  opinion  was  to  be  despised,  or  that  political  life  was  a  thing 
to  be  shunned  and  avoided.  An  honest  and  impartial  opinion  of  the  major 
ity  we  must  acknowledge  as  the  highest  verdict.  But  I  do  think  that  if 
public  opinion  breaks  loose  from  reason,  and,  in  a  blind  devotion  to  what 
it  considers  a  laudable  end,  rushes  over  to  a  judgment  unwarranted  and 
partisan,  it  is  very  little  worthy  of  consideration.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
while  I  think  a  political  existence  one,  if  not  the,  most  honorable  of  all 
careers,  yet  I  also  see  the  hard  trials  and  anxieties  very  clearly.  1  am 
enough  of  an  aristocrat  not  to  cut  my  coat  and  fashion  my  shirt  collar  to 
suit  the  opinion  of  the  mass,  if  I  wish  otherwise.  And  I  have  seen  the  un 
pleasant  features  of  political  life  brought  out  recently  in  such  bold  outlines, 
that  I  have  no  desire  to  enter  on  that  career.  The  position  which  father 
has  taken  is  one  that  will  do  him  honor,  and,  I  think,  benefit  him  politically. 
The  attack  of  the  "  Mulligan  guards  "  will  prove  ineffectual.  .  .  . 

To  Emmons  : 

WASHINGTON,  June  4,  1876. 

I  have  been  very  anxious  to  hear  from  you  to  know  how  you  were 
enduring,  like  a  good  son,  the  fiery  ordeal  through  which  your  father  is 
passing. 

Its  fierceness  no  one  but  himself  can  know,  but,  walking  it,  he  feels 
peculiarly  for  you  and  Walker. 

The  defeat  in  the  convention  is  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance  to  him, 
though  no  one  better  knows  than  himself  the  prize  for  which  he  was  con 
tending.  But  the  thought  which  takes  the  manhood  out  of  him  is  that  you 
and  Walker,  who  are  just  entering  life,  may,  perhaps,  be  forced  to  see,  not 
only  all  your  proud  and  happy  anticipations  disappointed,  but  yourselves 
put  on  the  defensive.  .  .  . 

He  has  been  upstairs  looking  up  the  order  of  a  speech  for  the  House 
to-morrow,  but  it  is  very  likely  it  will  never  be  made,  as  every  new-comer 
has  different  advice  to  give.  .  .  . 

I  find  it  difficult  to  command  my  thoughts,  but  there  is  one  thing  I  must 
say,  though  1  presume  and  hope  you  will  laugh  at  my  fears.  I  have  been 
afraid  you  might  go  into  Boston  and  do  something  to  Mulligan ;  but  you 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  391 

have  sense  enough  to  know  that  nothing  could  be  worse  for  your  father 
than  notoriety  of  that  kind.  Keep  yourself  as  patient  and  hopeful  as  you 
can.  .  .  .  All  of  us  are  well,  and  your  father  has  a  great  reserve  of 
pluck  and  resource. 

WALNUT  STREET,  7  o'clock,  6  June,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  This  minute  I  have  laid  by  your  speech  of  yesterday. 
You  have  macerated  these  scamps.  With  head  erect  and  with  defiant  tone 
you  have  scattered  the  wretched  crew  of  calumniators  and  spies  on  private 

life  and  private  intercourse.     The of  the  administration  cabal  do  not 

see  that  in  tarnishing  your  name  they  besoil  their  party.  They  do  not  see 
that  in  thus  overthrowing  you  they  prepare  the  way  for  the  defeat  of  the 

Republican  nominee.      But  what  does or  care  for  that  party. 

They  are  neither  of  them  of  that  party.     They  have  used  it  and  would  now 
destroy  it.     You  have  beaten  them  as  I  believed  you  would,  and  I  rejoice 
with  you  and  with  the  party,  as  all  men  will  do  here. 
Truly  your  friend,  with  respect, 

BENJAMIN  HARRIS  BREWSTER. 

From  John  G.  Whittier: 

AMESBURY,  6th  mo.,  6,  1876. 

.  .  .  But.  how  splendidly  Mr.  Blaine  held  himself  in  his  fight  with  the 
ex-Confederates  of  the  committee !  I  hope  thee  saw  it.  ...  He  has 
cleared  himself  of  the  charges  against  him.  He  has  had  an  awful  ordeal. 
The  game  of  the  presidency  is  not  worth  such  a  candle.  Any  man  who  is 
named  for  the  White  House  will  soon  be  in  the  condition  of  the  man  out 
West  who  was  everywhere  well  spoken  of  until  in  an  evil  hour  he  allowed 
himself  to  stand  for  General  Court,  and  found  himself  so  abused  that  he 
had  to  call  his  dog  to  see  if  he  was  himself  or  somebody  else. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  E.  McPherson : 

GETTYSBURG,  June  7,  1876. 

I  read  yesterday  your  speech  of  Monday,  with  choking  utterance,  and 
with  tears  of  thankfulness  and  joy  that  you  were  able  so  utterly  to  con 
found  the  base  conspirators  who  were  attempting  your  life.  With  this 
was  mingled  the  highest  admiration  for  the  power  you  displayed,  and  for 
the  terrible  force  with  which  you  drove  home  your  blows.  There  is  but 
one  sentiment  here,  and  there  must  be  but  one  everywhere  on  the  face  of 
the  earth  where  civilized  people  dwell,  and  that  is  of  thorough  sympathy 
for,  and  admiration  of,  you ;  and  among  friends  a  more  determined  pur 
pose  than  ever  to  stand  by  you,  and  to  do  whatever  may  be  required  to 
attest  the  feeling  of  friendship.  I  feel  it  as  a  great  loss  that  I  failed  to  see 
the  scene,  but  in  the  midst  of  my  engagements  could  not  get  away.  .  .  . 
With  congratulations  to  Mrs.  Blaine  on  the  overwhelming  defeat  of  this 
conspiracy.  .  .  . 


392  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    O.    ELAINE. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  William  Or  ton  : 

NEW  YORK,  June  8,  1876. 

.  .  .  I  congratulate  you  sincerely  and  heartily  upon  your  substantial 
victory  over  your  enemies.  When  partisan  hates  overcome  all  the  instincts 
of  manhood,  it  is  time  for  those  who  have  any  manhood  left  to  cease  to  be 
partisans. 

From  G. : 

WASHINGTON,  June,  1876. 

.  .  .  We  did  not  tell  Mr.  Blaine  we  were  going  to  the  House,  as  he 
rather  did  not  wish  us  to  go,  but  helped  him  with  his  papers  and  letters 
till  the  last  minute,  and  the  moment  he  was  out  of  the  house  we  flew. 
He  had  got  through  the  first  part  of  his  speech,  but  was  on  the  letters.  I 
cannot  tell  you  the  effect.  There  never  was  such  a  rout.  Knott  and 
Hunton  were  deserted  even  by  their  own  party ;  not  one  of  the  leading 
Democrats  came  to  their  aid.  The  cheering  when  Mr.  Blaine  marched 
down  the  aisle  and  charged  Knott  with  having  suppressed  the  telegram 
was  indescribable.  It  seemed  to  come  up  from  all  over  the  House.  It 
was  wild  and  long  and  deep.  It  was  a  perfect  roar  of  triumph.  Knott 
seemed  to  shrivel  visibly  in  the  hot  flame  of  wrath.  Observe  how  Mr. 
Blaine  led  him  on  by  asking  if  he  had  sent  to  Mr.  Caldwell.  Mr.  Kasson 
came  up  into  the  gallery,  said  there  had  been  no  such  feeling  since  the 
emancipation  clause  was  introduced  into  the  Constitution.  Mr.  Ramsdell 
said,  "Made  you  feel  happy,  didn't  it?" — "Happy,"  said  Mr.  Kasson, 

"I  was  crazy."     Mr.   ("Ben")  Wade  said,   "Blaine  is  the  d dest  man 

to  handle.  He  has  got  them  down  again."  A  Bristow  delegate  said, 
"  I  have  been  a  Bristow  man  through  and  through,  but  I  shall  vote  for  the 

man  that  has  put  the  Democrats  in  h 1  twice."     Everybody  is  coming  in 

congratulating,  and  I  must  stop.  They  say  the  nomination  is  certain,  but 
I  do  not  depend  upon  that.  Mr.  Hale  says  Mr.  Blaine  never  did  anything 
so  fine.  Mr.  Frye  says  if  they  can  only  get  him  into  a  fight,  he  is  as  brave 
as  a  lion  ;  but  when  lie  is  at  home  all  alone,  or  with  only  intimate  friends, 
he  is  so  disgusted  with  the  lowness  of  the  fight  and  with  having  to  go  up  to 
that  committee-room  to  watch  those  nasty  rebels  and  Democrats,  that  he  is 
almost  ready  to  throw  up  the  whole  thing.  His  Monday's  fight  has  done 
him  a  great  good.  Mr.  Frye  said  there  was  a  stranger,  an  Englishman, 
who  said  to  him  in  committee-room  the  other  day,  "  In  all  my  travels  this 
is  the  most  humiliating  thing  I  have  seen.  Here  is  a  man  of  great  name 
and  great  fame  forced  to  stand  up  and  defend  his  character  before  two 
men,  who,  twelve  years  ago,  stood  with  a  halter  round  their  necks.  My 
God  !  think  of  it."  Mr.  Frye  and  Hale  and  nearly  all  Mr.  Elaine's  most  in 
timate  friends  are  gone  to  Cincinnati. 

WASHINGTON,  June  9,  1876. 

.  .  .  F.  came  in  Monday  to  tell  Mr.  Blaine  what  a  villain  Mulligan  is, 
but  his  information  was  of  such  a  nature  as  hardly  to  be  available.  Besides 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  393 

that,  Mulligan  was  pretty  well  disposed  of  by  the  time  F.  got  here.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Chittenden,  of  New  York,  says  he  noticed  a  Democratic  friend 
clapping,  last  Monday,  as  enthusiastic  as  himself.  Mr.  Blaine  thinks  the 
revise  (?)  of  all  these  attacks  will  defeat  him ;  but  we  don't  much  care  now. 
He  has  put  himself  on  a  height  from  which  no  defeated  nomination  can 
displace  him,  and  will  be  beaten  not  only  with  honor,  but  with  distinction. 
People  say  if  he  could  only  go  to  Cincinnati  himself,  the  case  would  be 
sure.  It  is  the  universal  verdict  that  nobody  can  resist  himself.  At  the 
House  yesterday,  Mr.  Ramsdell  met  us  first  with  "  Well,  there  is  another 
gone  to  join  the  great  army  of  corpses,  — Tarbox."  Then  L.,  of  Hart 
ford,  who  was  in  the  House  and  heard  it,  said  Tarbox  did  seem  so  poor 
and  mean  and  abject  and  helpless,  that  one  could  hardly  help  pitying  him. 
He  is  Judge  Hoar's  successor,  and  defeated  Ayer,  the  cherry  pectoral  man, 
who  is  said  now  to  be  in  an  insane  asylum,  which  gave  rise  yesterday  to 
the  remark  that  the  Massachusetts  folks  are  great  fools :  they  ought  to 
have  sent  Ayer  to  Congress,  and  put  Tarbox  in  the  insane  retreat !  The 
Democrats  tried  to  prevent  him  from  speaking,  and  the  scene  the  day 
before  was  exceedingly  amusing.  He  arose  to  speak,  and  Mr.  Kasson 
reminded  him  that  Mr.  Blaine  was  not  present,  so  he  stopped.  Scott  Lord 
took  the  floor  on  another  subject.  Mr.  Blaine  was  brought  in,  but  when 
Scott  Lord  got  through,  Tarbox  did  not  rise.  Then  Mr.  Blaine  inter 
rupted  the  fresh  speaker  to  notify  Mr.  Tarbox  that  he  was  here,  and 
Mr.  Haie  said  Blaine  looked  very  much  as  if  he  ivas  "here,"  and  Tarbox 
said  he  did  not  wish  to  go  on.  The  House  all  laughed  and  I  suppose 
Tarbox  took  the  bits  in  his  mouth  next  day.  Morrison,  the  Ways  and 
Means  chairman,  went  to  him  in  the  morning  and  said,  "  Tarbox,  do  you  be 
lieve  in  a  hell  ?"  Tarbox  made  some  kind  of  surprised  reply.  "  Because 
you  will  before  the  day  is  over."  Then  the  way  in  which  Mr.  Blaine  took 
the  investigating  committee  in  hand  and  investigated  them  !  V.,  a  friendly 
foe,  says,  **  They  had  digged  a  pit  before  him.  It  was  engulf ment  or  a  des 
perate  leap.  Blaine  cleared  it  with  plenty  of  room  to  spare."  Mr.  R. 
says  that  S.  (a  Western  Democrat)  goes  around  growling,  "  Anybody  else 
would  have  been  killed  on  half;  but  Blaine  is  always  rising.  Another 
day  like  this  would  nominate  him."  Mr.  Kelly,  with  his  voice  of  many 
waters,  says,  *«  I  have  been  in  Congress  when  Constitutional  Amendments 
have  been  passed,  when  men  have  been  denounced  as  traitors,  when  vic 
tories  have  been  proclaimed,  and  the  enemies  of  the  country  overthrown ; 
but  I  have  never  seen  anything  so  thrilling  as  this !  " 


394  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 


XIV. 

THE   WORK   OF  THE   REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION. 

r  I  ^HE  investigating  committee  practically  disappeared  on  the 
-*-  fifth  of  June.  They  had  some  meetings  afterwards,  but 
they  had  been  permanently  deflected  from  their  original 
purpose,  and  the  question  henceforth  before  them  was  not  the 
entanglement  of  Mr.  Blaine,  but  the  disentanglement  of  Mr. 
Knott.  The  nature,  motive,  and  methods  of  the  investigation 
had  been  too  thoroughly  exposed  for  it  ever  again  to  assume 
standing  among  men.  In  the  committee  room  and  on  the  floor 
of  the  House,  Mr.  Blaine  spoke  a  few  rare  words  of  haughty 
and  supreme  contempt  which  proved  to  be  parting  words,  and 
appeared  before  them  no  more.  After  he  had  gone,  some  signs 
of  malign  life  stirred  in  the  House,  but  Mr.  Elaine's  friends, 
finding  that  their  magnanimity  had  been  abused  by  the  "  cul 
prits,"  —  to  use  General  Garfield's  designation,  —  turned  and 
tore  them  in  pieces.  Deprived  of  the  vitality  which  his  pres 
ence  lent,  the  committee  never  pulled  itself  together  enough 
to  make  a  report. 

There  was  no  need.  Mr.  Blaine  had  made  his  own  report  to 
the  great  tribunal,  to  the  highest  Court  of  Appeal  on  earth, 
the  people,  and  received  from  them  at  once  and  forever,  not 
merely  the  award  of  innocence,  but  the  plaudit  of  righteous 
ness.  Thenceforth  he  became,  and  as  long  as  he  lived  remained, 
the  one  prominent  Republican  candidate  for  the  presidency, 
more  eagerly  desired  by  a  larger  number  than  any  President  had 
ever  been,  and  followed  and  loved  as  a  leader  with  an  ardor 
that  had  relation  t'o  no  place  except  that  which  he  had  made  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people  ;  and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  bulk 
of  his  nominating  vote  came  always  from  the  electing  States, 
while  the  very  candidates  who  were  brought  forward  to  defeat 
him  in  the  nomination  depended  upon  the  Blaine  votes  for  elec 
tion  —  and  received  them. 


1 
BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  395 

Nevertheless  evil  did  a  deadly  work.  To  a  nature  as  deli 
cately  organized  as  strongly  endowed,  friendly  yet  seclusive,  of 
honor  in  the  blood  and  therefore  not  on  the  lips,  this  struggle 
tierce  and  prolonged,  against  the  cold,  close  coil  of  the  politi 
cal  devil-fish,  had  a  slimy  repulsion  utterly  apart  from  the  glow 
of  manly  combat  with  wind  and  wave.  Standing  up  steadfastly 
to  the  defence  of  his  reputation,  in  which  the  hopes,  the  faith, 
and  the  welfare  of  a  great  multitude  were  centred  and  attacked, 
Mr.  Blaine  was  not  infrequently  overtaken  by  a  sudden  horror 
of  inward  loathing  which  only  an  ever  present  sense  of  the  wide 
interests  involved  enabled  him  to  surmount.  During  all  that 
hideous  time  no  word  of  impatience  broke  from  him  to  mar  the 
intense  sympathy  of  the  household  whose  life  was  bound  up  in 
him.  When  once  as  he  was  endlessly  pacing  back  and  forth 
through  the  long  suite  of  rooms,  silent,  absorbed,  a  detaining 
hand  was  laid  on  his  arm,  he  said  gently,  "  Do  not  mind  me," 
but  continued  his  walk.  Once  lying  on  the  sofa,  ill  with  a 
slight  malaria,  he  suddenly  raised  his  clenched  hand  high  and 
exclaimed  in  a  voice  thick  with  emotion,  "  When  I  think  — 
when  I  think  —  that  there  lives  in  this  broad  land  one  single 
human  being  who  doubts  my  integrity,  I  would  rather  have 
stayed  "  -  but  instantly  controlled  himself  and  did  not  finish 
the  sentence.  His  magnificent  bearing  in  the  front  of  the  fight, 
his  stately  and  splendid  march  to  an  unprecedented  personal 
triumph,  permitted  no  hint  of  the  acuteness  of  his  suffering. 
His  patience  and  gentleness  at  home  were  beyond  words. 

The  severe  strain  removed,  a  reaction  came.  On  the  Sunday 
after  he  had  snatched  his  case  from  the  suppression  and  suffoca 
tion  of  the  committee,  and  had  submitted  it  to  the  impartial 
judgment  of  men,  he  came  from  his  chamber  to  the  drawing- 
room  well  and  strong  as  usual  to  all  appearance.  Through  the 
spring  he  had  been  several  times  somewhat  indisposed  from 
malaria  and  disgust ;  but  this  morning  he  pronounced  himself 
fresher  and  more  elastic  than  he  had  felt  for  some  days,  and 
telegraphed  cheerfully  to  his  friends  in  Cincinnati  who  were 
already  gathering  for  the  convention  that  was  formally  to  meet 
on  the  next  Wednesday.  When  summoned  to  breakfast  he 
walked  into  the  dining-room  with  a  child  perched  on  each 
shoulder.  It  was  a  warm  day  and  the  carriage  was  suggested 


396  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

for  church,  but  he  preferred  to  walk.  Nearing  the  church  door, 
with  no  comprehensible  warning  he  sank  down  unconscious 
upon  the  stone  step  in  the  arms  of  his  wife,  who  could  save  him 
only  from  falling.  Help  was  instantly  at  hand.  An  omnibus 
standing  on  the  street  was  driven  up,  in  which  he  was  laid  and 
taken  immediately  home.  For  the  sake  of  air  he  was  placed 
upon  the  floor  in  the  hall,  with  the  doors  wide  open,  while  a 
bed  was  prepared  in  the  drawing-room.  So  quickly  the  tidings 
flew  that  the  street  was  blocked  with  a  sorrowful,  sympathetic 
throng  who  gazed  incredulous  at  the  prostrate  form.  General 
Sherman,  utterly  skeptical,  bent  over  the  bed  and  called 
"  Elaine !  Blaine  !  "  as  if  it  were  a  summons  to  battle  ;  but  only 
the  ring  of  his  own  voice  shook  the  air,  and  only  his  own  lip 
quivered.  The  house  filled  with  friends  who  went  where  they 
listed,  but  the  master  was  far  away,  locked  in  impenetrable 
sleep.  Hour  after  hour  numbered  themselves  into  days  while 
this  slumber  held  him  ;  then  the  clouds  slightly  parted,  slowly 
lifted,  gradually,  yet  at  the  end  suddenly,  rolled  away,  never  to 
return.  On  Tuesday  afternoon  all  the  channels  of  the  mind 
were  cleared,  and  while  the  telegraph  was  flashing  to  Cincinnati 
tidings  that  he  was  dead,  he  telegraphed  the  message  in  his 
own  handwriting,  "  I  am  entirely  convalescent,  suffering  only 
from  physical  weakness.  Impress  upon  my  friends  the  great 
depth  of  gratitude  I  feel  for  the  unparalleled  steadfastness  with 
which  they  have  adhered  to  me  in  my  hour  of  trial." 

Under  such  circumstances  the  Blaine  delegates  met  in 
convention  at  Cincinnati  on  June  14,  and  waged  their  heroic 
battle  for  the  country  and  for  him.  Into  the  midst  of  all 
their  plans  had  broken  the  certainty  that  he  was  sick  unto 
death,  the  uncertainty  at  any  moment  whether  it  might  not  be 
death,  and  the  air  continued  to  be  thick  with  rumors  and 
counter-rumors.  Yet  they  rallied  to  his  standard  with  a  con 
stancy  that  knew  no  second  choice.  Mr.  Robert  G.  Ingersoll 
formally  introduced  his  name  to  the  convention  with  an  elo 
quence  whose  timely  truths  were  touched  with  living  fire  which 
set  the  whole  vast  audience  aflame  with  heroic  enthusiasm. 

"  .  .  .  The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  demand  as 
their  leader  in  the  great  contest  of  1876  a  man  of  intellect,  a 
man  of  integrity,  a  man  of  well-known  and  approved  political 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  397 

opinions.  They  demand  a  statesman.  They  demand  a  reformer 
after  as  well  as  before  the  election.  They  demand  a  politician 
in  the  highest,  the  broadest,  and  the  best  sense  of  that  word. 
They  demand  a  man  acquainted  with  public  affairs,  with  the 
wants  of  the  people,  with  the  requirements  of  the  hour  not  only, 
but  with  the  demands  of  the  future.  They  demand  a  man 
broad  enough  to  comprehend  the  relation  of  this  government 
to  the  other  nations  of  the  earth.  They  demand  a  man  well 
versed  in  the  powers,  duties,  and  prerogatives  of  each  and  every 
department  of  this  government.  They  demand  a  man  who  will 
sacredly  preserve  the  financial  honor  of  the  United  States ;  one 
who  knows  enough  to  know  that  the  national  debt  must  be  paid 
through  the  prosperity  of  this  people  ;  one  who  knows  enough 
to  know  that  all  the  financial  theories  in  the  world  cannot  re 
deem  a  single  dollar ;  one  who  knows  enough  to  know  that  all 
the  money  must  be  made  not  by  law,  but  by  labor ;  one  who 
knows  enough  to  know  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  the  industry  to  make  the  money,  and  the  honor  to  pay  it 
over,  just  as  soon  as  they  can.  The  Republicans  of  the  United 
States  demand  a  man  who  knows  that  prosperity  and  resump 
tion,  when  they  come,  must  come  together ;  when  they  come 
they  will  come  hand  in  hand  through  the  golden  harvest  field ; 
hand  in  hand  by  the  whirling  spindles  and  the  turning  wheels ; 
hand  in  hand  past  the  open  furnace  doors  ;  hand  in  hand  by  the 
flaming  forges  ;  hand  in  hand  by  the  chimneys  filled  with  eager 
fire,  raked  and  grasped  by  the  hands  of  the  countless  sons  of 
toil.  This  money  must  be  dug  out  of  the  earth.  You  cannot 
make  it  by  passing  resolutions  in  a  political  convention.  The 
Republicans  of  the  United  States  want  a  man  who  knows  that 
this  government  should  protect  every  citizen  at  home  or 
abroad;  who  knows  that  any  government  that  will  not  de 
fend  its  defenders,  and  will  not  protect  its  protectors,  is  a  dis 
grace  to  the  map  of  the  world.  They  demand  a  man  who 
believes  in  the  eternal  separation  and  divorcement  of  church 
and  school.  They  demand  a  man  whose  political  reputation  is 
spotless  as  a  star  ;  but  they  do  not  demand  that  their  candi 
date  shall  have  a  certificate  of  moral  character  signed  by  the 
Confederate  Congress.  The  man  who  has,  in  full,  complete 
and  rounded  measure  all  of  these  splendid  qualifications  is  the 


398  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

present  grand  and  gallant  leader  of  the  Republican  party, 
James  G.  Blaine. 

"  Our  country,  crowned  by  the  vast  and  marvellous  achieve 
ments  of  its  first  century,  asks  for  a  man  worthy  of  her  past  and 
prophetic  of  her  future ;  asks  for  a  man  who  has  the  audacity 
of  genius ;  asks  for  a  man  who  has  the  grandest  combination  of 
heart,  conscience,  and  brain  the  world  ever  saw.  That  man  is 
James  G.  Blaine.  For  the  Republican  hosts,  led  by  this  in 
trepid  man,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  defeat.  .  .  . 

"  This  is  a  grand  year,  —  a  year  filled  with  the  recollections  of 
the  Revolution ;  filled  with  proud  and  tender  memories  of  the 
sacred  past ;  .  .  .  filled  with  legends  of  liberty  ;  —  a  year 
in  which  the  sons  of  freedom  will  drink  from  the  fountain  of 
enthusiasm  ;  a  year  in  which  the  people  call  for  the  man  who 
has  preserved  in  Congress  what  their  soldiers  won  upon  the 
field ;  a  year  in  which  they  call  for  the  man  who  has  torn  from 
the  throat  of  treason  the  tongue  of  slander ;  the  man  who  has 
snatched  the  mask  of  Democracy  from  the  hideous  face  of  the 
Rebellion ;  the  man  who,  like  the  intellectual  athlete,  has  stood 
in  the  arena  of  debate,  challenging  all  comers,  and  who,  up  to 
the  present  moment,  is  a  total  stranger  to  defeat.  Like  an 
armed  warrior,  like  a  plumed  knight,  James  G.  Blaine  marched 
down  the  halls  of  the  American  Congress  and  threw  his  shining 
lance  full  and  fair  against  the  brazen  forehead  of  every  traitor 
to  his  country  and  every  maligner  of  his  fair  reputation.  For 
the  Republican  party  to  desert  that  gallant  man  now  is  as 
though  an  army  should  desert  their  general  upon  the  field  of 
battle.  .  .  .  James  G,  Blaine  is  now  and  has  been  for  years 
the  bearer  of  the  sacred  standard  of  the  Republican  party.  I 
call  it  sacred  because  no  human  being  can  stand  beneath  its 
folds  without  becoming  and  without  remaining  free. 

"  Gentleman  of  the  Convention :  In  the  name  of  the  great 
Republic,  the  only  Republic  that  ever  existed  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth  ;  in  the  name  of  all  her  defenders  and  of  all  her  sup 
porters  ;  in  the  name  of  all  her  soldiers  living ;  in  the  name  of 
all  her  soldiers  that  died  upon  the  field  of  battle  ;  and  in  the 
name  of  those  that  perished  in  the  skeleton  clutch  of  famine  at 
Andersonville  and  Libby,  whose  sufferings  he  so  vividly  remem 
bers,  —  Illinois  —  Illinois  —  nominates  for  the  next  President  of 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  399 

this  country  that  prince  of  parliamentarians,  that  leader  of 
leaders,  James  G.  Blaine." 

The  voting  began  on  the  third  day  of  the  convention.  Three 
hundred  and  seventy-nine  votes  were  necessary  to  a  choice. 
On  the  first  ballot  Mr.  Blaine  had  285  votes,  from  twenty-eight 
States  and  seven  Territories.  Morton  had  124  votes,  30  from 
his  own  State,  Indiana,  the  remainder  from  the  South.  Bristow 
had  113  votes  from  nineteen  States  and  one  Territory.  Conkling 
had  99  votes,  69  from  his  own  State,  New  York,  8  from  Georgia, 
7  from  North  Carolina.  Hayes  had  the  44  votes  of  his  own 
State,  Ohio,  and  17  scattering  votes.  Hartranft  had  the  58 
votes  of  his  own  State,  Pennsylvania. 

On  the  second  ballot  Mr.  Blaine  gained  11  votes.  Every  hour 
developed  a  popularity  throughout  the  country  which  surprised 
even  his  friends  and  stimulated  his  opponents  to  the  desperate 
combinations  and  more  than  desperate  measures  which  alone 
could  defeat  him.  The  sixth  ballot  gave  him  308  votes.  There 
was  no  break  from  his  ranks,  and  it  was  evident  that  many  States 
which  presented  candidates  of  their  own  were  so  warmly  for 
Blaine  that  any  wavering  on  the  part  of  any  one  would  send  the 
delegates  flocking  to  his  standard.  The  delegations  represented 
in  this  only  a  very  general  feeling  outside  the  convention ;  as  in 
New  York  where  Mr.  Conkling,  then  at  the  height  of  his  power 
and  fame,  was  put  forward  as  the  candidate  of  the  State  and  was 
loyally  supported  by  her  delegation.  Yet  when  the  balloting 
pointed  seemingly  to  the  inevitable  nomination  of  Mr.  Blaine, 
the  great  crowd  assembled  around  the  bulletin  board  burst  into 
a  tumultuous,  spontaneous  shout,  cheer  upon  cheer,  from  the 
storage  battery  of  enthusiasm  that  seemed  always  awaiting  the 
mention  of  Mr.  Blaine's  name. 

The  question  thus  with  the  supporters  of  every  other  leader 
became,  not  how  to  nominate  their  candidate,  but  how  to  hold 
back  their  delegates  from  nominating  Blaine.  Finally,  a  com 
bination  was  forced  of  all  others  against  the  strongest,  Blaine, 
on  the  weakest,  Hayes.  Mr.  Blaine's  last  vote  was  his  highest, 
351 ;  but  Mr.  Hayes,  who  in  the  beginning  had  but  61  votes, 
and  who  was  so  little  known  as  to  have  made  no  enemies,  and 
so  little  feared  as  to  inspire  no  jealousies,  on  the  16th  of  June 
received  384  votes,  which  gave  him  the  nomination. 


400  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Calmest,  coolest,  most  discerning  of  all,  Mr.  Elaine  sat  in 
his  library  and  from  morning  forecast  the  result.  Before  the 
decisive  vote  was  fully  counted,  his  message  of  congratulation 
written  with  his  own  hand  was  on  the  way  to  Mr.  Hayes. 

"  I  offer  you  my  sincerest  congratulations  on  your  nomina 
tion.  It  will  be  alike  my  highest  pleasure  as  well  as  my  first 
political  duty  to  do  the  utmost  in  my  power  to  promote  your 
election.  The  earliest  moments  of  my  returning  and  confirmed 
health  will  be  devoted  to  securing  you  as  large  a  vote  in  Maine 
as  she  would  have  given  for  myself." 

This  was  followed  by  a  message  of  thanks  to  Messrs.  Hamlin, 
Hale,  Frye,  and  other  friends  for  their  untiring  service,  and 
a  request  to  Mr.  Hale  to  call  on  Mr.  Hayes  and  present  Mr. 
Elaine's  congratulations  in  person. 

The  disappointment  to  his  political  allies  and  to  personal 
friends  was  great,  and  it  was  not  free  from  the  bitterness  that 
springs  from  the  suspicion  of  foul  play;  but  they  emulated 
Mr.  Elaine's  loyalty.  The  defeated  delegates  left  the  conven 
tion  jeering  the  victors,  and  then  went  into  the  contest  and  sup 
ported  them.  Many  took  a  roundabout  way  to  their  homes 
through  Washington  to  comfort  themselves  with  a  look  at  the 
man  of  their  first  and  only  choice,  to  hold  up  his  hands,  to 
receive  from  him  strength,  to  communicate  to  him  the  new 
revelation  they  had  received  at  the  Convention  of  his  standing 
before  the  people. 

But  to  Mr.  Elaine  had  also  come  a  revelation.  Hitherto  he 
had  gone  from  strength  to  strength  and  from  glory  to  glory,  as 
glory  goes  in  the  world,  through  the  regular  gateway  of  promo 
tion,  without  check.  He  had  thought  to  win  this  highest  prize 
of  all  as  he  had  won  the  others,  in  the  natural  way,  by  honora 
ble  competition,  and  the  success  of  the  fittest.  But  he  saw  that 
this  race  was  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong.  He 
felt  what  he  had  often  seen,  that  a  presidential  election  is  not  a 
logical  sequence.  Fitness  for  the  position,  desire  of  the  people, 
has  no  relation  to  it.  A  national  convention  is  an  organization 
for  preventing  the  people  from  having  the  candidate  they  want, 
and  providing  them  with  a  candidate  whom  the  leaders  are 
willing  to  have.  Mr.  Elaine  had  too  much  work  on  hand,  he 
had  too  serious  plans  in  mind,  to  spend  his  time  in  beating  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  401 

air.  If  the  great  opportunity  of  the  presidency  could  not  come 
to  him  in  the  legitimate  way  of  adaptation  and  achievement,  it 
was  not  his  opportunity.  He  belonged  to  the  work,  not  to  the 
place  that  was  open  by  accident  and  closed  to  him.  He  saw, 
also,  that  while  the  presidency  itself  is  a  great  opportunity,  a 
presidential  candidacy  is  in  many  respects  a  hindrance.  Im 
portant  issues  brought  forward  by  an  assumed  claimant  do  not 
receive  the  attention  which  sound  judgment  requires,  by  reason 
of  that  gallinaceous  scratching  which  calls  itself  "  looking  be 
low  the  surface,"  and  which  demonstrates  the  depth  and  quality 
of  its  own  insight  by  seeing  in  every  measure  and  movement 
only  a  u  bid  for  the  presidency." 

And  yet  another  consideration  influenced  him  which  must  be 
mentioned.  The  nature  of  the  opposition  that  had  been  brought 
to  bear  upon  him  was  so  low,  so  revolting,  that  no  prize  what 
ever  was  high  enough  to  tempt  a  second  encounter.  He  had 
made  a  small  thing  great  by  the  greatness  of  his  treatment ;  but 
though  his  reputation  had  been  enhanced,  it  seemed  to  him  that 
the  game  was  not  worth  the  candle.  His  honesty  had  been 
assailed  only  to  keep  him  from  the  presidency.  Every  manly 
motive  forced  him  to  its  defence.  He  wrested  himself  wrath- 
f ully,  scornfully,  from  the  unexpected  toils,  but  he  preferred 
to  relinquish  the  presidency  rather  than  continue  or  provoke 
conflicts  foul  in  their  origin,  fruitless  seemingly  to  the  cause  of 
good  government.  Never  afterwards  did  he  make  one  move 
ment  towards  a  candidacy ;  never  did  any  solicitation  thereto 
receive  the  consent  of  his  own  mind,  and  never  the  consent  of 
his  lips  except  as  it  seemed  to  him  cowardice,  the  abandonment 
of  comrades  and  betrayal  of  causes,  to  refuse  it.  Whatever 
assistance  he  subsequently  lent  to  support  of  his  candidacy  was 
rendered  with  an  insurmountable  personal  reluctance,  from  a 
conviction  that  it  would  be  ignoble  not  to  do  it. 

The  reluctance  was  augmented  by  the  fact  that  he  ever  after 
underrated  his  own  personality  as  a  factor  in  the  political  prob 
lem.  He  saw,  he  could  not  help  seeing,  the  extraordinary,  ever- 
increasing  love  of  the  people,  for  it  followed  him  wherever  he 
moved,  and  surrounded  him  wherever  he  stopped.  It  was  not 
confined  to  personal  association.  It  was  strong,  tender,  active, 
unquenchable  in  men  who  had  never  seen  him  and  who  exacted 


402  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

no  recognition,  even,  in  return.  But  it  had  not  availed.  Every 
weapon  brought  against  him  he  had  turned  and  blunted  till  it 
fell  harmless  at  his  feet.  Success  seemed  already  achieved. 
Then  he  himself  was  cast  down.  That  was  of  God.  Whatever 
is  beyond  a  man's  own  best  effort  is  God  to  him,  whether  it  be 
the  acquisition  of  power,  the  ransom  of  a  soul,  or  the  swinging 
of  a  star  in  the  sky.  He  resumed  his  work  with  unflagging 
ardor  and  devotion,  with  a  penetration  that  never  failed,  with 
a  hope  as  wide  as  the  world,  but  without  taking  the  presidency 
into  account. 

And  the  greatest  successes  of  his  career  came  afterwards 
For  to  his  genius  was  added  an  element  of  self-surrender,  —  or 
if  that  be  too  strong  a  word  for  a  man  in  whom  self  had  always 
seemed  merged  in  purpose,  —  the  selfhood  which  had  always 
been  but  a  secondary  factor,  now  ceased  to  be  a  factor  at  all. 
Disaffected  towards  any  other  external  and  personal  goal  than 
he  had  already  gained,  he  gave  himself,  undetached  and  wholly, 
in  his  public  service,  to  the  service  of  the  country.  This  is  an 
objective  conclusion  from  closest  e very-day  association  in  the 
intimacy  of  family  life.  There  is  no  sign  that  he  ever  classified 
himself,  ever  wasted  time  in  explaining  or  adjusting  his  rela 
tions  with  the  universe,  or  made  any  ado  over  unselfishness,  or 
duty,  or  denial.  He  went  his  way  as  cheerful,  as  unpretending, 
as  simple-hearted  as  the  schoolboy  whistling  along  the  brook. 

On  the  evening  of  June  19th  he  was  sufficiently  restored  to 
address  from  his  own  door-stone  a  throng  of  citizens  who  had 
gathered  with  a  serenade  to  see  and  hear  him.  Then  he  went 
home  to  renew  his  strength  from  the  sea-coast  and  the  mountains 
of  Maine  ;  and  in  the  autumn  he  went  east  and  west  to  win  the 
Republican  party  to  the  election  of  Hayes.  It  was  hard  work, 
but  great  multitudes  followed  him  and  greater  multitudes 
besought  him,  and  whatever  was  doubtful,  this  was  certain, 
that  the  heart  of  the  people  beat  with  one  desire  to  certify  the 
honor  and  love  in  which  they  held  him. 

Wherever  he  went  the  same  words  are  true  with  simple 
change  of  name : 

"  The  Republican  demonstration  in  Newark  on  Tuesday  in 
honor  of  the  Hon.  J.  G.  Blaine  was  the  most  remarkable  event 
of  the  campaign  in  this  State.  In  its  proportion  and  in  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G,     ELAINE.  403 

degree  of  enthusiasm  shown,  the  afternoon  meeting,  and  likewise 
the  reception  and  street  parade  in  the  evening,  were  beyond 
comparison  with  any  previous  demonstration  in  New  Jersey." 

"  Many  expressed  their  devotion  to  him  as  they  took  him  by 
the  hand,  in  such  words  as  these  :  4  Sorry  we  cannot  vote  for 
you  this  time,  but  we  will  next,'  and  4  Thank  the  Lord  I  have 
got  a  chance  to  take  you  by  the  hand,'  and  many  other  similar 
expressions.  .  .  .  Cannon  on  the  park  thundered  out  tones 
of  welcome,  fireworks  blazed  incessantly.  .  .  ." 

"  Mr.  Elaine  left  the  residence  of  Mr.  Peddie  in  a  carriage 
for  the  Market-street  depot.  Down  Market  street  the  boys  in 
blue  opened  ranks,  occupying  each  side  of  the  street  while  the 
distinguished  guest  drove  between,  and  was  greeted  along  the 
whole  route  by  continuous  cheers,  the  boys  having  determined 
to  give  the  Senator  the  grandest  send-off  possible.  .  .  ." 

"  The  reception  of  Mr.  Blame  at  the  hall  of  the  Cooper  Union, 
last  evening,  was  one  of  the  grandest  of  demonstrations  which 
even  this  city  has  ever  witnessed.  In  every  respect  the  audi 
ence  was  one  which  reflected  credit  upon  the  intelligence  and 
patriotism  of  the  metropolis." 

"  The  appearance  of  the  ex-Speaker  was  the  signal  for  a  most 
enthusiastic  and  tumultuous  reception.  Men  cheered  until  they 
were  hoarse,  women  waved  their  handkerchiefs,  and  for  full  five 
minutes  the  air  resounded  with  the  continuous  applause." 

"  The  scene  when  Mr.  Elaine  left  the  rostrum  was  a  repeti 
tion  of  his  welcome.  It  was  generally  conceded  that  the  meet 
ing  was  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  the  annals  of  New  York 
politics." 

Mr.  Blaine  everywhere  led  his  forces  for  Hayes,  but  it  was 
perhaps  not  possible  for  him  to  secure,  even  in  Maine,  what  his 
telegram  to  Mr.  Hayes  had  promised  to  attempt,  as  large  a  vote 
for  that  gentleman  as  he  would  himself  have  received.  Mr. 
Hayes  was  elected  President,  but  by  so  small  a  majority  that 
the  result  was  for  some  time  in  doubt,  and  was  never  uni 
versally  conceded.  Congress  met  under  the  heavy  cloud  of  a 
disputed  presidential  election. 

Maine  had  not  waited  for  the  national  convention  to  honor 
her  representative  under  fire.  On  the  tenth  of  June,  four  days 
before  the  national  convention,  the  Maine  State  convention 


404  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

had  recommended  him  for  the  senatorship  to  complete  the  term 
of  Mr.  Morrill  who  had  resigned  to  take  a  seat  in  the  cabinet. 
Governor  Connor  had  at  once  appointed  Mr.  Blame,  and  in 
December  he  entered  the  Senate.  For  the  few  winter  weeks  he 
stayed  in  Washington  without  his  family,  visiting  Augusta,  how 
ever,  several  times,  and  having  his  elder  sons  occasionally  with 
him.  Alone,  he  was  theoretically  forlorn  and  homesick,  but 
actually  he  seems  to  have  been  unusually  gay,  —  though  the 
two  are  not  incompatible,  —  seldom  dining  in  his  own  house 
except  when  he  gave  dinner-parties,  which  he  fondly  endowed 
with  great  culinary  and  other  success  in  his  reports,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  actual  menu  of  a  man  who  took  little  thought 
of  the  "  regular  order  "  of  home,  but  had  small  liking  for  French 
cookery  ;  whose  first  cry  when  he  returned  from  the  most  elab 
orate  dinners  was  for  "  something  to  eat"  and  a  bit  of  cold 
chicken  or  roast  beef  with  bread  and  butter  and  jam  had  to 
atone  for  the  many  sins  of  the  chef;  who  finally  abandoned  his 
place  at  the  table  to  his  boys  or  even  to  their  boy  visitors,  took 
refuge  at  his  wife's  elbow,  and  from  that  point  of  vantage  made 
proclamation  that  he  would  not  carve  even  a  mashed  potato  ! 
The  very  beggars  whining  to  him  over  the  fence  when  he  was 
at  dumb-bells  in  the  garden,  he  meanly  sent  around  to  the  back 
door,  assuring  them  that  he  was  only  a  boarder.  But  for  all 
such  shortcomings  the  blame  must  rest  on  the  unlimited  in 
dulgence  which  surrounded  him,  and  would  have  spoiled  him 
had  he  been  spoilable. 

The  continued  and  increasing  agitation  under  the  unwilling 
ness  of  the  Democrats  to  accept  Mr.  Hayes's  election  gave  so 
much  alarm  that  an  electoral  commission  was  proposed  for 
another  decision.  The  popular  Republican  opinion  was  that  the 
Democrats  had  by  fraud  and  the  forcible  suppression  of  the 
negro  vote,  attempted  to  secure  the  Louisiana,  Florida,  and 
South  Carolina  vote  for  Tilden,  and  that  the  Republicans  had 
baffled  them  by  securing  the  honest  vote  of  those  States  for 
Hayes.  The  popular  Democratic  claim  was  that  the  honest 
vote  was  for  Tilden,  and  that  the  vote  was  secured  for  Hayes  by 
fraud  and  the  suppression  of  the  white  vote  by  federal  troops. 

Mr.  Hayes  was  elected  by  one  majority  if  the  vote  of  Louisi 
ana,  South  Carolina,  and  Florida  had  been  cast  for  him.  If 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  405 

not,  Tilden  was  elected.  It  became,  therefore,  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  ascertain  beyond  question  the  vote  of  these  three 
States,  and  extraordinary  measures  were  taken.  Each  party 
had  sent  down  a  detachment  of  its  best  men  to  supervise  the 
counting  of  the  votes.  The  Union  men  in  the  South  were 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  evidence  of  national  sympathy  and 
support,  and  had  stood  firm  against  the  menace  by  which  they 
were  surrounded.  The  result  had  been  the  confirmation  of 
Senator  Chandler's  midnight  telegram  on  the  morning  of  the 
7th  of  November :  "  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  has  received  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  electoral  votes  and  is  elected."  But 
the  Democrats  were  as  far  as  ever  from  being  satisfied. 

The  settlement  of  the  disputed  election  was  of  the  first  inter 
est  and  importance.  iThe  proposed  commission  was  to  be  formed 
of  three  Republicans  and  two  Democrats  from  the  Republican 
Senate,  three  Democrats  and  two  Republicans  from  the  Demo 
cratic  House,  and  four  judges  from  the  Supreme  Court,  who 
were  to  select  a  fifth.  Its  decisions  were  to  be  final.  I 

Mr.  Blaine  was  opposed  to  the  creation  of  this  commission, 
believing  that  the  existing  machinery  of  the  government  was 
fully  adequate,  and  that  President  Grant's  sturdy  patriotism 
might  be  relied  on  to  enforce  the  execution  of  the  law.  Years 
afterwards  he  spoke  of  it  openly  in  the  Senate  as  "  a  makeshift, 
purely  and  entirely  a  makeshift,  and  a  pretty  rickety  one  it  was." 
These  views  he  expressed  with  great  frankness  everywhere, 
but  he  made  no  captious  opposition.  He  favored  and  indeed 
urged  a  constitutional  amendment  enabling  the  Supreme  Court 
thereafter  to  settle  all  such  cases ;  but  without  some  constitu 
tional  amendment  he  protested  publicly  that  Congress  had  not 
the  power  to  settle  the  question  in  other  than  the  prescribed 
way,  or  power  to  transfer  the  power,  or  to  vest  a  power  so  tre 
mendous  in  any  body  of  men  whatever. 

The  sturdy  belief  of  a  large  number  of  American  citizens  in 
the  ability  of  their  government  is  fitly  represented  in  a  letter 
received  by  Mr.  Blaine  from  a  citizen  of  Maine  : 

BETHEL,  January,  1877. 

.  .  .  I  do  not  believe  a  new  departure  is  called  for.  To  the  com 
mon  mind,  unbiased  and  unprejudiced,  no  difficulty  presents  itself  under 


406  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  constitutional  provision.  By  that  I  would  stand,  and  declare  Hayes 
elected,  and  inaugurate  him,  and  if  the  Democrats  wish  to  appeal  to  the 
courts,  let  them  do  so,  and  we  will  quietly  abide  their  decision.  The  call 
ing  in  members  of  the  court  to  sit  with  coordinate  branches  of  the  govern 
ment  upon  questions  which  may  be  presented  to  them  to  decide  judicially 
is,  to  say  the  least,  questionable,  and  to  my  mind  unconstitutional. 

Mr.  Elaine's  counsels  did  not  prevail.  Democrats  and  Re 
publicans  agreed  on  the  commission  and  promised  to  respect  its 
findings,  —  the  Democrats  more  enthusiastically  than  the  Repub 
licans, —  the  vote  for  it  in  Congress  being  Democratic  in  the 
ratio  of  ten  to  one.  To  the  public  mind  there  was  something  allur 
ing,  even  imposing,  in  the  spectacle  of  a  question  so  important 
submitted  to  a  council  entirely  non-partisan.  Why  the  country, 
or  any  citizen  of  the  country,  should  count  it  non-partisan,  it  is 
difficult  to  see.  It  was  strictly  though  equally  partisan,  the 
two  parties  being  exactly  represented  in  the  Senate  and  House 
members  and  in  the  four  supreme  judges. 

The  fifteenth  man  was  expected  to  be  Judge  Davis,  who  was 
called  an  Independent,  but  who  had  acted  with  the  Democrats, 
and  had  voted  for  Mr.  Tilden  in  the  late  election.  Judge  Davis, 
however,  was  elected  by  the  Democratic  Illinois  Legislature  as 
a  Democratic  Senator  the  very  day  before  the  commission  was 
to  be  voted  on,  in  the  House,  and  Judge  Bradley,  a  Republican, 
was  selected  for  the  commission.  On  every  important  question 
its  vote  was  divided  by  strictly  partisan  lines.  In  the  end  Mr. 
Hayes  was  declared  elected  by  the  non-partisan  tribunal  just  as 
he  had  been  declared  elected  by  the  party  politics  of  the  country. 
'The  defeated  party  accepted  the  decision  of  this  extra-judicial 
tribunal  with  no  more  confidence  or  acquiescence  than  had 
attended  the  previous  decisions,  ordinary  and  extraordinary. 
They  had  pronounced  the  original  election  a  fraud,  and  with 
equal  frankness  after  its  work  was  done  they  pronounced  the 
electoral  commission  a  fraud. 

The  advance  of  the  South  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  they  did 
not  organize  a  second  rebellion.  The  retrogression  of  the  North 
may  perhaps  be  found  in  rumors  that  the  Republicans,  fearing 
a  tumult  from  the  result  of  the  electoral  commission,  as  they 
had  feared  a  tumult  from  the  result  of  the  national  election, 
compromised  with  the  Southern  leaders  as  they  had  compromised 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  407 

before,  but  far  more  seriously,  agreeing  to  abandon  the  State 
elections  in  Louisiana,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina,  if  the  South 
would  relinquish  the  national  election.  These  three  States  were 
the  only  ones  in  the  South  on  which  the  Republicans  retained 
any  visible  hold. 

A  Democratic  movement  for  the  reduction  of  the  army 
seemed  under  the  circumstances  almost  sinister.  Mr.  Blaine 
opposed  it  with  pungency  and  power.  It  was  claimed  in  the 
Senate  that  the  negro  Democratic  vote  was  repressed  in  the 
South  by  the  mere  presence  of  United  States  troops.  "  I  want 
it  to  go  on  record,"  responded  Mr.  Blaine,  "  that  the  negroes  in 
South  Carolina  were  so  eager  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket 
after  the  Hamburgh  massacre  [by  white  men  in  South  Carolina] 
that  it  took  the  entire  army  of  the  United  States  to  restrain 
them,"  —  and  the  laugh  that  followed  showed  how  palpable  was 
the  absurdity  of  such  pretence.  He  pointed  out  that  it  was  the 
South,  not  the  North,  which  complained  of  the  size  of  the  army, 
although,  on  the  authority  of  General  Sherman,  there  were  be 
tween  the  Potomac  and  the  borders  of  Texas  only  an  "  army  " 
of  a  thousand  men.  Senator  Bayard  declared  frankly  that  it 
was  the  use  of  the  army  and  not  its  numbers  that  was  objec 
tionable.  "  Would  the  Senator  from  Delaware,"  asked  Mr. 
Blaine,  u  consider  it  to  be  quite  within  the  scope  of  the  consti 
tutional  powers  of  the  President  to  say  that  in  a  given  instance 
the  President  should  command  the  army  in  one  way,  and  in 
another  way  that  he  should  not  command  it  ?  " 

"  I  have  grave  doubts,"  replied  Mr.  Bayard,  "  but  there  is  110 
time  now  given  for  due  discussion." 

Mr.  Blaine  pushed  the  question,  but  in  vain  — "  Did  you  ever 
find  an  act  of  Parliament  that  said  the  king  should  command 
the  army  in  a  certain  way  ?  Is  the  power  of  Congress  over  the 
army  absolute  any  more  than  the  power  of  Parliament  over 
the  British  army  ?  " 

Without  even  the  small  tribute  of  circumlocution  the  declara 
tion  was  definitely  and  defiantly  made  that  the  army  appropria 
tion  would  depend  on  such  restriction  on  troops  in  Louisiana 
as  would  prevent  the  President  from  installing  and  maintaining 
Governor  Packard  in  Louisiana  ! 

Mr.    Hayes  was  inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  March,  and  the 


408  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

rumors  began  to  wear  an  ugly  look  of  confirmation.  The  appli 
cation  of  Southern  Senators  for  admission  brought  the  question 
at  once  to  the  crisis.  Mr.  Blaine,  antagonizing  some  Republican 
comrades,  advocated  the  admission  of  Mr.  Lamar,  from  Missis 
sippi,  with  a  personal  compliment  for  the  Senator-elect ;  but  he 
advocated  also  the  admission  of  Mr.  Kellogg,  from  Louisiana. 
He  had  not  been  in  favor  of  the  formation  of  the  electoral  com 
mission,  but  he  was  in  favor  of  keeping  strictly  to  its  conclusions. 
Whatever  doubts  may  have  attached  to  the  validity  of  the 
Louisiana  returning  board  had  been  dispelled  by  the  electoral 
commission,  and  the  same  returns  that  were  at  the  basis  of  the 
national  election  and  made  Hayes  President,  were  at  the  basis 
of  the  State  election  and  made  Packard  Governor  and  Kellogg 
Senator. 

The  Cincinnati  convention  had  "  sacredly  pledged  "  the  Re 
publican  party  and  the  Republican  administration  "  to  put  in 
exercise  all  their  constitutional  powers  for  securing  to  every 
American  citizen  exact  equality  in  the  exercise  of  all  civil, 
political,  and  public  rights." 

Governor  Hayes  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  had  emphasized 
his  adherence  to  this  principle,  and  had  urged  as  an  argument  to 
be  prominently  used  in  the  campaign  the  danger  arising  from  a 
solid  South ;  and  when  after  the  election  he  had  thought  him 
self  defeated,  he  had  said  that  he  did  not  care  for  himself,  but 
for  the  poor  colored  men  of  the  South,  whose  fate  would  be 
worse  than  when  they  were  in  slavery,  and  that  Northern  men 
could  not  live  there  and  would  leave.  Northern  Republicans 
who  had  gone  down  to  the  contested  States  to  confirm  the 
presidential  vote,  had  assured  the  intimidated  Republicans  there 
that  the  National  and  the  State  governments  should  stand  or 
fall  together. 

.The  President  of  the  United  States  had  sent  a  despatch  to 
the  headquarters  of  the  Department  of  the  Gulf  : 

JANUARY  14. 

It  has  been  the  policy  of  the  administration  to  take  no  part  in  the  settle 
ment  of  the  question  of  rightful  government  in  the  State  of  Louisiana  —  at 
least  not  until  the  Congressional  Committees  now  there  have  made  their 
report ;  but  it  is  not  proper  to  sit  quietly  by  and  see  the  State  Government 
gradually  taken  possession  of  by  one  of  the  claimants  for  gubernatorial 
honors  by  illegal  means. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  409 

The  Supreme  Court  set  up  by  Mr.  Nicholls  can  receive  no  more  recog 
nition  than  any  other  equal  number  of  lawyers  convened  on  the  call  of  any 
other  citizen  of  the  State. 

A  Returning  Board  existing  in  accordance  with  law,  and  having  judicial 
as  well  as  ministerial  powers  over  the  count  of  the  votes,  and  in  declaring 
the  result  of  the  late  election,  has  given  certificates  of  election  to  the  Legis 
lature  of  the  State.  A  legal  quorum  of  each  House  holding  such  certificates 
met  and  declared  Mr.  Packard  Governor. 

Should  there  be  a  necessity  for  the  recognition  of  either,  it  must  be 
Packard. 

But  the  signs  multiplied  that  Packard  and  Kellogg  were 
not  to  be  sustained.  Mr.  Elaine  was  profoundly  moved  by 
what  seemed  to  him  an  utter  betrayal  of  faith  both  to  the 
Southern  State  governments  and  to  the  national  government. 
The  presence  of  federal  troops  at  the  polls,  in  however  small 
numbers,  was  a  proof  of  an  unsatisfactory  state  of  things ;  but 
federal  troops  had  sustained  the  same  relation  to  the  State  as  to 
the  National  election,  and  federal  troops  had  been  summoned 
in  the  legal  way  by  the  State  governments.  To  accept  the 
votes  cast  under  the  protection  of  the  flag  for  President  and  to 
withdraw  the  protection  of  the  flag  from  those  cast  for  governor 
seemed  to  Mr.  Elaine  not  only  the  very  dishonor  of  selfishness, 
but  of  suicide  ;  seemed  to  place  the  President  in  the  attitude 
of  affixing  the  stamp  of  fraud  upon  his  own  administration. 
Mr.  Elaine  reiterated  protests  against  it,  with  almost  passion 
ate  vehemence.  That  any  Senator  who  considered  the  electoral 
vote  of  Louisiana  as  legally  and  properly  cast  for  Hayes  could 
permit  himself  to  doubt  that  S.  E.  Packard,  who  had  nearly  one 
thousand  votes  more  than  the  electoral  ticket  received,  was 
equally  of  right  the  governor  of  Louisiana,  seemed  to  him  im 
possible.  He  sent  word  to  some  who  were  named  as  the  prin 
cipal  promoters  of  this  strange  policy  that  he  would  openly 
denounce  it  in  the  Senate. 

March  6th,  two  days  after  the  inauguration,  he  kept  his  word. 
"  The  electoral  commission  decided  that  the  Louisiana  return 
ing  board  was  a  legal  and  constitutional  body  competent  to  do 
what  it  did  do.  What  it  did  do  was  to  declare  Avho  were  the 
presidential  electors  of  that  State  ;  it  did  also  declare  who 
were  the  Legislature  ;  and  the  Legislature,  performing  a  mere 
ministerial  duty,  declared  who  was  the  governor ;  and  I  stand 


410  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

here,  if  I  stand  alone,  to  say  that  the  honor  and  the  credit  and 
the  faith  of  the  Republican  party,  in  so  far  as  the  election  of 
Hayes  and  Wheeler  is  concerned,  are  as  indissolubly  united  in 
maintaining  the  rightfulness  of  the  return  of  that  body  as  the 
illustrious  House  of  Hanover  that  sits  on  the  throne  of  England 
to-day  is  in  maintaining  the  rightfulness  of  the  revolution  of 
1688.  Discredit  Packard  and  you  discredit  Hayes.  Hold  that 
Packard  is  not  the  legal  governor  of  Louisiana,  and  Presi 
dent  Hayes  has  no  title,  and  the  honored  vice-president  who 
presides  over  our  deliberations  has  no  title  to  his  chair.  The 
Legislature,  the  governor,  and  the  presidential  electors  of 
Louisiana,  all  derive  their  legality  and  their  right  to  act  from 
the  same  source  and  the  same  count,  and  if  the  one  is  discred 
ited  the  other  is  discredited. 

"  I  know  that  there  has  been  a  great  deal  said  here  and  there, 
in  the  corridors  of  the  capitol,  around  and  about,  in  by-places 
and  high-places,  of  late,  that  some  arrangement  had  been  made 
by  which  Packard  was  not  to  be  recognized  and  upheld.  I 
want  to  know  who  had  the  authority  to  make  any  such  arrange 
ment?  I  deny  it.  I  deny  it  without  being  authorized  to  speak 
for  the  administration  that  now  exists.  But  I  deny  it  on  the 
simple,  broad  ground  that  it  is  an  impossibility.  ...  I  deny 
it  on  the  broad  ground  that  President  Hayes  possesses  charac 
ter,  common-sense,  self-respect,  patriotism,  all  of  which  he  has 
in  high  measure.  I  deny  it  on  all  the  grounds  that  can  in 
fluence  human  action,  on  all  the  grounds  on  which  men  can  be 
held  to  personal  and  political  and  official  responsibility.  I  deny 
it  for  him,  and  I  shall  find  myself  grievously  disappointed, 
wounded,  and  humiliated  if  my  denial  is  not  vindicated  in  the 
policy  of  the  administration.  But  whether  it  be  vindicated  or 
whether  it  be  not,  I  care  not.  It  is  not  the  duty  of  a  Senator 
to  inquire  what  the  policy  of  an  administration  may  be,  but 
what  it  ought  to  be  ;  and  I  hope  a  Republican  Senate  will  say 
that  on  this  point  there  shall  be  no  authority  in  this  land  large 
enough  or  adventurous  enough  to  compromise  the  honor  of  the 
national  administration  or  the  good  name  of  the  great  Republi 
can  party  that  called  that  administration  into  existence." 

But  prominent  Democrats  continued  —  after  the  decision  of 
the  commission,  as  before  —  to  declare  that  the  electoral  vote 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  411 

did  not  belong  to  Hayes  and  Wheeler ;  that  it  was  a  fraud  to 
give  it  to  them. 

Mr.  Bayard  likened  Mr.  Elaine's  opposition  to  fire-bells  in 
the  night  kindling  anew  the  flames  of  sectional  discord.  Into 
Mr.  Blame's  argument  that  if  the  electoral  commission  was 
good  enough  to  find  the  presidential  returns  valid,  it  was  good 
enough  to  find  the  State  returns  valid,  Mr.  Thurman  interpolated 
the  aside  ^  that  it  was  not  good  for  anything  except  to  be  hung." 
The  electoral  commission  which  was  to  allay  strife  and  restore 
peace  by  its  non-partisan  decision  could  have  done  so,  if  at  all, 
only  by  deciding  for  the  Democratic  and  against  the  Republican 
party.  The  decision  at  the  polls,  the  decision  of  Mr.  Hayes's 
committee,  and  the  decision  of  the  electoral  commission 
availed  nothing  so  long  as  three  Republican  governors  re 
mained  at  the  head  of  three  Southern  States.  The  Democratic 
leaders  demanded  simply  that  the  Republican  administration 
should  do  what  a  Democratic  administration  would  have  done 
if  the  people  had  voted  it  into  existence ;  or  as  the  Democratic 
party  put  it,  if  the  Republican  administration  and  the  electoral 
commission  had  permitted  it  to  be  installed. 

Unable  to  believe  that  Republican  faith  could  be  violated  if 
its  demands  were  understood,  Mr.  Blame  repeated  in  every 
possible  guise  his  conviction  that  the  movement  against  the 
State  governments  was  a  simple  invitation  to  the  Republicans 
to  abandon  the  ground  on  which  the  people  of  the  United 
States  had  accepted  the  election  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler.  On 
the  7th  of  March  he  read  in  the  Senate  a  telegram  from  D.  H. 
Chamberlain,  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  to  Hon.  D.  T.  Corbin  : 

MARCH  6th.  I  have  just  had  a  long  interview  with  Haskell,  who  brings 
letters  to  me  from  Stanley  Matthews  and  Mr.  Evarts  [of  Mr.  Hayes's 
cabinet] .  The  purport  of  Matthews's  letter  is  that  I  ought  to  yield  my 
rights  for  the  good  of  country.  This  is  embarrassing  beyond  endurance. 
If  such  action  is  desired  I  want  to  know  it  authoritatively.  I  am  not  act 
ing  for  myself,  and  I  cannot  assume  such  responsibility.  Please  inquire  and 
telegraph  me  to-night. 

Mr.  Haskell,  it  appeared,  was  chairman  of  the  Democratic 
State  committee  of  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Blaine  charac 
terized  the  proposition  as  empowering  him  "  to  treat  with  Gov 
ernor  Chamberlain  for  the  surrender  of  the  State."  There  was 


412  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

rumor  of  a  similar  letter  carried  to  New  Orleans  by  a  Mr. 
Burke. 

"  Is  there  any  Senator  on  this  floor,"  inquired  Mr.  Blaine, 
"  who  desires  to  stand  sponsor  for  that  despatch,  or  for  the 
policy  that  it  covers  ?  Is  there  any  Senator  here  who  proposes 
to  abandon  the  remnant  that  is  left  of  the  Republican  party 
between  the  Potomac  and  the  Rio  Grande,  and  that  it  shall  go 
down  for  the  public  good  ?  I  do  not  propose  either  at  the  beck 
of  Mr.  Stanley  Matthews  or  Mr.  Evarts  to  say  that  the  public 
good  requires  that  the  remnant  of  the  brave  men  who  have 
borne  the  flag  and  the  brunt  of  the  battle  in  the  Southern 
States  against  persecutions  unparalleled  in  this  country  shall 
retire  for  the  public  good.  .  .  .  The  few  innocent  remarks 
which  I  made  yesterday  sounded  to  Mr.  Bayard  like  fire-bells  in 
the  night ;  they  seemed  destined  to  rekindle  the  fires  of  sectional 
aggression.  That  Senator  and  myself  represent  different 
schools  in  politics,  .  .  .  different  ideas  before  the  war,  dur 
ing,  and  since.  I  propose  for  myself,  as  long  as  I  may  be  in 
trusted  with  a  seat  on  this  floor,  that,  whoever  else  shall  halt 
or  grow  weak  in  maintaining  it,  so  long  as  I  have  the  strength  I 
will  stand  for  Southern  Union  men  of  both  colors  ;  and  when  I 
cease  to  do  that  before  any  presence,  North  or  South,  in  official 
bodies  or  before  public  assemblies,  may  my  tongue  cleave  to  the 
roof  of  my  mouth  and  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning." 

Mr.  Evarts  immediately  desired  it  to  be  stated  that  he  did 
not  endorse  Mr.  Stanley  Matthews  to  the  extent  implied  ;  that 
the  letter  was  presented  him  by  Haskell,  and  he  wrote  upon  it, 
substantially,  that  he  had  read  it,  that  he  desired  to  see  the 
troubles  in  South  Carolina  composed  and  to  hear  from  Governor 
Chamberlain  upon  the  subject ;  and  the  President  was  declared 
to  be  in  nowise  responsible  for  the  letter. 

Nevertheless  the  work  went  on  to  completion.  Under  the 
irresistible  pressure  of  the  national  administration,  culminating 
in  withdrawal  of  the  federal  troops,  the  Republican  legislatures 
crumbled,  the  Republican  governors  withdrew,  and  the  solid 
South  was  reestablished. 

It  was  a  great  surprise  and  a  great  grief  to  Mr.  Blaine.  One 
of  the  most  ardent  hopes  which  he  had  cherished  was  the  res 
toration  of  the  South,  One  of  the  great  possibilities  of  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  413 

presidency  was  in  this  direction.  It  was  entirely  in  line  with 
his  political  course,  though  his  discriminating  treatment  of  the 
amnesty  proposal  led  the  unthinking  and  the  wrong-intending 
into  a  directly  opposite  interpretation.  He  believed  that  the 
general  government  could  be  so  administered  as  to  develop  the 
material  resources  of  the  South,  encourage  a  diversity  of  indus 
try  and  interest,  and  elevate  the  moral  standard  of  both  races ; 
that  it  could  peacefully,  powerfully,  and  legitimately  press  for 
ward  the  education  of  the  ignorant  classes  ;  the  conciliation  of  the 
higher  classes ;  the  independence,  prosperity,  happiness,  and  har 
mony  of  all  classes.  He  believed  firmly  in  the  protection  of 
the  blacks,  but  not  in  the  nagging  of  the  whites.  His  thorough 
sympathy  with  the  first  in  its  wrongs  did  not  prevent  his  sym 
pathy  with  the  second  in  its  woes,  as  real.  He  desired  eagerly 
the  withdrawal  of  federal  troops,  but  he  desired  it  as  a  sign  of 
perfected  patriotic  reunion,  not  as  a  condition  precedent  to 
the  relinquishment  of  projected  rebellion.  His  standing  with 
the  Southern  leaders  was  proof  that  his  faith  was  not  without 
reason.  Many  of  them  were  his  attached  personal  friends  and 
daily  associates.  Perhaps  by  none  was  he  more  tenderly  cher 
ished  than  by  some  to  whom  he  was  in  constant  and  active 
political  opposition.  All  manner  of  cordial  service  and  senti 
ment  were  exchanged  between  men  whose  diverse  public  views 
did  not  interfere  with  private  respect  and  social  attraction,  and 
he  believed  that  they  could  be  enthusiastically  enlisted  in  the 
true  up-building  of  the  South. 

The  Republican  press  rather  languidly  but  rather  largely 
accepted,  if  it  did  not  uphold,  the  work  of  the  Republican 
administration  ;  and  Mr.  Elaine's  opposition  was  attempted  to 
be  dismissed  as  merely  " factious"  and  "  sore."  So  great  is  the 
power  of  the  administration,  in  whose  councils  at  that  time  Mr. 
Elaine  stood  substantially  alone. 

But  there  was  wide,  earnest,  and  even  bitter  opposition,  find 
ing  voice  in  the  country  papers  rather  than  in  the  larger  metro 
politan  press.  Captain,  now  Representative  Boutelle,  held  up 
the  new  policy  in  his  Bangor  "  Whig  and  Courier  "  to  every  blast 
and  whiff  of  censure  and  contempt.  Mr.,  now  Senator,  Chandler, 
pierced  all  its  joints  and  sutures  with  his  sharp  satires  poison- 
tipped  ;  and  when  the  people  spoke  authoritatively,  they  spoke 


414  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

with  no  uncertain  sound.  Pennsylvania,  which  gave  Hayes 
nearly  20,000  majority,  lost  140,000  Republican  votes  at  the 
next  election  and  gave  the  State  to  the  Democrats.  Ohio,  the 
President's  own  State,  exchanged  her  7,000  Hayes  majority  for 
a  27,000  Democratic  majority  by  keeping  back  nearly  90,000 
Republican  votes ;  while  Iowa,  which  had  repudiated  the  policy 
of  the  administration,  kept  her  State  vote  well  up  to  her  presi 
dential  vote.  In  the  Maine  State  Convention  of  August  9, 
1877,  a  resolution  approving  President  Hayes's  policy  was  offered 
only  to  be  met  by  a  sharp  counter-resolution  of  censure  ;  and  it 
required  all  Mr.  Elaine's  power  of  personal  persuasion  and  reas 
oning  to  convince  the  convention  that  it  was  organized  for 
State  and  not  National  matters.  Harmony  was  restored  by  not 
referring  to  the  President  at  all,  and  by  greeting  Mr.  Elaine 
with  "  deafening  applause." 

WASHINGTON,  June  12,  1876. 

Mr.  Elaine  had  seemed  unusually  bright  and  well  Sunday  morning ;  said 
he  was  hungry  at  breakfast,  which  he  has  not  been  before  for  weeks.  A 
telegraph  wire  is  on  the  library  table,  and  Mr.  Hale  sent  a  despatch  from 
Cincinnati,  and  Mr.  Elaine  replied  to  it  that  everything  was  looking  well 
here,  brighter  than  it  had  for  a  month.  Mrs.  Elaine  wanted  to  drive 
to  church,  but  he  wanted  her  to  walk  with  him.  They  walked  together 
a  part  of  the  way,  and  then  he  took  T.'s  hand  and  walked  with  her  and  M. 
But  as  usual  we  were  forming  and  breaking  line,  and  when  we  were  close 
to  the  church,  he  was  ahead  of  us  and  we  noticed  that  he  was  holding  his 
handkerchief  to  his  eyes  as  if  wiping  something  away  from  them.  II.  said, 
"  Anything  in  your  eye,  father?1'  lie  did  not  answer,  and  she  repeated, 
"  Have  you  got  something  in  your  eye  ?  "  Then  lie  just  turned  as  if  to  lean 
on  the  fence,  and  said,  "  No  ;  my  head  !  my  head  !  "  and  sank  down  on  the 
step.  H.  sat  down  instantly  and  held  his  head.  He  did  not  fall,  but  sank 
down,  and  I  thought  instantly  lapsed  into  unconsciousness,  but  II.  said 
that  he  said  he  feared  it  was  a  sunstroke.  Some  gentlemen  from  the 
church  lifted  him  into  an  omnibus  that  chanced  to  be  near  by,  and  brought 
him  home.  They  wheeled  the  parlor  sofa  into  the  hall  to  lay  him  on,  but 
H.  told  the  men  to  push  that  aside  and  lay  him  on  the  floor.  Then  a  bed 
was  brought  down  into  the  parlor,  because  it  would  be  so  much  cooler  — 
and  there  he  lies.  The  doctors  say  that  his  symptoms  are  all  favorable, 
and  that  he  is  steadily  improving,  but  I  cannot  see  it.  There  is  no  sign  of 
apoplexy  or  paralysis.  He  uses  all  his  limbs,  turns  in  bed  strongly,  takes 
beef-tea  with  relish,  but  he  does  not  come  out  of  his  veil  wholly.  But  he 
recognizes  and  calls  "Mamma,"  says  "A."  sometimes  when  he  looks  at 
me,  looked  around  the  parlor  very  inquiringly  this  morning  and  asked  why 
he  was  there  ;  asked  H.  what  was  the  matter,  and  when  she  said,  "  Nothing," 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  415 

he  said,  ••  Crying?"  But  to  think  of  his  great,  strong,  splendid  mind  so 
locked  up  —  only  forty-six,  and  of  magnificent  health.  They  say  the 
trouble  is  cerebral  depression,  caused  first  by  the  great  mental  strain  upon 
him,  and  immediately  by  the  excessive  heat.  He  has  suffered  much  from 
the  annoyance  of  this  investigation.  Work  has  not  hurt  him.  All  political 
opposition,  all  the  duties  of  the  speakership,  and  all  the  daring  of  his  bat 
tles  this  winter,  he  entered  into  with  zest ;  but  this  standing  up  and  parry 
ing  assassin- stabs  upon  his  character  in  a  committee-room,  lighting  curs  like 
Mulligan,  this  was  mortally  disgusting  to  him.  Oh,  how  many  times  the 
poor  darling  has  expressed  his  loathing  of  it!  but  he  said  he  must  go,  or 
everything  would  be  distorted  and  twisted  to  his  defamation  ;  and  as  soon 
as  one  charge  was  disproved  they  brought  up  another,  and  when  all  who 
knew  anything  about  it  had  sworn  to  his  integrity,  they  brought  up  the 
villains  and  gossips  who  knew  nothing  about  it  to  bear  false  witness 
against  him.  ...  I  think  I  am  more  hopeless  about  him  than  is  any  one 
else,  so  you  must  make  some  allowance.  His  nomination  looked  so  sure, 
that  they  had  to  devise  some  extraordinary  way  to  defeat  him.  Then  came 
his  splendid  speech,  and  the  tide  was  turned  and  promised  to  take  him  into 
port  bravely  ;  but  now  he  sails  with  God  the  seas.  Do  not  think  I  care  for 
the  nomination.  It  is  the  man  only  who  lies  on  the  bed,  helpless  and 
innocent  and  sweet  as  a  little  child.  I  can  never  be  thankful  enough  that 
this  did  not  come  till  after  his  splendid  Monday.  Nothing  in  his  life  was 
ever  so  magnificent  and  overpowering.  .  .  .  More  than  death  is  to  be 
feared  for  him  a  shattered  life;  but  we  cannot  see  a  handbreadth  before 
our  eyes,  and  can  only  wait  and  meet  what  comes.  The  doctors  say  he 
needs  chiefly  rest  and  silence,  and  that  he  will  recover  entirely. 

3  P.M.  I  feel  very  much  encouraged  this  afternoon.  Surgeon -General 
Barnes  and  all  three  of  the  other  doctors  concur  in  saying  that  every  group 
of  symptoms  is  favorable,  and  that  all  he  needs  is  building  up.  When  he 
wakes,  he  almost  always  says,  "  Church,"  because  I  suppose  there  is  where 
he  left  himself.  lie  also  said,  "Telegraph  to  Mr.  Hale.11  And  when  he 
had  taken  all  he  wanted  of  something,  he  said,  "That'll  do,'1  as  naturally 
as  possible.  .  .  .  The  President  has  just  been  in  to  inquire  ;  only  heard 
of  it  at  eleven  when  he  returned  from  Annapolis.  Walker  came  this  mom- 
ing  at  six.  The  Postmaster-General  sent  a  special  message  to  have  an  en 
gine  bring  him  down  from  New  Hampshire  in  season  to  take  the  New  York 
train.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  send  you  better  news  to-morrow.  If  you  hear 
nothing,  you  may  suppose  he  is  going  on  in  gradual  improvement,  just  as  I 
hope  he  is  at  present. 

From  John  G.  Whittier: 

13th,  G  Mo. 

.  .  .  The  news  of  the  sudden,  severe  illness  of  Mr.  Blaine  reached 
me  last  night.  Nothing  for  a  long  time  has  so  saddened  me.  The  paper 
this  morning  says  he  is  improving.  God  grant  it  may  be  true  !  If  I  were 
a  member  of  the  Cincinnati  Convention  and  before  inclined  to  some  other 
candidate,  I  would  vote  for  him  now,  sick  or  well,  as  a  rebuke  to  hired 


416  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

slanderers  and  ex-Rebel  investigators.  The  sympathies  of  the  whole 
country  must  be  with  him. 

I  never  doubted  Mr.  Blame's  peiiect  right  to  attend  to  his  business  mat 
ters  and  buy  and  sell  R.R.  stocks  while  a  M.  C.  I  was  only  sorry  because 
his  enemies  could  use  it  against  him.  That  he  has  been  honest  in  his 
transactions  I  have  no  doubt.  His  very  letters  to  Fisher  show  his  delicate 
sense  of  honor,  and  his  solicitude  that  no  one  should  lose  by  him.  These 
letters  seem  to  me  to  be  his  best  vindication. 

Dear  friend,  lean  well  understand  thy  grief  and  anxiety.  .  .  .  Long 
ere  this  I  hope  he  has  so  far  recovered  that  your  hearts  are  full  of  thank 
fulness.  God  bless  you  all ! 

WASHINGTON,  June  14,  187G. 

I  suppose  you  got  my  letter,  written  at  about  the  lowest  ebb,  just  as  1 
was  feeling  at  the  highest.  The  change  yesterday  was  marvellous,  and 
seemed  like  a  miracle.  One  moment  he  was  asking,  "Where  am  I?" 
and,  "  What  day  is  it?"  and  the  next  he  was  talking  as  naturally  as  ever 
in  his  life.  But  really  there  was  a  marked  change  even  in  the  morning. 
He  seemed  to  me  a  new  man,  but  lie  spoke  with  difficulty,  hardly  more 
than  single  words,  and  that  in  a  whisper  that  you  had  to  put  your  ear 
close  to  his  lips  to  hear.  Monday,  when  he  was  beginning  to  arouse,  he 
would  say  half  a  do/en  times  during  the  day,  evidently  after  a  great  effort 
to  satisfy  himself,  ««  Church  ?"  His  mind  seemed  to  be  going  feebly  back 
to  what  it  knew  last.  Then  he  would  ask,  "  What  day  is  it?  "  and  "  Is  it 
Sunday?  Is  it  dark  yet?  "  etc.  But  yesterday  almost  everything  lie  said 
was  coherent,  though  he  did  discourage  me  once  by  asking,  "  Where  am 
I  ?  "  But  in  the  afternoon  his  mind  came  fully  back,  and  he  is  now  pre 
cisely  as  he  always  was,  only  weak.  He  is  even  getting  impatient  of  the 
doctors.  He  told  me  this  morning,  that  these  homoeopathic  doctors  are  so 
enamored  of  the  case  that  they  can't  let  it  go.  He  says  that  all  yesterday 
and  before,  he  knew  perfectly  well  what  was  said,  but  found  difficulty  in 
replying.  He  said  it  seemed  as  if  the  wires  that  go  to  himself  from  others 
were  all  in  good  working  order,  but  the  wires  that  go  from  himself  to 
others  were  down.  The  only  anxiety  now  is,  that  he  shall  not  over-exert 
himself.  He  wants  all  the  telegrams  and  papers  read  to  him,  and  will 
take  hold  and  read  himself,  but  not  much,  as  it  would  hurt  his  eyes. 
Kmmons  got  here  Monday  about  4  P.M.  The  sun  was  not  out  when  we 
went  to  church,  and  it  was  not  particularly  uncomfortable,  yet  it  was  a 
very  warm  day,  but  very  likely  the  heat  would  not  have  caused  it  had  he 
been  in  full  strength.  I  count  his  foes  just  as  much  to  blame  as  if  there 
had  been  no  sun.  Everything  looks  favorable  to-day  to  his  nomination. 
The  house  has  been  full  of  excitement,  of  course,  and  will  remain  so  until 
after  the  nomination.  New  England  has  behaved  shabbily.  .  .  .  Massa 
chusetts  is  wabbling  all  over  Cincinnati,  frittering  away  her  own  strength, 
and  doing  no  one  any  good  so  far  as  I  can  see.  The  idea  of  her  forces  strag 
gling  across  the  country  to  Kentucky,  and  losing  all  the  credit  and  influence 
she  might  get  by  consolidating  the  New  England  vote  upon  the  New  England 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  417 

man,  and  taking  all  his  honor  to  herself !  Sunday  night  1  was  awaiting 
every  moment  the  possibility  of  a  change  for  the  worse.  The  doctor  has 
stayed  every  night  so  far,  and  Mrs.  Elaine  sleeps  what  she  can  on  the  sofa 
in  the  parlor.  Mr.  Blaine's  appetite  is  good,  and  the  rest  may  be  beneficial 
to  him.  He  seems  as  quiet  and  imexcited  as  possible ;  says  he  rather 
dreads  than  desires  the  nomination ;  but  if  he  gets  the  nomination,  would 
rather  like  to  get  the  election !  Do  you  see  how  differently  Republicans 
treat  the  Speaker  from  Democrats  the  ex-Speaker?  As  I  write,  we  are 
constantly  getting  news  from  Cincinnati  on  the  library  table  by  telegraph. 
"  Curtis  is  reading  the  Reform  Club  address  amidst  great  applause." 
"Committee  out,"  etc.,  etc. ;  so  that  we  know  what  is  going  on  all  the 
time.  It  is  not  very  soothing,  but  nothing  so  exciting  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  I  suppose  that  editorial  was  the  one  that  called  forth  more  than 
a  thousand  letters  of  protest  from  Maine,  saying  that  the  subscribers  meant 
to  have  a  Republican  newspaper,  and  if  that  paper  was  not  going  to  be 
one,  Maine  proposed  to  have  one  that  was.  As  it  has  large  circulation  in 
Maine,  it  hauled  in  its  horns  instantly.  The  convention  must  be  in  'high 
spirits,  for  pretty  much  everything  that  is  done  is  received  "  with  great 
applause,'1  the  telegraph  ticks  out.  Walker  and  Emmons  will  go  back 
probably  the  last  of  the  week,  if  their  father  continues  to  mend.  Q.  and 
T.  had  a  high  fight  of  words  this  morning,  because  Q.  said  "  papa  did  not 
know  me  so  good  as  he  did  Q."  If  possible,  I  will  send  you  a  telegram  if 
Mr.  Blaine  is  nominated,  if  I  can  get  the  wire,  but  if  it  is  any  one  else  you 
may  whistle  for  it.  Mr.  Blaine  has  just  announced  his  determination  to 
go  out  to  drive,  and  has  sent  for  Mr.  Fish's  carriage.  Three  telegrams 
were  sent  from  Washington  yesterday,  saying  he  was  dead.  I  suppose 
there  are  people  who  wish  he  were.  Still  the  sympathy  and  friendliness 
manifested  for  him  were  very  widespread.  Dr.  Verdi  said  he  never  has 
seen  anything  like  the  interest  shown  in  this  since  Sevvard  was  attacked, 
whom  he  attended.  The  doctors  are  elated,  and  especially  the  homoeopaths, 
who  were  at  variance  with  the  old  school.  Still,  each  one  seems  to  be 
satisfied  that  he  was  right,  so  I  do  not  think  we  need  mind.  The  street  has 
been  barricaded  at  each  end,  the  entrance  to  the  house  barricaded,  a  bul 
letin  put  up  three  times  a  day,  and  a  policeman  stationed  to  keep  oft'  the 
crowd,  and  a  servant  at  the  door  to  answer  inquiries.  I  have  held  a  good 
many  levees  myself  at  the  front  door,  and  in  the  vestibule,  and  on  the 
steps.  There  is  the  queerest  mingling  of  politics  and  medicine.  I  believe 
if  his  attack  had  not  been  so  public,  if  people  had  not  seen  him  lying  in 
his  terrible  unconsciousness,  the  whole  thing  is  so  quick  and  "  dramatic,1' 
that  his  foes  would  say  he  made  it  all  up. 

WASHINGTON,  June  16,  1876. 

Mr.  Blaine  is  as  bright  and  calm  as  ever,  and  seems  quite  content.  He 
has  the  relief  of  not  having  the  campaign  on  his  shoulders,  and  undoubt 
edly  the  years  will  be  freer  and  happier  than  they  would  be  had  he  got 
the  nomination  and  election,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  better  for  his  health  ; 
but  1  do  not  deny  that  it  is  a  risk  which  I  would  gladly  have  taken  ! 


418  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

General  Hurlburt  said  to  me  yesterday,  "  It  is  the  last  time  for  a  century 
that  the  North-west  will  permit  New  England  to  have  a  President,  and  she 
does  it  now,  not  because  of  any  regard  for  New  England,  but  because  she 
likes  the  man."  And  here  was  a  man  who  had  won  the  very  first  place  in 
the  country,  and  New  England  might  have  elected  him  on  the  first  ballot. 
Instead  of  which  she  went  against  her  own,  and  nominated  a  man  that 
nobody  ever  heard  of.  Massachusetts  might  have  elected  him  on  the  last 
ballot;  but  she  chooses  rather  to  have  an  administration  in  which  she  has 
no  influence.  Mr.  Elaine's  friends  stuck  to  him  with  unparalleled  fidelity. 
Every  one  says  the  fight  was  most  magnificent,  —  that  never  was  a  man  so 
sustained  to  the  end.  Among  his  friends  the  feeling,  which  of  course  no 
outside  person  can  have,  is  of  enthusiastic  admiration  and  sympathy  tor 
the  splendid  victory.  He  fought  the  whole  field,  without  money,  against 
the  administration,  without  any  clap-trap  at  all,  —  and  he  had  ballot  after 
ballot,  as  many  votes  as  the  three  other  highest  candidates  put  together. 
And  we  have  wasted  all  the  enthusiasm  which  Mr.  Blaine\s  nomination 
would  have  elicited.  Who  can  enthuse  for  Hayes  ?  Mr.  Blaine  has  just 
gone  out  to  drive  with  Secretary  Fish.  Is  this  not  a  cruel  blow  coming 
just  upon  his  sickness  ?  And  yet  it  may  be  the  best  thing  that  could  have 
happened.  You  may  remember  that  Mr.  Blaine  has  always  prophesied 
the  Great  Unknown.  Early  this  morning  came  a  telegram  that  they  had 
combined  on  Bristow ;  but  Mr.  Blaine  said  no,  that  could  not  be  true. 
They  would  combine  on  Hayes.  The  convention  has  nominated  a  man 
whom  nobody  wanted,  and  left  a  man  whom  so  many  do  want.  Bitter 
messages  come  in  from  all  quarters  by  the  telegram.  If  Mr.  Blaine  can 
only  keep  his  health  ! 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Colonel  Hay : 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO,  June  17,  1876. 

It  is  a  bitter  disappointment  to  all  of  us,  but  still  we  can  see  that  you 
received  the  greatest  personal  tribute  yesterday  which  has  ever  been  given 
to  a  public  man  in  this  country.  Without  a  single  machine  vote,  in  face 
of  the  most  energetic  machine  work,  you  had  not  only  your  three  hundred 
and  fifty-one  votes,  but  also  the  cowardly  good-will  of  the  Ohio  and  Penn 
sylvania  delegations,  three-fourths  of  whom  would  have  voted  for  you 
if  they  had  dared  defy  the  machine  lash. 

I  hope  you  will  let  me  repeat  what  I  said  the  other  day,  that  your  health 
should  now  be  your  first  care.  Don't  let  any  overstrained  ideas  of  honor  and 
duty  induce  you  to  overwork  yourself  this  summer.  It  is  not  necessary 
either  for  yourself  or  the  ticket. 

WASHINGTON,  June  19,  187G. 

.  .  .  As  soon  as  Mr.  Blaine  is  able  to  travel,  he  \vill  leave  Washing 
ton.  .  .  .  He  is  very  well  and  in  excellent  spirits;  ever  so  much  better 
than  before  his  attack.  I  think  that  really  was  a  sort  of  crisis  and  did 
him  good.  I  feared  that  after  the  nomination  was  really  over  and  the 


RIOGRAP11Y    OF    JAMES    G.     HLAINE.  419 

excitement  gone,  there  might  come  a  reaction,  but  there  is  none  so  far. 
He  sees  every  one  who  calls,  and  their  name  is  Legion,  — all  the  returning 
delegates  coming  to  make  their  reports,  and  their  reports  are  all  alike,— 
of  a  magnificent  support  in  the  convention,  a  splendid  following,  the 
greatest  enthusiasm,  three-fourths  of  the  convention  really  wanting  him, 
but  cheated  out  of  the  nomination  by  the  tricks  of  their  leaders,  who 
had  the  whole  force  of  the  administration,  all  the  machinery  and  a  great 
deal  of  money,  all  the  treasury  and  the  so-called  reform  element,  besides  the 
local  feeling  of  Cincinnati  and  the  newspapers.  All  this  Mr.  Elaine  fought 
single-handed  and  under  his  sunstroke.  They  say  that  the  only  large  paper 
in  Cincinnati  that  was  decent  to  Mr.  Blaine  was  the  "  Enquirer,1'  a  Dem 
ocratic  paper.  Blaine  men  paid  no  money,  bought  nobody,  made  no 
bargains,  had  no  clap-trap,  but  just  fought  on  the  strength  of  his  personal 
character.  The  news  of  his  illness  was  a  terrible  blow,  but  they  stuck  to 
him  right  through  ;  said  they  would  rather  have  Elaine's  executor  for 
President  than  any  other  candidate.  They  would  listen  to  no  second  choice. 
Men  stood  up  and  voted  for  him  in  solid  column,  —  after  they  knew  Hayes 
was  nominated  ;  and  after  Hayes's  nomination  was  announced  they  cheered 
Blaine  lustily.  No  one  had  any  idea  of  his  strength  before;  that  this 
defeat  has  developed  it,  and  that  he  comes  out  of  the  contest  far  stronger 
than  he  went  in;  that  the  way  the  votes  stuck  to  him  is  unparalleled. 

From  Walker  : 

YALE  COLLEGE,  June  21,  187G. 

.  .  .  The  more  I  think  of  the  result  at  Cincinnati  (1  don't  think 
very  much  of  it,  however),  the  better  am  I  satisfied.  .  .  .  Tell  father 
that  I  shall  be  disappointed  it'  he  doesn't  make  me  his  private  secretary 
for  the  summer,  as  I  think  Tom  needs  rest,  and  1  have  no  doubt  some  hard, 
work  would  do  me  good  every  way. 

From  Mrs.  H.  H.  Greenough  : 

CAMBRIDGE. 

.  .  .  I  have  never  seen  any  expression  of  feeling  so  strong  as  that 
which  was  created  by  the  announcement  of  Mr.  Elaine's  illness,  since  the 
hour  of  Lincoln's  death.  It  seemed  to  strike  a  blow  to  every  heart  and 
to  paralyze  every  other  thought ;  and  it  is  a  joy  unspeakable  that  even 
at  its  most  anxious  moment  he  was  able  to  use  his  vast  influence  to 
strengthen  the  safeguards  of  the  country  which  it  was  the  general  wish 
to  leave  in  his  hands,  so  that  whatever  else  might  happen  his  patriotism 
was  as  remarkable  as  the  power  he  wielded  or  could  have  wielded  as  its 
head. 

Your  son  Emmons  is  as  worthy,  dear  Mrs.  Blaine,  of  his  father's  fame 
as  a  mother  could  desire.  Every  reward  will,  I  am  sure,  be  his  or  found 
in  him,  and  I  am  very  thankful  for  my  dear  grandson's  sake  that  they  so 
early  have  chosen  each  other  for  friends.  Mr.  Longfellow,  who  was  here 
when  your  son  called,  regarded  him  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  and  said  that 


420  BIOGRAPHY    OF  JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  his  candidate,  his  one  choice,  and  that  he  deeply  regretted 
the  persecution  which  had  led,  possibly,  to  his  illness  and  which  might  yet 
cause  defeat  to  the  Republican  party.  Of  course  he  deplored  the  action  of 
the  convention,  excepting  that  by  your  husband's  approval  of  it.  its  wisdom 
must  be  taken  for  (/ranted. 

From  Plon.  T.  Ewing: 

ST.  Louis,  June  oO,  1876. 

I  thank  you  for  your  very  cordial  letter  received  before  leaving  home 
for  the  convention  here,  and  assure  you  that  your  family  have  as  large  a 
place  in  our  hearts  as  we  have  in  yours. 

You  may  perhaps  notice  in  the  platform  adopted  here  a  shameful  attack 
on  Mr.  Elaine.  I  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  and 
moved  to  strike  out  that  clause  of  the  platform  which  had  been  brought  out 
from  New  York  by  the  Tildenites,  who  controlled  a  large  majority  of  the 
convention  and  ruled  it  absolutely  from  first  to  last.  My  motion  led  to  an 
excited  and  angry  debate  of  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  was  lost  at  last  by  a 
vote  of  eighteen  to  twenty.  I  then  prepared  a  resolution  to  offer  in  open 
convention  to  strike  out  that  charge.  But  the  Tilden  men  cut  us  off  from 
debate  and  amendments  by  the  previous  question,  and  carried  the  platform 
through  in  spite  of  all  opposition.  If  I  had  supposed  we  were  to  be  choked 
oft'  so  arrogantly,  T  would  have  made  a  minority  report  on  that  subject,  as 
I  did  on  the  specie  resumption  law.  The  reason  I  did  not  was  that  T  could 
get  no  one  to  join  me  in  so  pronounced  an  opposition  to  the  action  of  the 
committee,  and  I  thought  an  amendment  offered  from  the  floor  and  sup 
ported  by  an  appropriate  speech  would  be  more  likely  to  carry  than  a 
minority  report  made  by  but  one  of  thirty-eight  members  of  the  Committee 
on  Resolutions. 

I  sincerely  hope  Mr.  Blaine  will  be  restored  to  his  pristine  and  amazing 
intellectual  vigor. 

THOS.  EWING. 

To  Mr.  Blaine : 

JULY  3,  1876. 

Have  you  observed  that  the  Faneuil  Hall  speakers,  Thursday  night,  were 
quite  as  busy  apologizing  for  not  having  nominated  you  as  ratifying  Hayes  ? 
Mr.  Goddard  has  brought  over  an  Englishman  with  whom  he  fell  in  love 
abroad  and  whom  they  are  lionizing  in  Boston.  Talking  politics,  of  course, 
some  one  censured  your  having  sought  office  too  much,  etc.  "  What  is 
that,  what  is  that?"  cried  the  Englishman.  "  That  is  not  the  way  we  do 
in  England.  We  think  it  is  the  manly  way  to  come  out  openly  and  honestly," 
and  went  on  putting  their  cant  to  shame,  and  as  the  canters  fall  at  John 
BulFs  feet  they  speedily  recanted.  A  blacksmith  here  is  indignant  at  New- 
England  not  taking  a  New  England  President.  "  If  Blaine  had  been 
nominated,  I  should  have  put  on  five  more  men  and  would  have  given  him 
twenty-five  votes.  As  it  is  I  have  already  dismissed  three  men  since  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  421 

convention  and  shall  send  away  two  more  to-morrow."  B.  says  that  the 
Saturday  before  Mr.  Elaine  was  ill,  a  man  in  Lynn  said  to  him,  ••  No  living 
man  can  stand  the  strain  that  is  on  him.  If  they  don't  kill  him  one  way, 
they  will  another."  Be  sure  you  lie  low  and  see  that  they  don't.  .  .  . 
Mr.  French  says  Judge  Hoar  says  if  he  ever  is  sent  to  another  nominat 
ing  convention  he  hopes  to  carry  a  larger  stock  of  wisdom  with  him  ; 
that  he  took  what  little  he  possessed,  but  it  did  not  seem  to  be  enough  to 
go  round  the  delegation.  .  .  .  Dr.  Smith  was  in  the  train;  inquired 
for  you  with  a  great  deal  of  feeling ;  said  he  was  glad  you  had  grace  given 
you  not  to  murder  Mulligan  on  the  spot,  as  you  had  the  right  to  do,— though 
I  won't  vouch  for  the  exact  words ;  said  he  thought  a  large  number  were 
represented  by  a  prominent  man  in  his  congregation  who  had  not  been  an 
especial  Blaine  man  till  within  a  fortnight  of  the  convention,  but  the  events 
of  that  fortnight  brought  him  out  strong,  though  he  consoles  himself  since 
the  convention  by  saying  that  your  time  has  not  yet  come,  that  you  will  go 
in  with  more  Mat  in  four  years,  or  even  in  eight  years,  than  now ;  but  we 
will  not  lend  ourselves  to  any  such  folly,  will  we  ? 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Augusts,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  BLAINE  :  This  has  been  a  great  day  for  you  in  the  House.  You 
have  at  last  found  not  only  an  equal,  but  a  superior  in  power  to  destroy 
one  of  your  enemies.  Said  superior  is  Proctor  Knott.  He  has  smashed  him 
self  even  more  completely  than  you  smashed  him.  You  will  see  it  all  in 
the  "  Record."  I  will  only  say  that  Frye  and  Hale  covered  themselves  with 
glory.  Scores  of  your  friends  were  ready  to  go  in  if  there  had  been  any 
need.  But  those  who  did  speak  left  nothing  to  be  desired. 
Loving  you  as  ever,  T  am, 

Your  friend, 

J.  A.  GARFIELD. 

From  John  G.  Whittier  : 

BEAR  CAMP,  R.  HOUSE,  WEST  OSSIPEE,  N.H. 

9th  Mo.  10,  1876. 

.  The  newspapers  have  located  me  in  half  a  dozen  places,  and 
the  last  I  heard  of  myself  after  leaving  my  "  cottage  at  the  Shoals,"  1  have 
been  reported  as  living  "  secluded  and  hermit-like"  at  Martha's  Vineyard, 
the  guest  of  a  distinguished  New  Yorker.  This  State  is  now  alive  with 
political  caucuses  and  flag-raisings,  but  all  say  that  we  lack  the  enthusiasm 
which  is  wanted  in  such  a  canvass.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Blaine 
would  have  been  a  stronger  candidate  in  most  of  the  States.  The  real  hope 
of  the  Republicans  lies  in  the  folly  of  the  Democrats,  which,  from  present 
appearances,  is  not  likely  to  fail  them.  I  am  sony  that  my  dear  friend 
Adams  has  allowed  his  name  to  be  used  by  the  Democrats,  but  he  will  not 
have  a  lar°-e  following  in  Massachusetts. 


422  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

COLUMBUS,  OHIO,  September  14,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BLAINE  :  How  gloriously  you  have  done  !  I  congratulate 
you,  and  thank  you.  This  will  give  heart  and  life  to  our  friends  every 
where.  We  need  the  encouragement.  In  this  State  and  in  Indiana  the 
greenback  heresy  is  strong.  At  the  State  elections  all  factions  of  the 
Dem.  will  be  united  against  us.  We  shall  be  vastly  stronger  in  Novem 
ber.  Our  strong  ground  is  the  dread  of  a  solid  South,  rebel  rule,  etc.,  etc. 
I  hope  you  will  make  these  topics  prominent  in  your  speeches.  It  leads 
people  away  from  "  hard  times,"  which  is  our  deadliest  foe. 

Sincerely, 

R.  B.  HAYES. 

From  Walker : 

CINCINNATI,  October  1,  1876. 

DEAREST  MOTHER:  After  we  left  Cleveland  at  seven  o'clock  Monday 
morning  last  we  had  a  somewhat  prosaic  ride  to  Lafayette,  arriving  there 
about  eight  in  the  evening.  Had  to  wait  for  dinner  until  we  reached  Fort 
Wayne,  at  3.30  P.M.,  and  then  did  not  have  very  much  of  a  meal.  At 
Lafayette  Mr.  Orth  met  us  and  took  us  to  his  house.  .  .  .  Had  supper 
after  reaching  there,  and  had  a  very  comfortable  night's  sleep.  Next  day 
we  went  to  the  battle-ground,  distant  some  six  miles,  and  there  was  a  very 
large  meeting.  Father  spoke  in  the  afternoon  for  about  an  hour  and  ten 
minutes.  I  timed  him  so  that  he  should  not  speak  too  long.  ...  In 
the  evening  there  was  a  reception  at  Judge  Orth's,  from  which  father 
was  called  away  to  speak  in  the  square.  Goodloe,  who  was  the  last 
speaker  in  the  afternoon,  and  who  spoke  very  well,  was  speaking  when 
we  arrived,  and  a'fter  he  had  finished  in  about  ten  minutes  the  crowd 
began  to  call  for  father ;  but  a  little  fellow  who  had  been  "  sp'ilin' "  all 
day  for  a  chance  to  speak  had  to  be  introduced.  He  spoke  about  five 
minutes  and  said  nothing,  and  then  they  yelled  "  Elaine."  He  plead 
with  the  crowd  to  hear  him  out,  but  they  yelled ;  then  the  chairman 
plead,  and  finally  he  gave  it  up  and  took  his  seat,  saying  as  he  passed 
me,  "  It's  no  use  for  anybody  to  try  to  speak  to  this  crowd  to-night."  When 
father  commenced  to  speak,  you  never  saw  a  better-behaved  audience,  and 
he  spoke  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  spoke  magnificently,  making  a 
portion  of  his  old  1868  speech,  and  a  good  deal  that  was  new  to  me.  Rob 
ert  Lincoln  said  that  it  was  the  finest  campaign  speech  he  ever  listened  to. 
Next  day  I  got  up  at  7  A.M.  and  rode  about  Lafayette,  which  is  a  very 
pretty  town.  At  9.30  we  started  for  Plymouth,  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
State.  At  Pan,  wrhere  we  changed  cars,  we  met  General  Logan,  who  went 
up  to  Plymouth  with  us  and  spoke  after  father.  The  Chicago  Glee  Club 
also  was  there,  and  they  sang  magnificently.  From  Plymouth  we  went  by 
special  train  to  Fort  Wayne,  and  Logan  and  the  Glee  Club  along,  and  there 
was  a  meeting  gathered  to  hear  father  at  three  hours'  notice,  of  at  least  five 
thousand  people.  Coming  down,  the  train  stopped  at  Columbia  City,  and 
father  spoke  to  three  or  four  hundred  people  for  ten  minutes  from  the  rear 
of  the  car.  Father  spoke  over  an  hour  at  Fort  Wayne,  and  Logan  spoke 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  423 

half  an  hour.     .     .     .     The  next  day  we  went  around  and  ealled  at  the 
Colerich's.      Mrs.  Colerich  was  a  Walpole   and   her  mother  was  a    Gil- 
lespie.     The  old  lady  (she  is  between  sixty  and  seventy)  is  the  perfect 
image  of  Mrs.  Sherman.     The  old  gentleman  is  a  tine  old  Irishman  who 
insisted  on  kissing  me.     You  never   saw   two   people  so  glad  to  see  us. 
The  old  lady  was  very  much  affected  and  kissed  me  when  I  came  away. 
They  are  nice  old  people    ...     At  Plymouth  saw  Johnny  Ewing,   son 
of  Philemon,  who  has   come   over  from  Notre  Dame   to  see  father— a 
nice-looking  boy.     Sent  my  love  by  him  to  Mother  Angela.     Took  train 
from  Fort  Wayne  Thursday  for  Muncic  and   Indianapolis.      At  the  for 
mer  place,  where  we  changed  cars,  father  spoke  some  twenty-five  min 
utes.     At  Indianapolis   found  Mr.    Chandler,  Mr.  McPherson,   Governor 
Noyes,  and  others.     Had  a  magnificent  meeting  in  the  opera-house,  jammed 
with  people  who  had  been  waiting  over  an  hour.     Father  spoke  an  hour 
and  a  half  and  was  followed  by  Xoyes.     Left  Indianapolis  at  7.30,  Mr. 
Chandler  coming  with  us  to  Cincinnati,  and  went  to  Mitchell  in  Southern 
Indiana  in  Hunter's  district,  where  they  had  a  meeting  in  a  grove  of  eight 
to  ten  thousand  people,  all  hoosiers .     Father  spoke  an  hour,  and  spoke  well. 
From  there  we  came  to  Cincinnati,  leaving  Mitchell  at  three,  reaching  Cin 
cinnati  at  nine.     I  was  glad  to  get  out  of  Indiana,  —  i.e.,  Southern  Indiana, 
—  and  glad  enough  to  get  to  a  city.     While  we  were  waiting  at  the  depot  in 
Mitchell,  a  fellow  came  by,  his  face  streaming  with  blood  and  a  crowd  of 
about  twenty  hooting  and  chasing  at  his  heels.     He  was  drunk  and  had 
shouted  "  Hurrah  for  Tilden  !  "     Of  course  he  was  not  badly  hurt,  but  it  was 
not  a  pleasant  sight  at  best.    Reached  Cincinnati  at  nine  Friday  evening,  and 
yesterday  afternoon  father  spoke  in  Hartwell,  and  in  the  evening  here  to 
the  largest  meeting  ever  held  in  Cincinnati,  and  afterwards  saw  a  torchlight 
procession  of  about  five  thousand  men.     Father  was  followed  by  Mr.  Frye 
who  is  here  with  Mrs.  F.     .     .     .     I  spent  most  of  yesterday  with  Rufus 
Smith,  and  to-day  have  been  to  church  and  to  dinner  with  a  son  of  an  old 
college  friend  of  father's  who  presided  at  the  meeting  last  night.     Young 
H.  I°knew  at  Andover,  where  he   was  a  classmate  of  Emmons.     I  am 
enjoying  the  trip  immensely.     It  is  a  grand  way  to  see  the  country;  and  is 
altogether  very  enjoyable. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  John  Jay : 

NEW  YOKK,  January  25,  1877. 

It  occurs  to  me  that  there  may  yet  be  a  chance  of  defeating  the  Electoral 
Bill  by  an  appeal  from  all  quarters  of  the  country  to  the  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  to  lend  it  no  sanction  by  the  action  of  its  members  till 
its  constitutionality  has  been  affirmed.  Pray  let  me  know  by  telegraph  if 
you  think  there  is  a  chance  of  this  and  how  we  had  best  proceed. 

I  regard  the  measure  as  the  most  unconstitutional  and  wicked  since  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  and  its  influences  and  results  perhaps  fatal  to  our 
government. 


424  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

From  Walker : 

BROOKLYN,  January  26,  1877. 

.  .  .  I  am  glad  that  you  disapprove  of  the  compromise.  I  was 
pleased  to  see  that  father  voted  against  it,  and  pleased  to  see  that  he  gave 
so  good  and  statesmanlike  reasons  for  doing  so.  I  have  a  certain  amount 
of  contempt  for  Senators  who,  in  discussing  a  measure  which,  like  this,  pro 
posed  to  "  shoot  Niagara,11  as  Garh'eld  says,  can  find  no  better  reasons  for 
opposing  this  measure  or  favoring  that,  than  that  it  will  tend  to  count 
Mr.  Hayes  in,  or  to  elect  Mr.  Tilden.  I  have  enough  of  conservatism  in 
me  to  prefer  seeing  Mr.  Tilden  President  ten  times  rather  than  to  see  so 
dangerous  a  precedent  once  established.  Yet  the  plan  is,  I  fear,  as  good 
as  adopted.  However,  heaven  and  the  Illinois  Legislature  be  praised, 
David  Davis  will  not  probably  be  the  judge  to  decide  it.  The  idea  of 
calling  Davis  an  Independent!  I  do  not  believe  that  there  will  be  a  better 
Democrat  in  the  whole  Senate  next  session  than  this  ex-judge. 
Ashbel  Green,  a  prominent  lawyer  in  New  Jersey,  who  was  badly  beaten 
by  the  abattoir  man,  remarked  last  year  in  a  public  speech  in  New  Jersey 
that  "  Blaine  feigned  a  faint  in  Washington,1'  which  I  hope  damns  him  in 
your  eyes  as  it  does  in  mine. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker : 

BROOKLYN,  January  26,  1877. 

I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  mother,  which  I  take  pleasure  in  send 
ing  you,  as  another  evidence  of  how  much  she  will  be  pleased  at  your  vote 
on  the  compromise.  I  am  glad  that  you  voted  against  the  bill,  and  still 
more  glad  at  the  grounds  on  which  you  based  your  vote.  The  question  is, 
it  seems  to  me,  as  Garh'eld  says,  not  so  much  one  for  us  and  the  people  of 
the  present  as  the  generations  yet  to  come.  Should  this  bill  pass,  and 
nothing  be  done  to  the  Constitution  by  way  of  amendment,  affairs  are  left 
in  a  fearful  snarl.  Even  as  it  is,  supposing  that  an  amendment  is  passed 
which  changes  our  whole  system  of  election,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  very 
dangerous  precedent  has  been  established,  —  a  precedent  which  will  permit 
a  partisan  Congress  in  future  time,  in  case  of  emergency,  of  which  they 
are  judges,  to  strain  any  constitutional  provision  to  the  uttermost  verge. 
But  I  am  very  glad  that  in  your  opposition  you  put  it  on  constitutional 
grounds.  It  is  very  small  and  very  cheap  in  men  to  falsify  their  record  and 
to  oppose  this  question  merely  because  if  it  passes  there  is  a  possibility  that 
Mr.  Tilden  may  be  President  of  the  country  for  the  next  four  years.  The 
question  is  too  important  to  be  regarded  from  such  a  partisan  standpoint. 

From  Mr.  Blaine : 

SENATE,  February  3,  1877. 

.  .  .  The  Representatives  Hall,  Maine, — that  was  the  theatre  of  a 
great  deal  of  early  pride  and  power  to  the  undersigned.  It  never  covered 
the  horizon  of  my  hopes  and  ambitions,  but  while  in  it  and  of  it  I  worked 
as  though  there  was  no  other  theatre  of  action  in  the  world. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  425 

From  Walker : 

BROOKLYN,  N.Y.,  February  10,  1877. 

What  a  world  of  gayety  you  are  living  in.  I  should  think  that 
you  would  occasionally  sigh  for  the  calms  of  an  undistracted  city  like 
Washington.  It  is  rather  a  strange  thing  to  me  to  look  at  this  country 
now  in  decidedly  the  most  dangerous  and  ominous  time  I  ever  saw,  and 
to  see  how  quiet  we  all  are  and  with  how  much  sang-froid  every  one 
behaves.  Business  prostrate,  the  results  of  our  great  election  in  doubt, 
rebellious  articles  in  print,  sacrifices  of  precedents  as  old  as  the  Con 
stitution  without  a  moment's  consideration  ;  and  yet  thanks  to  a  compara 
tively  scattered  population  and  diversities  of  interest,  and  to  some  extent, 
too,  to  the  ruined  and  prostrate  South,  we  move  along  as  quietly  as  under 
settled  cle  jure  de  facto  constitutional  means  and  methods.  The  compro 
mise  turns  out,  as  Mons  calls  it,  a  give-away,  but  not  on  our  side.  What 
do  you  suppose  would  be  the  condition  of  a  nation  like  France,  if  topics  of 
so  great  national  interest  arose,  or  of  England,  if  precedents  were  so 
quietly  swept  away.  ...  I  don't  think  I  should  care  a  fillip  about 
this  wearisome  election,  save  that  I  don't  see  what  will  become  of  the 
thousands  of  clerks  who  will  be  turned  out  if  S.  J.  T.  goes  in.  Put  in  the 
Litany,  — I  have  in  mine,  —  "  From  all  dependence  for  daily  bread  on 
the  national  government,  and  from  all  government  clerkships,  good  Lord 
deliver  us.'1  .  .  .  I  am  now  taking  an  extra  course  of  lectures  in 
afternoons  at  the  Law  School,  on  the  Constitutional  History  of  Govern 
ments,  and  as  I  am  thinking  of  taking  another  course,  all  my  afternoons 
are  therewith  occupied.,  i.e.,  afternoons  of  the  first  four  days  of  the  week. 
Father  wrote  me  a  short  note  the  other  day,  and  sent  $55,  the 
sole  remainder,  so  he  wrote,  of  a  $1,000  investment  in  Michigan  silver 
mines.  .  .  .  What  an  extravagance  has  father  ventured  into  in  buying 
a  watch  !  How  he  has  liberalized  since  he  ordered  me  five  years  ago 
not  to  wear  standing  collars  on  pain  of  his  displeasure!  .  .  . 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  February  16,  1877. 

Walker  came  early  this  morning,  by  night  train  from  New  York.  We 
breakfasted  together  at  Wormley's,  and  he  went  to  the  capitol  with  me. 
I  made  a  brief  speech  on  the  Pacific  Railroad  bill,  and  a  very  good  one,  I 
think,  being,  of  course,  an  impartial  judge.  We  are  going  out  to-night  to 
make  swell  calls  in  several  directions.  We  have  just  come  in  from  dining 
at  Wormley's  together,  and  find  Joe  Manley  here  —  bright  and  cheery  and 
newsy.  .  .  .  Louisiana  is  decided  in  our  favor  —  just  heard  it ;  would 
telegraph,  but  you  would  not  get  the  despatch  till  morning,  when  you 
wilf  get  it  fuller  in  the  morning  paper.  This  practically  settles  the 
election,  and  we  may  count  on  Hayes  as  next  President  with  some  degree 
of  confidence,  indeed  with  certainty. 


426  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

FEBRUARY  23,  1877. 

.  .  .  We  got  Oregon's  result,  just  before  recess.  What  a  fearful 
commentary  on  all  ideas  of  fairness  that  vote  of  eight  to  seven  is !  I 
mean  the  seven  to  sustain  that  frightful  fraud  of  Cronin's. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  : 

MARCH  5,  77. 

If  Hayes  withdraws  the  troops  from, the  South,  murder  and  intimidation 
will  rule  there.  The  South,  stronger  in  votes  than  before  emancipation, 
will  carry  her  point  and  be  substantially  victorious  spite  of  Appomattox  ; 
there  will  be  no  Republican  State  south  of  Pennsylvania ;  the  next  Con 
gress  and  the  next  President  will  be  Democratic.  Far  better  to  have  Tilden 
than  Hayes  with  such  a  policy.  Yours  cordially,  and  trusting  you'll  save 
us  if  you  can  from  such  madness. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  : 

BOSTON,  March  8,  1877. 

Though  I  am  not  one  of  your  constituents,  I  desire  most  heartily  to  thank 
you  for  your  recent  manly,  eloquent,  and  patriotic  utterances  in  the  Senate, 
while  justly  asserting  the  validity  of  Senator  Kellogg's  election,  and  the 
legitimacy  of  the  claim  of  Governor  Packard,  of  Louisiana,  and  of  Governor 
Chamberlain,  of  South  Carolina,  to  the  recognition  and  support  of  the 
general  government.  Be  assured,  to  you  will  be  accorded  the  warm 
approval  of  all  those  tried  and  true  souls  in  the  land  who  remember  too 
vividly  the  awful  consequences  that  have  resulted  in  the  past  from  cow 
ardly  compromises  with  the  despotic  and  rebellious  spirit  of  the  South  to 
sanction  any  more  such  insane  attempts  to  "  draw  out  leviathan  with  a 
hook,"  to  harmonize  radically  hostile  elements,  and  to  paciticate  disloyalty, 
by  treating  it  with  special  consideration.  Of  course,  you  will  be  most 
furiously  assailed  by  the  pseudo-Democratic  organs,  North  and  South ;  but 
this  will  be  sure  proof  that  you  have  sagaciously  struck  the  right  key-note, 
in  the  right  place,  and  at  the  right  time,  and  manfully  met  the  issue  pre 
sented  by  the  incorrigible  enemies  of  equal  rights  and  legitimate  govern 
ment.  So  they  Avrithed  and  howled  at  the  delivery  of  your  nobly  patriotic 
speech  on  the  amnesty  bill,  at  a  former  session  of  Congress  —  a  speech 
which  proved  as  potent  as  the  spear  of  Ithuriel  when  it  touched  the  dis 
sembling  toad,  and  evoked  the  demon  in  his  real  shape  —  a  speech  to 
which  the  only  reasonable  objection  that  could  be  made  was  its  surpassing 
clemency  to  the  whole  rebel  mass,  making  but  a  single  exception  in  the 
person  of  the  arch-traitor  of  them  all,  Jefferson  Davis,  and  he  excepted, 
only  because  of  his  official  responsibility  for  the  unparalleled  horrors  of 
Andersonville —  a  speech  which,  by  the  vials  of  wrath  it  brought  upon 
your  head,  notwithstanding  its  excessive  magnanimity,  demonstrated  that 
nothing  will  "conciliate  the  South"  but  to  put  the  control  of  the  federal 
crovernment  and  the  destiny  of  the  nation  into  her  hands,  as  in  the  days  of 
her  oligarchal  supremacy. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  427 

You  will  be  blamed  in  another  quarter.  There  is  a  weak,  timid,  pur 
blind,  compromising  element  in  the  Republican  party,  which  your  out 
spoken  words  of  sound  reason  and  timely  warning  will  greatly  disturb, 
because  its  panacea  for  all  our  national  divisions  is  "conciliation,11 
meaning  thereby  a  truckling  to  the  South  as  in  the  days  of  yore,  and  a 
stolid  indifference  to  the  fate  of  her  colored  population.  The  elimination 
of  this  element  from  the  party  would  greatly  add  to  its  strength  and  effi 
ciency,  as  it  is  ever  a  drag  in  any  great  emergency.  That  which  it  seeks 
to  "  conciliate," —  by  sacrificing  principle  to  expediency,  —  is  devoid  of  all 
sense  of  honor,  every  pulsation  of  patriotism,  every  feeling  of  nationality. 
Its  wishes  are  neither  to  be  gratified  nor  consulted.  The  truly  loyal  at  the 
South  need  no  conciliation ;  to  the  disloyal  no  concession  should  be  made. 
If  President  Hayes  shall  be  true  to  his  inaugural  professions,  his  adminis 
tration  will  be  a  shield  of  defence  to  the  oppressed  against  their  lawless 
oppressors.  God  grant  he  may  be  equal  to  his  responsibilities !  He  cannot 
do  better  than  to  respond  in  word  and  deed  to  your  noble  declaration : 
"  Whoever  else  shall  halt  or  grow  weak  in  maintaining  it,  so  long  as  I 
have  the  strength  I  will  stand  for  the  Southern  Union  men  of  both  colors  ; 
and  when  I  cease  to  do  that,  before  any  presence  North  or  South,  may  my 
tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  and  my  right  hand  forget  its  cun 
ning.  Yours  to  uphold  justice, 

WM.  LLOYD  GARRISON. 

From  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  February  23,  1877. 

DEAREST  MOTHER:  I  suppose  that  you  have  special  telegrams  to 
Augusta,  giving  the  result  of  the  vote  in  the  electoral  commission  from 
time  to  time.  At  any  rate,  long  before  this  letter  reaches  you,  you  will 
know  that  Oregon  is  decided,  by  this  non-partisan  commission,  in  our 
favor.  As  I  heard  Mr.  Evarts  say  to-day,  that  South  Carolina  would 
occupy  very  little  time  indeed  (you  know  the  Committee  of  the  House 
which  visited  the  State  declared  that  the  Hayes  electors  were  fully 
elected),  I  presume  that  Hayes  may  be  regarded  now  as  the  next  Presi 
dent.  Bring  on  a  new  relay  of  cabinet-makers.  ...  I  was  present 
in  the  House,  and  heard  Seelye  and  Pierce  announce  that  they  could  not 
vote  to  admit  Louisiana  as  belonging  to  Hayes.  They  desired  to  throw 
out  the  vote  altogether.  I  am  more  and  more  convinced  that  being  Inde 
pendent  simply  means  "  being  on  t'other  side."  I  was  rather  disappointed 
in  the  vote  on  Oregon.  I  wanted  to  see  one  vote  something  better  than 
8  to  7.  Father  was  not  up  this  morning  until  eleven,  but  has  been  at  the 
Senate  all  day,  and  is  now  sitting  here  writing.  He  is  quite  well,  I 
think.  The  loneliness  of  his  life  grows  on  him,  however. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  February  26,  1877. 

Walker  got  off  as  per  appt.  at  9.20  last  night;  said  as  he  was  leaving 
that  he  had  never  spent  a  more  pleasant  or  profitable  week  in  his  life. 
k  .  .  I  have  greatly  enjoyed  his  being  here. 


428  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

From  G. 

AUGUSTA,  February  27,  1877. 

Alice  went  back  yesterday  morning  quite  happy.  Emmons 
goes  back  to-night.  He  is  a  remarkable  youth  for  one  of  his  years.  The 
care  he  takes  of  everybody  and  everything,  and  the  way  he  throws  him 
self  into  every  breach,  is  more  like  forty  than  twenty. 

From  Walker : 

BROOKLYN,  March  7,  1877. 

DEAREST  MOTHER:  I  have  just  been  reading  father's  great  speech 
yesterday.  It  was  grand,  as  I  think.  If  this  administration  is  going  to 
make  a  foolish  move  in  the  very  beginning,  what  will  it  come  to  in  the 
end?  At  all  events,  I  feel  sure  that  father  is  right  and  that  he  will  be  sus 
tained  by  the  Republican  party  everywhere.  The  appointment  of  Devens, 
if  true,  is  very  good.  I  am  glad  that  no  Maine  man  is  in  the  cabinet  if  this 
administration  is  going  to  act  in  this  manner.  Write  me  what  you  think  of 
the  speech. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Walker  : 

BROOKLYN,  March  7,  1877. 

I  have  just  finished  reading  the  account  of  your  speech  of  yesterday  in 
the  Senate.  I  want  to  write  one  line  to  say  how  much  I  was  impressed 
writh  it  and  how  much  I  admire  your  course.  You  are  sure  to  be  sus 
tained  by  the  Republican  party  cu  maxsc  in  the  Northern  and  Western 
States.  I  don't  think  that  you  owe  anything  to  this  administration  what 
ever  (while  Hayes  does  owe  almost  his  election  to  you),  and  you  are 
certainly  far  stronger  with  the  Republican  party  than  this  administra 
tion  can  ever  be.  ...  If  Hayes  recognizes  Nichols  he  ought  to 
resign.  It  is  an  avowed  acknowledgment  that  lie  holds  his  seat  unlawfully 
and  that  Tilden  was  justly  elected.  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  commenda 
tion  which  'your  course  is  to-day  receiving  from  Republicans  throughout 
the  United  States  will  deter  him  from  doing  anything  so  humiliating 
to  the  party  which  elected  him  and  to  national  political  honor.  Can't  you 
have  The  Record  of  this  session  sent  to  me,  unless  you  have  promised  it 
elsewhere?  Again  congratulating  you,  I  am,  as  ever. 

From  Walker : 

BROOKLYN,  March  19,  1877. 

DEAREST  MOTHER  :  Isn't  18th  Alice's  birthday  ?  At  all  events,  I  have 
just  written  her  a  note  and  sent  her  a  couple  of  ribbons.  If  I  am  mis 
taken,  she  has  a  couple  of  ribbons  anyway,  and  is  so  much  the  better  off. 
There  are  so  many  birthdays  in  the  numerous  Blaine  family,  that  I  am  never 
quite  certain.  I  keep  run  of  Mons's  and  my  own,  and  then  I  get  muddled 
with  March,  and  April,  and  October,  and  teens,  and  twenties.  I  have  no 
doubt  you  know,  but  supposing  you  write  them  down  so  as  to  have  some 
record.  By  and  by  we  may  get  mixed,  and  when  I  am  an  aged  bachelor 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  429 

dyeing  my  hair  to  look  young1  and  wearing  false  teeth  like  John  D.,  T. 
may  go  to  snubbing  me  under  the  impression  that  she  is  the  older.  It  is  a 
matter  of  importance  to  me,  for  as  the  younger  members  grow  up,  I  feel 
the  power  which  seniority  gives  growing  more  and  more  a  poor,  frail  wand, 
no  longer  an  instrument  of  power.  When  I  am  twenty-five  and  A.  twenty, 
[  shan't  be  half  so  well  able  to  snub  her  as  when  I  was  twenty  and  she  fif 
teen.  Well,  the  Senate  has  adjourned,  and  now  we  shall  see  what  is  going 
to  be  the  policy  of  this  administration.  .  .  .  What  do  you  think  1  have 
been  doing  lately  ?  Reading  Scott's  poetry.  .  .  .  I  began  "  Marmion" 
Friday  and  read  it  through  almost  at  a  sitting.  Began  it  because  I  was 
ashamed  to  confess  to  myself  that  I  had  never  read  it,  and  I  read  it  with 
immense  zest.  I  think  I  must  inherit  both  a  taste  and  distaste  for  poetry, 
—  the  former  from  you,  the  latter  from  the  paternal,  though  I  found  T.  G. 
when  in  Washington  greatly  impressed  with  "Mireio  "  and  profoundly  moved 
by  Cowper's  *'  Grave."  He  insulted  me  by  asking  if  I  had  read  the  latter. 
.  .  .  The  pater's  favorite  stanza  was  one  beginning,  "  Like  a  sick 
child  that  knoweth  not  his  mother  while  she  blesses,"  it  may  interest 
you  to  know.  .  .  .  You  don't  know  how  I  desire  to  get  home.  I  don't 
like  New  York  at  all,  and  I  want  to  see  you  all  and  settle  down  in  Augusta 
immensely, — for  the  summer,  I  mean.  .  .  .  Love  to  nearly  every 
body  in  Augusta,  most  of  all  to  those  beneath  your  roof. 

From  Mr.  Elaine : 

WASHINGTON,  March  25,  1877. 

I  have  not  much  to  tell  you  to-day,  and  fortunately  I  have  not,  for,  Sun 
day  as  it  is,  the  house  has  been  crowded  all  day  with  visitors  of  every  name 
and  nation,  whom  Martha  and  Lewis  have  in  vain  endeavored  to  keep  out 
and  fend  off.  I  forgot,  in  my  hurried  note  of  yesterday,  to  tell  you  what  a 
pleasant  interview  I  had  had  at  the  White  House,  and  how  very  anxious 
the  President  seems  to  be  civil  to  me.  He  is  finding  a  good  deal  of  trouble 
in  his  Southern  policy.  He  is  beginning,  I  think,  to  see,  if  not  the  error 
of  his  ways,  yet  the  immense  magnitude  of  the  question  which  he  thought 
would  down  at  his  simple  bidding.  ...  I  stayed  only  a  few  minutes, 
and  at  11  was  in  bed,  —  quite  early  for  me,  as  my  average  is  after  12,  but  I 
sleep  late  and  make  it  up.  ...  I  shall  not  be  at  home  till  close  of  the 
week,  and  you  need  not  tell  any  one  when  I  am  expected,  for  I  want  to 
escape  the  crowds  there  that  are  running  my  life  out  of  me  here. 

AUGUSTA,  March  26,  1877. 

You  need  not  believe  a  word  of  Mr.  Elaine's  opposition  to  the  cabinet. 
Evarts,  Sherman,  and  McCreary  are  men  whom  he  would  have  chosen 
himself.  The  President  sent  for  him  Sunday  before  his  inauguration,  to 
ask  about  the  New  England  member,  and  of  the  list  of  eleven  which  he 
had,  he  took  the  one  Mr.  Elaine  advised,  —  Devens.  Mr.  Hale  had  previ 
ously  declined,  and  the  President  said  he  could  not  take  Frye,  as  he  did  not 
know  him.  Mr.  Devens  was  a  friend  of  Mr.  Elaine's  all  last  summer,  and 


430  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

tried  to  get  Blame  delegates  sent  to  Cincinnati.  So  you  can  see  how  wild 
are  all  the  stories  about  Mr.  Elaine's  opposing  the  cabinet.  He  is  expected 
home  this  week. 

From  Walker : 

BROOKLYN,  April  6,  1877. 

DEAREST  MOTHER  :  You  must  have  heard  from  father  all  about  the 
pleasant  time  which  we  had  together  in  New  York,  so  of  that  I  write  noth 
ing,  save  to  say  that  I  spent  the  pleasantest  twenty-four  hours  almost  since 
I  have  been  here.  .  .  .  Thanks  for  your  care  and  reservation  of  the 
"irregular  [room].11  I  ought  to  learn  something  and  do  something  in 
Augusta  this  year.  There  is  good  society,  plenty  of  books,  lots  of  air,  and 
home,  and  T  am  really  going  to  make  an  earnest  effort  to  accomplish 
something. 

From  Walker  : 

BROOKLYN,  April  16,  1877. 

.  .  .  Spiritually  I  am  degenerating,  as  far  as  church-going  is  a 
factor.  1  have  not  been  to  church  for  many  Sundays,  save  yester 
day,  and  I  don't  desire  to  go  for  many  more  if  I  am  to  hear  as  poor  a 
sermon  as  I  heard  yesterday.  I  don't  dislike  the  Episcopal  church,  but 
when  it  lays  itself  out  it  can  get  up  the  poorest  sermon  I  ever  listened  to. 
This  particular  curate  —  who  was  old  enough  to  know  better  —  preached  a 
sermon  on  death.  He  had  a  very  bad  English  accent,  and  he  gradually, 
solemnly,  and  sweetly  led  his  congregation  down  into  the  tombs,  and  then 
quietly  abandoned  them  without  a  ray  of  sunlight  or  a  gleam  of  hope. 
His  ideas  were  old,  he  was  old,  and  his  sermon  was  old  ;  and  I  am  sure  every 
one  of  the  congregation  felt  temporally  half  an  hour  older,  and  mentally 
not  a  half  a  second.  But  the  singing  was  superb  and  the  day  glorious,  and 
the  company  quite  good,  and  on  the  whole  I  rather  enjoyed  myself.  I  am 
this  evening  far  beyond  my  depths  in  the  law  of  executory  devises.  I  am 
sure  that  the  man  who  wrote  the  text-book  did  not  know  very  much  about 
the  subject.  Of  course  I  shall  know  infinitely  less.  At  the  end  my  knowl 
edge  very  probably  will  be  nil.  I  am  so  disgusted  with  politics  that  I  can 
say  nothing.  I  was  delighted  with  father's  despatch,  of  course  —  more  than 
delighted.  I  can't  believe  that  the  Republican  party  is  in  sympathy  with 
Hayes.  A  President  refusing  to  interfere  in  State  affairs,  and  then  consti 
tuting  a  Legislature  disregarding  the  credentials  of  the  returning  board 
in  Louisiana,  as  this  infernal  commission  now  proposes  to  do.  Why,  he 
stamps  illegitimacy  all  over  his  certificate  of  birth.  He  draws  the  bar 
sinister  across  his  coat  of  arms.  He  is  like  a  man  who  has  been  ac 
quitted  on  the  testimony  of  one  witness,  and  then  indicts  this  witness  for 
perjury.  The  situation  down  South  seems  to  me  just  this.  The  popula 
tion  of  New  Orleans  is  in  favor  of  Nicholls,  and  they  propose  to  run  the 
State,  and  I  believe  reduce  the  negro  to  as  bad  a  condition  as  he  ever  was  in 
while  enslaved.  And  to  think  that  just  as  the  Republican  party  in  one  or 


,  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  431 

two  Southern  States  was  getting  on  a  good  basis,  should  step  in  and  kick 
down  the  ladder  by  whicli  he  rose  to  power,  and  with  it  endanger  the  rights 
of  the  people  for  whom  he  mourned  so  long  and  so  loud !  I  hope  that 
the  junior  Senator  from  Maine  will  speak  in  no  uncertain  tones  on  this 
question  even  though  he  battles  alone  for  the  right.  .  .  .  Sometimes  I 
work  myself  up  to  such  a  pitch  that  I  no  longer  feel  myself  sane  or 
logical  on  the  whole  matter.  .  .  . 

From  Almet  F.  Jenks,  to  Emmons  Elaine,  Geneva : 

IN  FRENCHMAN'S  BAY  ON  THE  WAY  TO  MT.  DESERT, 
ON  BOARD  OF  THE  "  FlREFLY "  STEAMER. 

August  1,  1877. 

MY  DEAR  EMMONS  :  "  Yo  ho  cheerily,  men,  Captain  Reese  of  the  'Man- 
tlepiece.'"  I  never  saw  a  letter  before  that  ended  in  reality  with  its  date. 
This  does,  for  like  the  argument  of  a  poem,  the  skeleton  has  been  given 
and  my  bright  genius  must  fill  the  rest.  However,  I  thought  it  might 
please  you  if  I  should  jot  a  line,  or  rather  heave  a  line,  from  our  log,  or  a  log 
from  our  line,  or  something  in  Captain  Marryat's  vein,  or  in  the  manner  of 
E.  K.  Kane.  .  .  .  The  party  has  made  thirteen  all  the  way,  and  just  as 
we  get  seated,  the  Hon.  J.  G.  B.  disappears,  and  brings  in  some  provincial 
to  make  up  fourteen  at  the  table.  .  .  .  The  setting  sun  shines  on  a 
broken  and  shattered  table  of  cheese,  olives,  ham-sandwiches,  etc.  The 
American  flag  floats  at  the  stern.  Mr.  R.  and  Mrs.  R.,  Mr.  B.  and  Mr.  H., 
are  sitting  in  the  stern  quoting  poetry.  Mr.  C.  H.,  Miss  G.,  Miss  B.,  and 
M.  are  playing  whist.  W.  is  for'ards  smoking  a  cig.,  and  I  guess  Miss  B. 
is  getting  up  a  praise  meeting  among  the  crew,  whicli  by  the  way  consists 
wholly  of  able-bodied  captains.  We  are  having  a  jolly  good  time,  and  I 
am  glad  that  I  can  quote  my  Horace  from  a  different  verse  and  chapter 
from  you. 

"  Cras  ingens  iterabimus,  aequor." 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  Hon.  W.  H.  West : 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  August  25,  1877. 

DEAR  JUDGE:  Your  letter  greatly  surprises  me:  .  .  .  though  I 
dissent  from  much  that  I  see  attributed  to  you,  your  position  is  still 
immeasurably  better  than  that  of  the  Democrats.  And  aside  from 
political  affiliation,  my  personal  sympathies  are  all  with  you.  I  do  not 
forget  the  tie  of  nativity  that  binds  us  both  to  the  good  old  county  of 
Washington,  nor  the  still  stronger  bond  that  unites  us  in  the  brotherhood 
of  the  same  Alma  Mater.  Nor  will  either  of  us,  I  trust,  ever  fail  to  re 
member  that  grand  old  race  of  men  from  whom  we  are  both  descended,  — 
the  mingled  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  who  peopled  so  large  a  portion  of 
Central  and  Western  Pennsylvania;  a  race  whose  modest  claim  in  all 
generations  is  that  they  never  turn  their  backs  on  a  friend  or  a  foe. 


432  BIOGEAPUY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 


XV. 

IN   THE    SENATE. 

Southern  policy  adopted  by  the  administration  of  Pres- 
ident  Hayes  was  a  bitter  and  lasting  disappointment  to 
Mr.  Elaine.  He  felt  that  the  wheels  of  progress  had  been 
turned  backward  and  an  inestimable  ground  of  vantage  lost ; 
that  it  would  be  years  before  the  country  could  stand  in  full 
view  of  a  right  and  permanent  adjustment  of  sectional  relations 
with  the  power  and  prestige  which  she  held  on  the  day  of 
Hayes's  election.  In  his  opposition  to  the  administration  policy 
Mr.  Elaine  antagonized  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party,  but  of  stalwart  Republicanism,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  he 
was  more  than  ever  the  chosen  and  cherished  head.  So  long  as 
the  President's  policy  might  be  affected  he  gave  it  his  close 
attention  and  every  urgency  in  what  he  deemed  the  only  right 
direction.  When  it  was  completed,  when  the  Republican  Legis 
latures  of  three  States  had  vanished  at  the  touch  of  the  adminis 
tration  wand,  when  the  solid  South  —  which,  during  the  electoral 
contest,  had  seemed  so  dangerous  to  Mr.  Hayes  as  to  require 
discussion  more  than  any  question  of  protection  to  American 
labor  or  to  American  schools  —  had  been  reestablished  by 
President  Hayes,  Mr.  Elaine  wasted  no  time  in  regrets,  but 
turned  to  matters  still  in  the  shaping.  "  Nothing  is  so  weaken 
ing  as  regret "  was  a  maxim  of  his  life. 

During  his  first  winter  in  the  Senate,  interest  had  been  ab 
sorbed  by  the  dispute  regarding  the  presidency.  The  spring 
was  given  chiefly  to  the  question  of  the  President's  policy. 

Again  selected  as  one  of  the  visitors  to  West  Point,  Mr.  Elaine 
went  in  June,  1877,  and,  as  was  his  wont,  made  it  a  pleasure 
trip  by  taking  his  family  and  adding  to  the  tour  of  inspection 
a  visit  to  the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Catskills,  the  haunts  of 
Washington  Irving,  and  to  Saratoga. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  433 

During  the  winter  of  1877-78  he  was  in  the  full  tide  of 
vigorous  activity.  Many  of  the  measures  under  review  were 
but  remotely  allied  to  the  exciting  questions  of  the  South 
from  which  the  flame  seems  never  far.  The  laws  of  the  cur 
rency,  the  changes  of  tariff,  the  modes  and  roads  of  traffic,  con 
cern  the  well-being  of  a  nation,  but  not  with  the  heat  of  more 
palpably  moral  themes ;  yet  whatever  Mr.  Blaine  discussed  was 
the  question  of  the  day.  The  distinctive  measure  of  the  Forty- 
fifth  Congress  was  the  passage  of  the  bill  to  authorize  the 
free  coinage  of  the  standard  silver  dollar  of  41 2  J  grains, 
and  to  restore  its  legal-tender  character.  Resumption  of 
specie  payment  which  had  been  fixed  for  1879  was  threatened 
by  a  movement  which  looked  toward  inflation  and  instability 
as  the  basis  of  national  credit,  which  would  secure  remoneti- 
zation  of  silver  without  regard  to  changed  conditions,  or 
any  knowledge  of  sequences  or  prescience  of  consequences. 
On  this  bill  Mr.  Blaine  gave  thorough  cooperation  with  the 
President.  Deprecating  the  coinage  of  inferior  dollars,  he 
traced  to  its  proper  sources  the  deterioration  of  silver,  and 
was  emphatic  in  asserting  the  necessity  of  reestablishing 
silver  as  money.  His  position  was  indeed  imperative,  being 
in  logical  harmony  with  every  attitude  of  his  mind  and  every 
previous  utterance  regarding  this  important  question  —  which 
to  him  had  never  been  a  question.  He  held  it  to  be  a  theme 
on  which  there  can  be  no  rationally  divergent  views,  though 
there  are  many  theories.  He  held  that  gold  and  silver  are 
the  money  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  such  a  silver  dollar 
should  be  coined  as  would  not  only  do  justice  among  our 
citizens  at  home,  but  prove  an  absolute  barricade  against  the 
gold  inonometallists.  He  did  riot  believe  41 2 J  grains  of  silver 
would  make  such  a  dollar.  The  bill  wras  passed,  was  vetoed 
by  the  President,  and  then  passed  over  the  President's  veto. 
Mr.  Blaine  was  obliged  to  antagonize  many  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  in  the  great  and  far  West,  but  the  depth  and  breadth 
of  a  wrong  public  opinion  gave  only  the  more  clearness  and 
intensity  to  his  opposition.  In  financial  circles  he  was  recog 
nized  as  emphasizing  principles  which  are  the  groundwork  of 
national  dealings  among  men.  The  philosophic  student  was 
gratified  to  see  the  experience  of  other  nations  appropriated  to 


434  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  guidance  of  the  republic,  while  a  clear  recognition  of  the 
dignity,  the  power,  the  authority,  and  the  independent  standing 
of  this  nation  in  the  family  of  nations  gave  equal  satisfaction 
to  the  patriotic  American. 

The  same  observant  critical  and  judicial  attitude  is  shown  in 
the  position  which  he  took  in  regard  to  the  Halifax  award,  an 
attitude  which  has  not  been  too  common  in  our  experience,  and 
which  is  as  far  from  the  traditional  hatred  towards  England 
as  it  is  from  the  traditional  self-conceit  of  America.  England 
came  presently  to  think  it  for  her  interest  to  invest  Mr.  Elaine 
with  antipathy,  if  not  hostility,  to  herself.  No  misapprehension 
could  be  greater.  He  did  indeed  once  remark  to  Sir  Edward 
Thornton  that  England  as  against  the  United  States  was 
always  wrong,  but  he  also  added  that  as  against  the  rest  of  the 
world  she  was  always  right.  This,  of  course,  was  a  friendly 
exaggeration,  but  Sir  Edward  thought  enough  of  the  compli 
ment  to  put  it  in  his  despatches.  Mr.  Blaine  had  a  keen 
appreciation  of  the  wide  reach,  the  unremitting  vigilance, 
the  unity,  and  the  continuity  of  English  diplomacy  —  so 
keen  that  he  believed  it  necessary  for  this  country  to  meet 
it  with  all  her  resources  of  watchfulness  and  resolution.  If 
England  had  cause  against  him,  it  was  that  lie  discerned  afar 
all  encroachments  upon  American  suzerainty,  and  sounded 
the  warning  and  summoned  the  forces  of  resistance.  The 
country  was  often  slow  to  arouse  and  slower  to  understand. 
It  is  not  to  the  discredit  of  America  that  her  isolated  posi 
tion  and  her  sweep  of  the  hemispheres  should  have  made  her 
somewhat  self-sufficient.  It  took  time  to  convince  her  that 
the  modern  mind  in  annihilating  space  and  creating  neighbor 
hood  had  changed  the  old  order  and  established  new  responsi 
bility.  Not  infrequently  the  silly-wise  and  the  ignorant-learned 
hung  upon  the  forward  movement  their  ancient  saws,  but  in  the 
vast  audience  that  had  come  to  wait  upon  Mr.  Blaine's  words 
—  an  audience  representing  every  State  and  every  class  in  the 
great  Republic  —  there  was  always  a  nucleus  upon  which  he 
could  depend  and  whose  sympathy  and  strength  overbore  all 
the  alarm  of  envy,  the  indifference  of  stupidity,  the  clack  of 
frivolity. 

In    the    wake   of   the  Alabama   arbitration   came  the  settle- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  435 

meiit  of  the  Fisheries  dispute.  The  Alabama  award  had 
given  $15,000,000  to  the  United  States,  which  Great  Britain 
had  promptly  paid.  Six  years  afterwards  the  Halifax  Com 
mission  had  awarded  $5,500,000  to  Great  Britain  for  the  Fish 
eries,  which,  to  complete  the  equation,  should  be  promptly 
paid.  Thus  the  subject  presented  itself  succinctly  with  a 
specious  parallelism  of  fair  and  manly  dealing. 

Mr.  Blaine  brought  a  few  important  facts  from  the  back 
ground  to  the  front,  and  the  relation  of  all  the  facts  was 
changed.  He  offered  in  the  Senate  a  resolution  of  inquiry  in 
regard  to  the  selection  of  the  Belgian  minister,  Mr.  Delfosse, 
as  the  third  commissioner,  and  developed  a  series  of  transac 
tions  which  England  has  found  it  more  convenient  to  ignore 
than  to  justify. 

After  giving  in  detail  the  various  steps  of  the  tortuous  path 
by  which  England,  against  the  protest  of  our  government,  im 
posed  the  Belgian  commissioner  upon  the  arbitration,  and  the 
reasons  why  this  was  an  appointment  unfit  to  be  made,  dis 
graceful  to  England  in  the  suggestion,  still  more  in  the 
insistence,  he  reviewed  the  finding  of  the  commissioner, 
showed  that  it  was  such  as  was  to  be  expected  and  predicted 
from  a  commission  so  constructed,  —  an  award  "whose  injustice 
is  so  palpable  that  it  is  difficult  to  treat  it  with  the  respect  due 
to  all  subjects  involving  international  relations."  While  point 
ing  out  that  England's  course  had  been  sufficiently  dishon 
orable  to  invalidate  the  arbitration,  he  did  not  counsel  its 
rejection.  He  believed  that  the  arbitration  of  consultation 
is  so  great  an  improvement  over  the  arbitration  of  war  that 
it  was  better  to  accept  the  unjust  conclusion  than  to  throw 
into  contempt  the  new  Court  of  Nations,  as  }^et  little  estab 
lished ;  but  he  thought  it  equally  necessary  that  its  injus 
tice  should  be  thoroughly  exposed,  and  that  England  should 
learn  that,  though  overreached,  this  country  was  not  hood 
winked.  He  stamped  it  upon  the  popular  mind  that  the 
award  would  be  paid  not  because  it  was  fair,  or  was  founded 
upon  any  fact  or  evidence  submitted  to  the  Halifax  Commis 
sion.  Honor  permitted  its  payment,  but  paid  without  protest, 
the  award  would  be  used  thereafter  as  a  just  measure  of  the 
value  of  the  Fisheries;  therefore  it  was  "our  duty  to  show 


436  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

that  the  rate  fixed  by  the  Halifax  Commission  has  no  founda 
tion  whatever  in  truth  or  in  fact,  and  that  no  evidence  was 
before  the  Commission  to  justify  the  award.  .  .  .  The 
verdict  rendered  at  Halifax  was  not  legally  binding  under  the 
terms  of  the  treaty."  .  .  . 

The  country  took  a  high-spirited  part.  Secretary  Evarts 
presented  to  the  Foreign  Secretary  of  Great  Britain  the  adverse 
argument  in  full  —  and  paid  the  money. 

England  did  not  refute  the  argument—  but  took  the  money. 

Large  questions  did  not  monopolize  Mr.  Elaine's  attention. 
He  had  a  passion  for  human  happiness.  Whenever  a  human 
being  could  be  helped,  he  was  eager  to  afford  help.  When 
frontiersmen  were  oppressed  by  a  rash  but  official  attempt 
to  save  the  trees,  he  was  as  earnest  and  intent  to  prevent 
the  suffering  of  the  mountain  wood-choppers  as  if  they  had 
been  a  nation  enchained.  He  desired,  as  every  intelligent 
American  must,  the  preservation  of  our  forests.  He  opposed, 
as  every  human  being  must,  their  wanton  destruction ;  but  he 
was  far  more  wroth  at  seeing  a  wild  law  striking  down  the 
hardy  woodmen  than  at  seeing  a  pioneer  axe  laid  at  the  root  of 
the  hardy  trees.  He  held  in  view  and  held  up  to  view  that  laws 
are  made  for  man  and  not  man  for  LTAVS.  New  lands  cannot  be 
occupied  unless  the  settlers  can  have  firewood.  On  unsurveyed 
lands  not  offered  for  sale  no  wood  could  be  bought,  and  he  pro 
tested  that  the  pioneer  who  could  not  buy  wood  should  be  per 
mitted  to  do  what  pioneers  had  done  without  hindrance  from  the 
first  settlement  of  this  country,  —  help  themselves. 

The  initiatory,  arbitrary,  and  illegal  steps  of  a  reform  possibly 
well-meant,  but  administered  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  con 
ditions,  were  creating  distress  and  danger.  Laws  aimed  at  a 
reckless  traffic  in  timber,  to  the  wanton  destruction  of  forests, 
were  applied  against  the  pioneer  cutting  wood  among  the  moun 
tains  for  his  household  fire.  Long  usage  was  broken  in  upon  at 
various  points  in  the  West  and  South-west.  Industries  were 
paralyzed,  property  was  seized,  honest  men  were  arrested  at  the 
very  beginning  of  winter,  and  hundreds  of  families  subjected  to 
great  suffering  and  greater  apprehension.  Mr.  Blaine  wasted  no 
words.  An  industrious  community,  in  twenty-four  hours  reduced 
to  starvation  in  the  name  of  law,  left  him  no  choice  of  words, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  437 

and  he  not  only  denounced  as  an  outrage,  but  satirized  as  an 
absurdity,  the  United  States  government  standing  over  the 
woodpiles  in  the  backyards  of  the  settlers  in  Montana,  "  in  a 
snowstorm  which  threatened  to  cut  them  off  from  all  communi 
cation  with  the  outer  world,  only  leaving  the  wire  which  led  to 
the  Interior  Department,  over  which  the  word  should  come  from 
the  secretary,  fc  Not  a  stick  of  that  wood  shall  be  burnt  until 
one  dollar  a  cord  is  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States 

a  stumpage,  he  was  careful  to  ascertain  and  point  out,  greater 

than  in  Massachusetts,  greater  than  in  the  woods  in  sight  from 
the  Capitol  where  he  was  speaking. 

"  You  cannot  show  in  the  history  of  the  government  where  a 
settler  in  a  Territory  has  been  charged  for  his  firewood." 

"That  is  not  the  question,"  interposed  a  defender  of  the 
measure. 

"  That  is  precisely  the  question ! '  And  he  reiterated, 
"  Charge  -f  1  a  cord  stumpage  for  firewood  in  a  remote  gorge 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains  — 15,000  wrung  out  of  a  distant  Ter 
ritory,  with  no  representation  in  the  Senate,  on  the  eve  of  winter. 
The  woodland  in  sight  of  the  spire  of  Trinity  Church  in  the  city 
of  New  York  will  not  pay  what  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  ex 
acted  of  those  distant  settlers  in  Montana.  There  is  no  place 
sufficiently  settled,  there  is  no  population  sufficiently  dense,  in 
this  country,  to  justify  what  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  de 
manded  and  collected  from  these  distant  people  in  the  remote 
solitudes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains." 

There  was  wide  misapprehension  on  the  subject.  The  fire 
wood  of  citizens  cut  on  harsh  mountain-sides  and  hauled  twelve 
miles  to  their  homes  was  ordered  to  be  seized.  All  the  firewood 
cut  for  the  town  of  Helena  on  the  public  lands  was  to  be  seized, 
no  previous  notice  having  been  given  that  the  custom  of  the 
country  or  the  former  usage  of  the  department  was  to  be 
changed.  All  the  fuel  piled  up  for  the  use  of  citizens,  and 
even  for  soldiers  in  garrison,  cut  under  contract  with  the  War 
Department,  was  seized  —  taken  possession  of  as  though  it  were 
stolen  goods  purloined  in  the  night-time  and  just  found  on  the 
person  of  the  apprehended  thief;  and  Mr.  Elaine  was  repre 
sented  as  "  rushing  to  the  defence  of  timber-thieves,"  his 
u  clients,"  "  the  worst  element  of  societ}r."  He  accepted  the 


438  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

issue.  "  I  am  glad  to  have  the  hardy  settlers  in  the  Territories 
who  are  carrying  forward  the  civilization  of  the  country  and 
battling  with  the  elements,  classed  among  my  clients.  I  am 
glad  to  stand  for  them  in  any  court  or  in  any  presence  against 
the  ignorance  or  the  malice  of  any  one,  and  feel  ashamed  of 
myself  for  some  of  my  Eastern  friends." 

One  of  these  Eastern  friends  tried  to  stem  his  impetuosity, 
beginning  gently,  "His  first  point  was  that  there  was  an  obso 
lete  law  — 

"  I  never  used  the  word,  never  !  "  interrupted  Mr.  Blaine. 
"  The  Senator  is  confusing  me  with  some  other  Senator.  I  said 
there  was  no  law  at  all.  Do  not  put  words  in  my  mouth  and 
then  answer  them." 

"  The  Senator's  first  point  was  that  there  was  an  obsolete 
law—" 

"  I  never  used  the  phrase  at  all.  The  Senator  cannot  find  it 
in  what  I  said." 

u  Perhaps  the  Senator  will  not  boil  over  quite  so  often." 

"  Not  a  bit." 

Thereupon  Senator  Sargent,  of  California,  interposed,  "  Allow 
me  —  that  was  my  argument." 

"I  understand  it  was  the  argument  of  the  Senator  from 
Maine,  and  — 

"  Will  the  Senator  allow  me  a  moment  ?  I  used  the  argu 
ment,  and  the  Senator  from  Maine  took  me  to  task  for  it  quite 
sharply  ;  he  said  there  was  no  law  at  all,  obsolete  or  not." 

" 1  held  an  entirely  different  opinion,"  insisted  Mr.  Blaine. 

"  I  should  like  to  allow  myself  a  moment,  if  the  gentlemen 
please,"  continued  the  interrupted  Senator  patiently.  "•  The 
Senator  from  Maine  declared  that  every  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  from  Alexander  Hamilton  down  to  Chandler  — 

"  Chandler  never  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ! "  interposed 
the  Senator  from  Maine. 

In  this  matter  he  had  the  full  sympathy  and  even  solicitation 
of  Southern  Senators,  many  of  whose  constituents  were  "  depre 
dators  "  on  unsurveyed  lands  ;  and  the  offensive  legislation  was 
submerged  in  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  forty-two  to  four. 

Adequate  protection  to  American  labor  was  his  constant 
care.  In  the  spring  of  1878,  he  offered  resolutions  against  any 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  439 

radical  changes  in  the  tariff,  and  in  favor  of  a  fixed  policy  which 
should  so  maintain  our  tariff  for  revenue  as  to  afford  the  re 
quired  protection.  "  One  of  the  most  mischievous  measures  in 
its  effects  would  be  a  roving  commission  appointed  on  the  idea 
that  when  they  get  through  running  hither  and  thither  over  the 
country  and  examining  this  way  and  that  about  the  tariff,  cer 
tain  recommendations  were  to  be  made,  certain  changes  were  to 
take  place.  Nothing  would  more  effectually  unsettle  the  busi 
ness  of  the  country.  We  have  had  a  great  many  of  these  com 
missions  on  divers  and  sundry  subjects,  and  I  have  never  known 
them  to  do  a  particle  of  good  so  far  as  producing  a  result  in 
practical  legislation." 

"  There  is  no  more  hurtful  agitation  to-day  in  this  country 
than  the  agitation  of  the  tariff." 

Already  he  was  scanning  South  American  fields ;  reminding 
Senators  that  "  of  an  annual  total  export  from  Brazil  of  less 
than  890,000,000  we  take  140,000,000.  Of  $500,000,000  for  the 
last  six  years  we  have  taken  nearly  $250,000,000.  ...  I 
suppose  the  idea  is  that  we  had  better  take  our  coffee,  dye- 
woods,  and  other  things  of  that  sort  from  Brazil  in  British 
bottoms.  .  .  .  The  Senator  talks  of  a  lobby  being  here. 
That  is  always  the  cry  when  anything  comes  up,  '  There  is  a 
lobby ! '  " 

Later  in  the  same  session  of  Congress,  Mr.  Blaine  still  further 
defined  his  position  —  a  position  little  likely  to  increase  the 
complacency  Avith  which  he  was  viewed  by  England.  It  was 
a  foreshadowing  of  his  future  course  in  the  State  Depart 
ment,  a  hint  of  what  he  would  have  attempted  in  the  presi 
dency,  and  was  perhaps  the  first  actual  development  of  the 
policy  with  which  his  name  became  afterwards  inseparably  asso 
ciated,  —  the  fraternization  of  the  Americas.  In  English  eyes 
this  seems  a  menace  to  Great  Britain.  To  Mr.  Blaine  it  meant 
not  only  increased  prosperity  to  the  Americas,  but  peace  on  the 
whole  earth,  good- will  to  all  men. 

The  immediate  question  was  of  granting  aid  to  a  line  of 
American  steamers  to  Brazil.  He  discerned  beyond  com 
mercial  advantage  threefold  national  harvests.  He  had  made 
a  study  of  the  resources,  needs,  aspirations,  possibilities  of  the 
southern  hemisphere.  Nothing  could  be  more  in  consonance 


440  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

with  his  political  ideal  than  to  bring  the  wealth,  the  energy, 
and  the  good  will  of  the  North  to  bear  on  the  natural  and  or 
derly  development  of  our  own  disaffected  South,  to  win  har 
mony  through  material  activities,  to  find  a  common  advantage 
in  the  cultivation  of  neighborhood  friendship  with  the  nations 
of  Southern  America.  Sharply  opposing  every  output  of  the 
spirit  of  slavery,  he  was  as  alert  for  every  possible  point  of 
agreement  with  the  South.  He  received  a  keenly  sympathetic 
hearing  from  Southern  Senators,  who  saw  in  his  plans  an  open 
ing  for  their  section,  full  of  promise.  Dom  Pedro  had  visited 
Washington  while  Mr.  Blaine  was  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  with 
his  rebel  detractors,  but  he  was  not  too  much  absorbed  to  ac 
quaint  himself  with  the  character,  aims  and  methods,  of  that 
extraordinary  emperor ;  and  in  the  advances  made  by  him  for 
steamship  communication  he  saw  an  advantage  which  on  every 
account  it  was  short-sightedness  to  disregard,  folly  to  disregard 
on  the  plea  of  subsidy :  "  We  may  stand  here  and  talk  about  the 
wrongfulness  of  subsidies  and  the  impolicy  of  granting  them  until 
doomsday ;  and  Great  Britain  will  applaud  every  speech  of  that 
kind  made  in  the  American  Congress,  and  will  quietly  subsidize 
her  steamers  and  take  possession  of  the  carrying-trade  of  the 
world.  Great  Britain  to-day  makes  annually  out  of  the  com 
merce  of  the  United  States  a  larger  sum  than  the  interest  on 
our  public  debt.  She  receives  more  in  the  way  of  net  profits  on 
the  carrying-trade  which  America  gives  her  than  the  interest 
on  the  vast  national  debt  with  which  we  are  burdened  to-day." 

All  small  suspicion  he  swept  aside  as  impertinent  and  un 
worthy,  and  stood  on  the  broad  ground  of  our  national 
development.  Should  we  surrender  our  navigation  laws  of 
eighty  years'  standing  and  become  tributary  to  Great  Britain  ? 
He  did  not  antagonize  Great  Britain.  He  rather  commended 
the  wisdom  and  foresight  with  which  she  guarded  her 
naval  supremacy,  but  it  irked  him  to  see  our  country  sleep 
on  her  magnificent  coasts  while  the  fallacious  but  vigilant 
Liliputians  bound  fast  her  giant  limbs  to  an  ignoble  repose. 
With  the  eloquence  of  impatience  he  pointed  out  the  folly  of 
playing  into  England's  hands.  "  She  does  not  intend  that  any 
European  nation  shall  ever  become  a  great  naval  and  commer 
cial  power.  There  is  no  rival  left  to  her  in  the  commercial 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  441 

world,  and  if  she  can  buy  us  out,  or  bully  us  out,  of  a  tariff  that 
shall  protect  American  industries,  and  bluff  us  out  of  enter 
prises  that  shall  stimulate  lines  of  American  steamships,  she  will 
have  done  all  she  desires  to  do  for  her  factories  and  for  her 
commerce.  .  .  .  Is  this  country  willing  calmly  to  resign  the 
sceptre  of  the  ocean  to  Great  Britain  ?  " 

Three  years  later,  on  another  phase  of  the  same  subject  he 
referred  with  admiration  to  the  strong  hand  with  which  Great 
Britain  maintains  her  sovereignty  of  the  seas,  and  stigmatized 
the  fatuous  blindness  of  the  American  government.  "  For 
twenty  years  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  not  done 
one  solitary  thing  to  uphold  the  navigation  interests  of  the 
United  States. 

"  An  energetic  and  able  man  John  Roach,  of  New  York,  an 
Irishman  by  birth,  long  a  citizen  of  the  United  States ;  a  man 
of  remarkable  ability,  energy,  and  integrity,  who  found  a  great 
ocean  highway  unoccupied,  and  had  the  enterprise  to  put 
American  vessels  of  the  best  construction  and  great  power  upon 
it,  has  been  held  up  to  scorn  and  to  reproach,  because  he  came 
to  the  American  Congress  and  said,  4  If  you  will  do  for  this 
enterprise  what  the  Emperor  of  Brazil  will  do,  I  will  give  you 
a  great  line  of  steamships  from  New  York  to  Rio  Janeiro.' 
.  .  .  And  Senators,  I  regret  to  say,  who  represent  the  pro 
tective  system  of  this  country,  remarked  with  quiet  compla 
cency,  fc  If  Brazil  is  willing  to  pay  for  the  line,  we  need  not.' 
Just  as  soon  as  it  was  found  that  we  would  not  pay,  a 
combination  of  English  ship-builders  said,  '  We  will  put  on  our 
ships  and  run  that  American  line  off,  we  will  break  down  this 
attempt  of  the  United  States  to  begin  a  race  upon  the  ocean ; ' 
and  they  have  pretty  nearly  succeeded,  while  we  have  looked  on 
with  apparent  unconcern.  .  .  .  It  is  not  to  help  Mr.  John 
Roach  or  Mr.  Richard  Roe,  but  to  make  a  great  and  compre 
hensive  policy.  .  .  .  I  do  not  expect  this  Congress  to  do 
anything.  I  am  not  talking  with  the  slightest  hope  of  success. 
But  I  know  success  will  come  sometime.  .  .  . 

"  We  have  the  largest  ocean  frontage  of  any  nation  on  the 
globe.  We  front  all  continents.  .  .  .  We  are  by  our  posi 
tion  in  need  of  a  navy. 

"  It  is  idle  to  fight  against  the  inventions  of  the  world.     The 


442  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

great  highways  of  international  commerce  will  be  occupied,  and 
occupied  almost  'to  the  exclusion  of  sailing-vessels,  by  ocean 
steamers.  The  people  of  the  United  States  can  take  a  great 
part  in  that  race  whenever  they  make  up  their  minds  that  the 
instrumentality  by  which  England  conquered  is  the  one  which 
they  must  use ;  they  can  take  it  whenever  they  make  up  their 
minds  that  a  mercantile  marine  and  a  naval  establishment  must 
grow  and  go  together  hand  in  hand.  .  .  .  The  election 
showed  that  the  overwhelming  public  opinion  of  this  country 
is  interested  in  keeping  up  American  manufactures  against  for 
eign  manufactures.  I  say  to  the  upholders  of  protection  that 
Protection  cannot  be  permanently  maintained  without  building 
up  the  commercial  marine  of  this  country." 

Encouraged  by  the  wavering  of  the  Republican  party  before 
Southern  threats  of  sedition,  the  Democrats  contested  sub 
sequent  elections  with  renewed  hope  and  spirit.  Maine, 
disappointed  and  disapproving,  startled  Republicans  by  her 
September  election  in  1878.  To  some  it  seemed  imperative,  in 
copy  of  the  Administration's  Southern  policy,  to  recall  wander 
ing  greenbackers  to  Republican  ranks  by  practically  appropri 
ating  the  Democratic  standard.  To  one  such  adviser  Mr. 
Blame  wrote :  "  The  Republican  party  may  be  doomed  this  year 
to  general  defeat,  but  you  will  pardon  me  for  saying  that  if  it 
should  attempt  to  assume  the  ground  indicated  by  you,  it  would 
be  covered  with  ridicule  and  could  not  escape  ignominy.  There 
are  to  be  two  parties  in  this  country  on  the  question  of  the 
finances  :  the  one  for  4  honest  money,'  the  other  for  4  wild  in 
flation  '  -  the  one  for  maintaining  the  national  honor,  the 
other  leading  to  the  verge  and  possibly  leaping  over  the  preci 
pice  of  repudiation  —  the  one  composed  mainly  of  the  loyal 
Union  men  who  contracted  the  debt  to  subdue  the  Rebellion, 
the  other  embracing  all  the  bad  elements  that  sought  the  over 
throw  of  our  government.  The  line  will  be  sharply  defined  as 
the  contest  waxes  warm." 

To  Mr.  Elaine  the  financial  integrity  of  the  country  was 
second  only,  if  second,  to  equality  of  rights,  and  he  confined 
debate  chiefly  to  these  points.  He  was  everywhere  in  requisi 
tion.  In  every  capital  city  of  the  North  he  spoke  to  crowds 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  443 

beyond  counting.  Even  to  themes  like  the  currency,  not  only 
complicated  but  often  heavy,  he  brought  a  lucidity  of  statement, 
11  novelty  of  illustration,  a  picturesqueness  of  grouping,  that 
riveted  the  attention  and  made  a  convincing  argument  inter 
esting,  and  even  amusing.  He  quoted  with  equal  zest  from 
"  a  very  wise  old  political  leader  in  Kennebec  of  the  past  genera 
tion  —  Ben  White,  of  Monmouth,"  to  his  associates  :  "  Stand  still 
while  you  stand  well,"  and  "  Don't  venture  on  experiments," 
and  from  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  Lord  John  Russell,  that  "  Your 
amendment,  even  if  right  in  principle,  was  wrong  in  time ;"  and 
of  the  two,  the  people  perhaps  liked  Ben  White  the  better. 

On  the  Southern  question,  he  especially  emphasized  the 
danger  to  the  white  man  of  permitting  the  destruction  of  the 
liberty  of  the  black  man.  u  By  destroying  the  political  power 
of  the  negro  in  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi,  the  Confederate 
soldier  is  to-day  casting  two  votes  in  the  control  of  our  national 
policy  where  the  Union  soldier  of  Pennsylvania  and  New 
England  casts  but  one.  With  this  state  of  things  the  American 
people  will  not  rest  content.  We  shall  be  compelled,  from  self- 
interest  and  self-protection,  in  the  end  to  resist  that  which  at 
the  outset  we  should  resist  from  principle." 

The  wild  tide  of  inflation  was  presently  stemmed  and  stayed, 
but  in  the  autumn  of  1878  the  Democrats  gained  control  of 
both  Houses  of  Congress. 

While  on  his  tour  through  the  North-west,  discussing  the 
greenback  question  with  untiring  earnestness,  with  a  vigor 
which  carried  conviction,  with  a  winning  personality  which 
gained  for  him  a  lasting  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  great 
community,  his  abounding  nature  could  enter  into  quieter 
scenes  with  equal  sympathy.  How  facile  was  his  knowledge, 
how  quick  his  eye  for  color,  how  deftly  he  caught  and  grouped 
the  striking  points  of  past  and  present  for  such  a  setting  to  his 
facts  as  brought  even  statistics  into  the  realm  of  art,  yet  made 
all  rivers  run  into  the  sea,  is  shown  in  an  address  at  the  Minne 
apolis  fair,  in  the  midst  of  the  fall  campaign. 

The  same  facility  of  adaptation,  power  to  seize  instantly  the 
salient  features  of  a  situation,  to  discern  their  vitality,  develop 
their  bearings,  and  invest  them  with  an  atmosphere  appears  in  a 
speech  he  made  at  the  dinner  of  the  New  England  Society  in 


444  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

New  York  the  same  year.  A  gentle  humor,  a  pleasant  satire, 
played  through  it,  befitting  a  festivity,  but  wherever  his  thought 
rested  even  by  the  way,  thither  trooped  other  thoughts,  kin 
dred  thoughts,  the  relations  of  things,  so  that  his  humor 
shimmered  over  the  surface  of  a  rock-fast  world.  The  note  of 
sympathy  and  tenderness  with  which  the  speech  closed  is  alto 
gether  characteristic  : 

"  Tn  this  brilliant  assemblage,  surrounded  with  everything  that 
gives  comfort  and  grace  and  elegance  to  social  life,  in  this 
meeting,  protected  by  law,  itself  representing  law,  let  me  recall 
one  sad  memory  —  the  memory  of  those  who  in  1620  landed  on 
the  Plymouth  shore  and  did  not  survive  the  first  year.  Of  all 
the  men  engaged  in  heroic  contests,  those  deserve  our  tenderest 
remembrance  who,  making  all  the  sacrifice  and  enduring  all  the 
hardship,  are  not  permitted  to  enjoy  the  triumph.  Quincy  died 
before  the  first  shot  was  fired  in  the  Revolution  which  he  did  so 
much  to  create ;  Warren  was  killed  at  the  first  clash  of  arms  in 
defence  of  the  cause  which  was  so  sacred  to  his  patriotic  heart ; 
Reynolds,  rallying  his  corps  for  the  critical  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
fell  while  yet  its  fate  was  doubtful ;  McPherson,  in  the  great 
march  to  the  sea,  lost  his  life  before  the  triumphant  close  of 
that  daring  and  romantic  expedition.  For  these  and  all  like 
unto  them,  from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  last  battle-field  of  the 
Civil  war,  who  perished  in  their  pride,  and  perished  before  they 
could  know  that  they  were  dying  not  .in  vain,  but  for  a  cause 
destined  to  victory,  I  offer,  and  I  am  sure  you  will  join  with  me 
in  offering,  our  veneration  and  our  homage." 

The  entering  wedge  having  not  only  ceased  to  be  driven 
further  into  the  solid  South,  but  having  been  withdrawn,  the 
partially  cleft  sections  naturally  sprang  back  into  greater 
density.  After  the  elections  of  1878,  Southern  newspapers  in 
exulting  editorials  sent  the  "  greetings  of  a  solid  South  to  a 
divided  North,"  and  joyously  boasted  that  they  "  had  no  fears  of 
a  solid  North."  Mr.  Elaine,  however,  did  not  hesitate  to  try 
other  resources  to  secure  the  desired  end.  He  had  hoped  to 
unite  Southern  interests  and  self-advancement  in  the  upholding 
of  law,  but  at  any  rate  law  must  be  upheld  —  from  without,  if 
not  from  within. 

Immediately  upon  the  assembling  of  Congress,  December  2, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  445 

he  submitted  a  resolution  to  the  Senate  embodying  his  treatment 
of  the  Southern  question  during  the  election  debates.  He  pre 
sented  it  as  not  merely  a  question  of  cruelty,  violence,  robbery 
of  citizenship  for  the  negro,  but  of  "  far  wider  range,  of  porten 
tous  magnitude  ;  viz.,  whether  the  white  voter  of  the  North 
shall  be  equal  to  the  white  voter  of  the  South  in  shaping  the 
policy  and  fixing  the  destiny  of  this  country ;  or  whether,  to 
state  it  more  baldly,  the  white  man  who  fought  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Union  army  shall  have  as  weighty  and  influential  a  vote  in 
the  government  of  the  republic  as  the  white  man  who  fought 
in  the  ranks  of  the  rebel  army.  The  one  fought  to  uphold, 
the  other  to  destroy,  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  to-day  he  who 
fought  to  destroy  is  a  far  more  important  factor  in  the  govern 
ment  of  the  nation  than  he  who  fought  to  uphold "  —  and 
the  astounding  statements  he  fortified  by  an  impregnable  and 
original  array  of  facts  which  no  one  attempted  to  disprove. 

His  answer  to  the  taunt,  "What  are  you  going  to  do  about 
it?"  has  the  element  of  prophecy  which  inheres  in  knowledge 
logically  classified,  and  there  was  in  his  closing  words  a  rare 
sternness,  in  his  manner  a  repressed  feeling,  that  seemed  to 
touch  the  religious  sentiment.  "  Those  who  imagine  it  to  be 
conclusive  do  not  know  the  temper  of  the  American  people. 
I  know  something  of  public  opinion  in  the  North.  I 
know  a  great  deal  about  the  views,  wishes,  and  purposes  of  the 
Republican  party  of  the  nation.  Within  that  entire  great  or 
ganization  there  is  not  one  man,  whose  opinion  is  entitled  to  be 
quoted,  that  does  not  desire  peace  and  harmony  and  friendship, 
a  patriotic  and  fraternal  union  between  the  North  and  the 
South.  Yet  no  guise  of  State  rights  will  close  the  eyes  of  our 
people  to  the  necessity  of  correcting  a  great  national  wrong. 
Nor  should  the  South  make  the  fatal  mistake  of  concluding 
that  injustice  to  the  negro  is  not  also  injustice  to  the  white  man. 
.  .  .  In  words  which  are  those  of  friendship,  however  they 
may  be  accepted,  I  tell  the  men  of  the  South  here  on  this  floor 
and  beyond  this  chamber,  that  even  if  they  could  strip  the 
negro  of  his  constitutional  rights  they  can  never  permanently 
maintain  the  inequality  of  white  men  in  this  nation.  .  .  . 
In  a  memorable  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  Mr.  Macaulay 
reminded  Daniel  O'ConnelK  when  he  was  moving  for  Repeal, 


446  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

that  the  English  Whigs  had  endured  calumny,  abuse,  popular 
fury,  loss  of  position,  exclusion  from  Parliament,  rather  tj^an  that 
the  great  agitator  himself  should  be  less  than  a  British  subject ; 
and  Mr.  Macaulay  warned  him  that  they  would  never  suffer 
him  to  be  more.  Let  me  now  remind  you  that  the  government 
under  whose  protecting  flag  we  sit  to-day  sacrificed  myriads  of 
lives  and  expended  thousands  of  millions  of  treasure  that  our 
countrymen  of  the  South  should  remain  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  having  equal  personal  rights  and  equal  political  privileges 
with  all  other  citizens.  I  venture,  now  and  here,  to  warn  the 
men  of  the  South,  in  the  exact  words  of  Macaulay,  that  we  will 
never  suffer  them  to  be  more  ! " 

The  Teller  Committee  was  formed  as  a  result  of  this  move 
ment,  and  its  report  became  an  official  record  of  the  crimes 
which  established  and  attended  the  "  solid  South  and  rebel 
rule." 

The  triumphant  Democracy  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  at 
tempted  to  undo  the  legislation  which  had  been  enacted  by  a 
Republican  Congress  under  President  Lincoln.  As  earnestly 
as  if  the  ground  of  vantage  had  not  been  abandoned  by  a 
Republican  administration,  Mr.  Blaine  reviewed  and  renewed 
the  unwearying  contest.  The  law  was  that  no  federal  soldier 
should  be  at  the  polls  in  any  State  election  "  unless  it  be  neces 
sary  to  repel  the  armed  enemies  of  the  United  States,  or  to 
keep  peace  at  the  polls."  The  Democrats  desired  the  repeal  of 
this  law,  and  Mr.  Blaine  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  they  had 
so  phrased  their  movement  as  to  create  the  impression  that  the 
Republicans  in  the  administration  of  the  general  government  had 
been  using  troops  right  and  left  in  every  direction,  by  reason  of 
which  the  Democrats  as  soon  as  they  came  into  power,  enacted  this 
section ;  whereas  the  law  was  passed  by  a  Republican  Congress 
in  February,  1865,  in  the  midst  of  a  war.  The  Republican  ad 
ministration  had  a  million  bayonets  at  its  command.  Thus 
situated,  with  the  amplest  possible  power  to  interfere  with  elec 
tions  had  they  so  designed,  with  soldiers  in  every  county  and 
hamlet  of  the  United  States,  the  Republican  party  themselves 
placed  that  provision  on  the  statute  book,  and  Abraham  Lincoln 
signed  it. 

With  mingled  humor,  satire,  and  resentment,  he  proceeded  to 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  447 

scatter  this  small  army  over  the  continent,  calling  the  South- 
ern  Senators  to  witness  the  danger  to  their  liberties  involved  in 
the  presence  of  this  handful  of  soldiers  among  so  many  citizens. 
"Does  my  gallant  friend  from  Georgia  [Mr.  Gordon],  who 
knows  better  than  I  the  force  and  strength  of  military  organiza 
tion,  does  he,  the  senior  Senator,  and  does  the  junior  also  [Mr. 

Benjamin  H.  Hill] ,  —  does  either  of  those  Senators  feel  alarm  at 
the  presence  of  twenty-nine  federal  soldiers  in  Georgia  ?  There 
are  just  twenty-nine  there  — not  one  more.  And  they  are 
guarding  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Savannah. 
3  "  I  believe  the  Senator  from  Delaware  [Mr.  Bayard]  has  been 
alarmed,  greatly  alarmed,  about  the  overriding  of  the  popular 
ballot  by  troops  of  the  United  States.  In  Delaware  there  is 
not  a  single  armed  man,  not  one.  The  United  States  has  not 
even  one  soldier  in  the  State. 

"  I  think  my  friend  from  Alabama  [Mr.  Morgan]  is  greatly 
excited  over  this  question,  and  in  his  State  there  are  thirty-two 
federal  soldiers,  located  at  an  arsenal  of  the  United  States." 

Having  summoned  the  troops  from  each  State  successively,  he 
marshalled    them    in    one  general  parade  :   "  The  entire  South 
has  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-five  soldiers  to  intimidate,  over 
run,  oppress,  and  destroy  the  liberties  of  fifteen  million  people, 
and  rob  them  of  freedom  at  the  polls.     Not  quite  one  for  each 
county,    one  for  every  seven  hundred  square    miles ;   so   that 
if   you  make   a   territorial    distribution,    I    would   remind   the 
honorable  Senator  from  Delaware  that  the  quota  for  his  State 
would  be  three  — 4  one    ragged   sergeant   and  two  abreast,'  as 
the  old  song  has   it.     ...     In  New  England  we  have   three 
hundred  and  eighty  soldiers.     Throughout  the  South  it  does  not 
run  quite  seventy  to  the  million  people.     In  New  England  we 
have  absolutely  one  hundred  and  twenty  soldiers  to  the  million. 
New  England  is  far  more  overrun  to-day  by  the  federal  soldieiy, 
far  more,  than  is  the  whole  South.     I  never  heard  any  one  com 
plain   about  it  in   New  England,  or  express  any  great  fear  of 
his  liberties  being  endangered  by  the  presence  of  a  handful  of 
federal  troops.     .     .     •     How  amazing  it  would  be  to  any  man 
in  Europe  if  he  were  told  that  in  a  territory  larger  than  France 
and  Spain  and  Portugal  and  Great  Britain  and  Holland   and 
Belgium  and  the  German  Empire  all  combined,  there  are  but 


448  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

eleven  hundred  and  fifty-five  soldiers  —  that  this  mad  cry,  this 
false  issue,  this  absurd  talk,  is  based  upon  the  presence  of  eleven 
hundred  and  fifty-five  soldiers  on  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thou 
sand  square  miles  of  territory.  The  whole  number  of  soldiers 
thus  complained  of  is  not  a  third  of  the  police  in  the  city  of 
New  York.  I  repeat,  the  number  indicts  the  Democracy  ;  it 
shows  the  whole  charge  to  be  without  foundation  ;  it  derides  the 
issue  as  a  false,  scandalous,  and  partisan  makeshift. 

"  What  then  is  the  real  motive  underlying  this  movement  ? 
It  is  not  the  troops  ;  that  is  evident.  .  .  .  The  issue  on  the 
troops,  being  a  false  one,  conceals  the  true  issue,  which  is  simply 
to  get  rid  of  the  federal  presence  at  the  federal  elections,  to  get 
rid, of  the  civil  power  of  the  United  States  in  the  election  of 
representatives  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  .  .  . 
We  are  told,  too,  a  rather  novel  thing  —  that  if  we  do  not  take 
these  laws,  Ave  are  not  to  have  the  appropriations. 
They  say  all  appropriations  are  to  be  refused  ;  not  merely  the 
army  appropriation,  for  they  do  not  stop  at  that." 

Naming  the  various  departments  with  a  slight  reference  to 
the  importance  of  their  work,  all  of  which  was  to  be  at  the 
mercy  of  the  desired  repeal,  to  be  abandoned  if  this  were  not 
secured,  all  of  which  "  were  taken  by  the  throat,  highwayman 
style,  commanded  to  stand  and  deliver  in  the  name  of  the 
Democratic  congressional  caucus,"  lie  closed  by  pointing  out 
the  sinister  significance  of  the  Democratic  position  in  words  as 
serious  as  suggestive : 

"  A  leading  Democrat  from  the  South,  a  man  who  has  cour 
age  and  frankness  and  many  good  qualities,  has  boasted  publicly 
that  the  Democracy  are  in  power  for  the  first  time  in  eighteen 
years,  and  they  do  not  intend  to  stop  until  they  have  wiped 
out  every  vestige  of  every  war  measure.  .  .  .  All  the  war 
measures  of  Abraham  Lincoln  are  to  be  wiped  out ! 

"  The  Bourbons  of  France  busied  themselves,  after  the  res 
toration,  in  removing  every  trace  of  Napoleon's  power  and 
grandeur,  even  chiselling  the  c  N '  from  public  monuments 
raised  to  perpetuate  his  glory  ;  but  the  dead  man's  hand  from 
St.  Helena  reached  out  and  destroyed  them  in  their  pride  and 
in  their  folly.  Let  the  Senators  on  the  other  side  of  this 
chamber  remember,  let  the  Democratic  party  North  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  449 

South  remember,  that  the  tomb  of  the  martyred  President  on 
the  prairies  of  Illinois  is  not  less  sacred  or  less  potent  with  the 
American  people  than  was  the  dust  of  Napoleon  to  the  France 
that  he  loved ! 

During  Mr.  Elaine's  senatorship  a  strange   and  threatening 
cloud   appeared  in    the  West   and  quickly  overshadowed    the 
country.     The  advent  of  the  Chinese  had  begun  quietly,  with 
out  observation,  without  opposition.     It  was  simultaneous  with 
the  advent  of  the  American  citizen  in  California.     In  process 
of  time  it  came  to  be  not  unattended  with  pomp  and  circum 
stance.     The  Chinese  Embassy,  under  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Bur- 
lingame,  was  a  stately  and  stirring  historical  romance.     None 
tlnTless,  the  Mongolian   was  an  element   alien   to  Republican 
civilization,  unassimilated  if  not  unassimilable,  and  violence  was 
soon  developed.     But  violence  is  itself  only  a  symptom,  not  a 
recourse,  in  republics.     The  Legislature  of  California  took  up 
the    matter    in    the    orderly   American  fashion    and  prohibited 
Chinese  immigration.     The  courts  pronounced  this  unconstitu 
tional,  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Senate  in  the  shape  of 
a  proposal  to  abrogate  so  much  of   the  Burlingame  treaty  as 
permitted  the  free  immigration  of  Chinese.     Mr.  Blame  planted 
the  standard  at  once  on  strong,  high,  broad  ground.    He  declared 
for  restriction  of  the  immigration,  maintaining  the  right  to  do  so 
from  the  highest  international  law  founded  on  the  natural  laAV  of 
self-preservation.     The  expediency  of  doing  it  he  deduced  from 
the  actual  results  of  the  immigration,  and  its  presage  of    wide 
disaster  to  the  American  freeman  and  the  American  home.     Of 
this  ground  the  nation  is  just  entering  into  peaceful  occupation, 
but  on  that  day  he  entered  it  alone.     Only  the  Pacific  States, 
under  the  blight,  cried  out  for  relief  ;  but  to  the  East,  which  had 
felt  no  evil,  Mr.  Blame's  position  meant  a  wanton  reversal  of 
the  policy  of  the  fathers,  a  sweeping  away  of  the  ancient  land 
marks.     To  the  churches  it  seemed  a  reflection  upon  the  power 
of  religion,  an  insult  to  missionary  spirit  and  life      The  South 
saw  a  race  trouble  that  was  not  African,  and  could  not  resist 
the  pleasure  of    a  taunt.     The    Abolitionists   feared   that    the 
North  was  countenancing  against  the  Chinese  the  same  tyranny 
that  the  South  had  practised  on  the  negro,  and  trembled.     Mr. 


450  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

Elaine's  honored  friend  and  co-laborer,  Mr.  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  was  moved  to  public  remonstrance.  Against  them 
all,  in  the  Senate  and  outside  the  Senate,  with  voice  and  pen  Mr. 
Blaine  stood  unmoved.  He  did  not  believe  that  the  problems  of 
the  Old  World  are  to  be  solved  by  complicating  the  problems 
of  the  New  World.  From  passing  facts,  from  history,  from  the 
conclusions  of  reason  on  law  and  on  religion,  towards  the 
Chinese  and  towards  the  American,  lie  drew  one  lesson,  main 
tained  one  position,  —  if  the  admonitions  of  our  own  history 
were  anything  to  us,  we  should  regard  the  race  trouble  as  the 
one  thing  to  be  dreaded,  the  one  thing  to  be  avoided. 

"  We  have  this  day  to  choose  whether  we  shall  have  for  the 
Pacific  coast  the  civilization  of  Christ  or  the  civilization  of 
Confucius.  .  .  . 

"  The  allegation  that  the  exclusion  of  the  Chinese  is  inhumane 
and  unchristian  need  not  be  considered  in  presence  of  the  fact 
that  their  admission  to  the  country  provokes  conflicts  which  the 
laws  are  unable  to  restrain. 

"  The  wealthy  classes  in  a  republic  where  suffrage  is  univer 
sal  cannot  safely  legislate  for  cheap  labor. 

"Nowhere  on  earth  has  free  labor  been  brought  in  competition 
with  any  form  of  servile  labor,  in  which  the  free  labor  did  not 
comedown  to  the  level  of  the  servile  labor.  .  .  .  The  lower 
strata  pull  down  the  upper.  The  upper  never  elevate  the 
lower. 

"  1  feel  that  1  am  pleading  the  cause  of  the  free  American 
laborer,  and  of  his  children,  and  of  his  children's  children,  the 
cause  of  4  the  house  against  the  hovel,  of  the  comfort  of  the 
freeman  against  the  squalor  of  the  slave.' '' 

Of  all  the  opposition  which  Mr.  Blaine  met  in  his  political 
course,  the  opposition  to  his  Chinese  policy  was  perhaps  the 
most  sincere,  conscientious,  universal,  and  wrong-headed.  It 
was  the  opposition  of  profound  ignorance,  but  an  ignorance  the 
rather  to  be  expected  because  no  draft  had  ever  been  made 
upon  knowledge.  The  exigency  was  new.  Ignorance  could  only 
bring  forward  the  general  arguments  of  ignorance,  the  universal- 
asylum  theory,  the  one-blood  theory.  It  confounded  distinc 
tions  in  blind  and  anxious  precipitancy ;  denounced  restriction 
in  China  as  persecution  in  California;  counted  observance  of 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  451 

the  law  of  nature  as  violation  of  the  law  of  nations ;  and  in  the 
attempt  to  place  justice  on  a  firm  foundation  of  truth  saw 
only  the  coronation  of  injustice  by  force  and  fraud  and  greed. 
Against  this  clamor  Mr.  Elaine's  voice  seemed  like  that  of 
one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  wilderness  only  answered 
hack  with  shouts  about  union  with  hoodlums  and  sandlots,  with 
sneers  at  bids  for  the  presidency ;  but  to-day  the  poets  are  call 
ing  upon  patriots  to 

*'  Stand  in  double  trust, 
Guardians  of  liberty  and  of  the  right 
Against  the  myriads  that  swarming  come 
From  the  dark  pestilential  dens  which  reek 
With  all  the  Old  World's  foulness," 

and  the  religious  journals  that  were  bitterest  against  Mr.  Elaine 
now  fortify  his  positions  by  long  arguments  from  learned 
professors. 

In  the  autumn  of  1879,  he  achieved  a  success  so  complete 
as  to  veil  the  magnitude  of  the  task  accomplished.  Much  of 
his  life  was  applied  to  attracting  and  fastening  men's  attention 
in  new  directions,  to  breaking  ground  in  new  fields,  —  a  work 
so  difficult  and  prolonged  that  the  closer  cultivation  had  to 
be  assigned  to  later  hands.  This  work,  on  the  contrary,  was 
short,  concentrated,  an  Iliad-in-nuce,  touching  the  very  founda 
tions  of  social  self-government,  representing  in  little  —  yet  in 
as  large  an  area  as  Troy  —  all  that  is  menacing  and  all  that  is 
promising  in  our  institutions.  In  nothing  did  he  ever  show 
comprehension  more  quick  and  wide,  a  bolder  grasp,  that  un- 
swervingness  of  purpose  which  is  named  courage,  inexhaustible 
wealth  of  resource,  ability  to  cope  with  a  situation  full  of  del 
icacy  and  full  of  danger,  and  to  conquer  it  by  sheer  moral  force, 
the  supreme  mastery  of  intellect  and  will.  His  knowledge  of 
men  inspired  combinations  which  justified  his  forecast  of  what 
they  could  do,  and  his  inflexible  yet  intangible  pressure  that 
they  should  do  it.  But  it  is  a  history  that  must?  forever  remain 
without  a  historian.  A  mere  outline  is  alone  possible. 

The  annual  State  election  in  Maine  on  Sept.  8,  1879,  was 
hotly  contested.  The  vote  of  the  September  and  October 


452  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

States  is  of  especial  importance.  The  Administration  policy 
of  1876-77  weakening  the  Republican  party  everywhere  and 
everywhere  reviving  Democratic  hopes,  the  Administration  ap 
pealed,  though  unnecessarily,  to  Mr.  Blaine.  A  member  of  the 
Cabinet  wrote  him  in  July: 

"We  must  carry  this  election  both  in  Maine  and  Ohio.  It  is 
the  turning  campaign  in  our  time." 

Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne,  forgetting  some  interesting  points 
of  recent  history,  adjured  Mr.  Blaine  to  "go  to  the  people 
on  the  only  real  question,  Shall  the  government  of  the 
country  be  turned  over  to  the  rebels  ?  Cry  aloud 

and  spare  not.  .  .  .  Make  your  campaign  to  the  last 
degree  aggressive.  Don't  stop  to  reply  to  the  greenback 
babble,  but  attack  the  rebels  along  the  whole  line.  .  .  . 
We  cannot  afford  to  lose  Maine  this  year  —  have  a  greenback 
Governor  and  a  copperhead  United  States  Senator.  In  such 
an  event  I  would  want  to  burn  down  the  Norlands  and  never 
return  again  to  the  State."  Others,  prominent  Republicans, 
took  a  different  view : 

"Are  you  sure  that  your  political  prospects  depend  upon 
Maine  going  Republican  this  time  ?  Is  not  the  party  almost 
too  sure  of  your  State?  Would  it  not,  after  all,  be  just  as  well 
for  us  to  say  in  1880,  when  the  convention  meets,  that  Maine 
is  doubtful,  that  it  must  be  carried,  anil  that  there  is  but  one 
man  who  can  do  it,  and  that  is  Blaine  ?  Suppose  Ohio  should 
go  Democratic  and  Maine  Republican,  would  any  gentleman 
from  Maine  receive  the  nomination  ? " 

This,  however,  was  not  in  Mi1.  Blaine's  line  of  action  or 
thought. 

In  Maine  a  third  party  was  in  the  field,  known  as  the  Fusion- 
ists,  —  "greenback"  or  "fiat-money"  Republicans,  —  ready,  as 
the  name  suggests,  to  combine  with  the  Democrats  whenever  it 
might  seem  desirable.  The  election  showed  a  great  Republican 
triumph.  The  popular  vote  had  not  indeed  chosen  a  governor 
—  only  carried  the  election  into  the  Legislature;  but  although 
the  official  returns  are  not  declared  until  the  first  Wednesday 
of  January,  when  they  are  laid  before  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  by  the  Governor  and  Council,  the  popular  vote  was 
so  openly  and  minutely  reported  by  the  press  and  accepted  by 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  453 

the  people,  that  there  was  no  doubt,  since  a  Republican  majority 
was  returned  to  both  Senate  and  House. 

The  Constitution  of  Maine  requires  that  "  fair  copies  of  the 
lists  of  votes  shall  be  attested  by  the  selectmen  and  town  clerks 
of  towns,  and  assessors  of  plantations,  and  sealed  up  in  open 
town  and  plantation  meetings  ;  and  the  town  and  plantation 
clerks,  respectively,  shall  cause  the  same  to  be  delivered  into  the 
secretary's  office  thirty  days  at  least  before  the  first  Wednesday 
in  January,  annually.  And  the  governor  and  council  shall 
examine  the  returned  copies  of  such  lists,  and  also  all  lists  of 
votes  of  citizens  in  the  military  service  returned  to  the  secre 
tary's  office,  and  twenty  days  before  the  said  first  Wednesday 
of  January,  annually,  shall  issue  a  summons  to  such  persons  as 
shall  appear  to  be  elected  by  a  plurality  of  all  the  votes  returned, 
to  attend  and  take  their  seats.  But  all  such  lists  shall  be  laid 
before  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  first  Wednesday  of 
January,  annually,  and  they  shall  finally  determine  who  are 
elected."  The  same  provision  is  made  in  case  of  Senators,  and 
the  manner  of  making  up  the  returns  is  the  same  in  the  cities 
of  the  State. 

Soon  after  the  election,  rumors  that  the  Republican  majority 
was  to  be  counted  out  created  great  excitement.  Mr.  Blaine 
was  in  Boston  when  Emmons  came,  bringing  as  a  bit  of  in 
credible  political  gossip  the  hint  of  such  an  attempt.  Mr. 
Blaine  whistled  it  down  the  wind,  yet  Emmons  was  so  sure 
footed  that  his  father  was  uneasy.  He  stayed  that  night  in 
a  country-house  near  Boston  where  he  was  very  much  at 
home,  and  he  spent  the  evening  pacing  back  and  forth  through 
the  rooms,  occasionally  whistling  a  bar,  smiling  abstractedly 
or  giving  a  cheerful  but  detached  answer  when  addressed. 
The  next  day  he  went  home  and  remained  there  till  the  incip 
ient  revolution  was  suffocated  and  the  legitimate  Legislature 
installed. 

The  early  rumors  ripened  into  ugly  facts.  Returns  had  been 
tampered  with.  Defective  returns  from  places  giving  Fusion 
majorities  were  destroyed,  and  replaced  by  completed  returns, 
while  defective  returns  disclosing  Republican  majorities  were 
retained.  The  names  of  selectmen  were,  Avithout  their  knowl 
edge  or  consent,  signed  to  fraudulent  returns.  Names  of 


454  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Republican  candidates  were  erased  and  names  incorrectly  given 
were  inserted,  whereby  the  true  vote  was  lost.  An  H  as  the 
initial  letter  of  the  middle  name  would  be  changed  into  an  A 
by  giving  a  curved  top  to  the  H,  the  different  color  of  the  ink 
and  the  line  of  joinder  between  the  letter  and  amendment  being 
clearly  definable.  By  such  means  the  Senate  was  to  be  given 
to  the  Fusionists,  the  House  to  the  Democrats. 

The  wrath  of  the  Republicans  was  hot.  It  would  have  been 
bad  enough  to  be  voted  out.  They  utterly  refused  to  be  counted 
out.  The  national  Congress  assembled,  but  Mr.  Blaine  stayed 
in  Maine.  The  State  Committee,  the  legislators-elect,  the 
lawyers  whom  they  retained,  urged  Mr.  Blaine  to  remain  and 
"  see  them  through."  During  the  whole  struggle  his  house, 
next  the  State  House,  was  the  headquarters  of  the  forces  of  law 
and  order,  the  fortress  whence  the  fight  was  made.  The  State 
House  was  held  by  the  fraudulent  Fusion  Legislature,  guarded 
by  the  Democratic  Governor  and  Council.  Arms  were  secured 
and  ammunition  was  stored.  Springfield  and  Enfield  rifles, 
loaded  with  nails  and  cut  lead,  were  placed  in  the  Adjutant- 
General's  room,  and  in  the  library  of  the  State  House.  Law 
less  "  roughs  and  shoulder  hitters "  from  prisons  and  jails 
were  stationed  under  arms  and  drilled  by  night.  There  was 
desperate  danger.  The  younger  Republicans  Avere  ready,  eager, 
to  fight.  Their  resentment  at  being  supposed  capable  of  sub 
mitting  to  this  glaring  fraud  was  continually  at  the  kindling 
point.  Many  Republicans  outside  the  State, —  and  some  even 
within  the  State,  —  fearing  the  stain  of  blood  in  Northern  poli 
tics,  counselled  a  present  yielding,  to  be  avenged  by  an  over 
whelming  vote  against  the  fraud  at  the  next  election.  Mr. 
Blaine  saw  no  reason  for  delay.  No  subsequent  election  could 
have  more  claim  than  the  election  already  held.  But  all  his 
nature  was  against  an  appeal  to  the  illogical  test  of  physical 
force  —  an  appeal  which  in  itself  sounded  the  defeat  of  the 
higher  force.  To  a  solution  peaceful  and  just  he  bent  every 
energy. 

His  chief  fear  was  lest  a  chance  shot  should  precipitate  an 
unintended  conflict.  That  harm  should  come  to  himself  never 
seemed  to  enter  his  mind,  could  not  be  got  into  his  mind.  It 
was  preoccupied.  People  thronged  to  his  house  day  and  night. 


BIOGEAPHY    OF    JANES    G.    ELAINE.  455 

Locks  and  keys  became  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  door-bells 
ceased  to  ring  and  men  walked  in  at  will,  an  almost  contin 
uous  procession  passing  through  the  long  corridor  that  led  from 
the  front  door  to  his  library  in  the  rear.  Not  a  depredation 
was  ever  committed  —  only  the  necessary  wear  and  tear  of 
carpets  had  a  tale  to  tell.  Even  the  children's  play  was  not 
disturbed  by  all  the  crowds.  In  the  quasi  privacy  of  a  corner 
of  the  long  double  dining-room  where  the  children  played, 
Mr.  Elaine  was  one  day  found  writing  an  important  paper. 
"  How  can  you  write  with  these  children  here  ? "  asked  the 

seeker. 

-  It  is  because  they  are  here  that  I  can  write,"  was  the  quick 

answer. 

Many  men  came  from  a  distance,  and  to  save  time  were  fed  at 
the  house.  The  chief  cook  was  a  Southern  colored  woman 
whose  courage  rose  and  fell  with  the  political  phases.  When 
success  perched  on  Republican  banners,  she  cooked  day  and 
night  with  no  apparent  regard  to  diurnal  revolutions  in  earth 
or  heaven.  When  the  battle  seemed  to  falter,,  all  her  heart  and 
strength  failed.  Corning  into  the  dining-room  one  midnight, 
Emmons  found  his  mother  giving  orders  regarding  a  fresh 
arrival  of  men  who  had  come  in  on  the  night  express. 
am  really  afraid,  most  of  all,  that  Caroline  will  give  out." 
"  Go  to  bed,  mother,"  commanded  Emmons  gayly,  "  and  send 
Caroline  to  bed.  I  will  engineer  this  party  through  "  -  which 
he  did,  and  they  all  ate  and  were  filled! 

Another  night,  looking  from  her  window,  Mrs.  Blaine  was 
startled   at  seeing  a  long  line  of  men  dimly  outlined  against 
the  fence,  between  the  house  and  the  State  House.     In  a  mo 
ment   a  cordial,  unknown  voice   called  through   the  darkness, 
"  We  are  all  friends,  Mrs.  Blaine."     There  had  been  reports  of 
a  meditated  attack  upon  the  house,  and  a  well-armed  corps  had 
summoned  and  stationed  themselves  to  meet  it.     It  never  came. 
Mr.  Elaine's   theory  was  that  with  thorough  preparation  it 
never  would  come.     The  whole  country-side  was  a  volunteer 
camp    and   council   ready   for   emergency.      When   men   were 
wanted,  messengers  were  ready  to  go  for  them  by  day  or  by 
night.     Sleighs  and  snow-shoes  defied  even  the  darkness  of  a 
Maine  winter.     Horses  and  riders  might  flounder  and  upset  in 


456  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

snow-drifts,  but  they  rolled  out,  righted  themselves,  and  went 
on.  No  questions  were  asked  at  the  silent  houses  —  scarcely  a 
stop  was  necessary.  It  was  only  to  awake  the  sleepers.  A 
tousled  head  would  be  thrust  from  an  opened  window  just  far 
enough  to  shout  "  I'll  be  down,"  the  window  closed,  and  the 
Paul  Reveres  sped  to  the  next  house. 

The  Republicans  upbore  their  cause  with  splendid  devotion  and 
self-control.  The  fighting-men  were  restrained  with  the  assur 
ance  that  in  the  last  resort  they  should  be  appealed  to  ;  but  the 
last  resort  was  never  reached.  The  mob  was  confronted  by 
the  appointed  servants  of  law.  Their  turbulent  leaders  quailed 
before  the  calm,  authoritative  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
The  highest  moral  forces  of  society,  mobilized  by  a  directing 
hand  for  the  defeat  of  lawlessness,  converged  upon  the  proud 
old  State  House,  slowly  but  firmly,  and  finally  pressed  out  the 
fraudulent  Legislature  upon  the  sidewalk,  —  where  it  quickly 
succumbed  to  the  sting  of  epithet,  disappeared  under  the  rattle 
of  ridicule,  —  installed  the  legal  Legislature  in  its  rightful  place, 
and  resumed  their  calm,  strong  flow. 

The  victories  of  peace  are  celebrated  with  less  blare  than 
those  of  war,  but  they  are  not  less  signal  —  they  are,  perhaps, 
more  fruitful.  When  Mr.  Elaine  went  back  to  the  Senate  he 
went  with  no  parade,  but  he  wore  the  laurels  of  a  State  twice 
victorious  —  once  over  ignorance,  once  over  fraud. 

Senator  Frye  before  a  national  convention  pictured  the  peril 
and  the  rescue  as  a  ship  in  a  night-storm  "  freighted  Avith  all 
that  is  precious  in  the  principles  of  our  republic  ;  with  the 
rights  of  the  American  citizenship,  with  all  that  is  guaranteed 
to  the  American  citizen  by  our  Constitution.  The  eyes  of  the 
whole  nation  were  on  her,  and  intense  anxiety  filled  every 
American  heart  lest  the  grand  old  ship,  the  'State  of  Maine,' 
might  go  doAvn  beneath  the  waves  forever,  carrying  her  precious 
freight  with  her.  But  there  was  a  man  at  the  helm,  calm, 
deliberate,  commanding ;  sagacious,  he  made  even  the  foolish 
man  wise  ;  courageous,  he  inspired  the  timid  with  courage  ; 
hopeful,  he  gave  heart  to  the  dismayed,  and  he  brought  that 
good  old  ship  safely  into  harbor,  into  safety ;  and  she  floats  to 
day  greater,  purer,  stronger,  for  her  baptism  of  danger.  That 
man  was  heroic,  and  his  name  was  James  G.  Blaine." 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  457 

It  will  have  been  seen  that  Mr.  Elaine's  methods  in  the 
Senate,  as  in  the  House,  were  distinctively  his  own.  Before 
taking  part  in  debate  he  had  made  careful  observations.  u  I 
think,"  he  wrote  soon  after  his  entrance,  when  I  get  my  bear 
ings  and  distances  and  feel  at  home  in  my  seat,  I  shall  find 
debating  in  the  Senate  very  easy.  There  are  few  there  that 
are  good  at  catching  on  the  fly.  The  House  training  makes 
a  man  so  much  more  ready,  alert,  and  prepared  than  the 
slow  methods  of  the  Senate.  I  am  feeling  my  way  very 
cautiously  and  do  not  propose  to  lose  any  points." 

But  he  could  not  be  other  than  himself.  His  way  was 
straight.  Roundabout  approaches  were  utterly  foreign  to  him. 
Elaborate  statements  of  admitted  positions  seemed  a  waste  of 
time.  Verbal  inflations  he  was  fain  to  puncture  011  the  spot. 
A  built-up  dignity  had  to  him  something  comical.  Its  humor 
or  homeliness  never  prevented  him  from  using  an  illustra 
tion  that  came  ready  to  his  hand,  and  if  the  adoption  of  a 
popular  phrase  would  sharpen  a  point  he  did  not  hesitate. 
This  readiness  was  accompanied  not  only  by  a  comprehending 
knowledge  of  the  large  reaches  of  history,  but  a  portentous 
memory  of  minor  and  chiefly  forgotten  details,  which  made  him 
formidable  even  at  u  catching  on  the  fly."  A  date  half-hidden 
on  a  moss-grown  grave-stone,  never  became  moss-grown  in  his 
mind,  and  an  old  grave-yard  within  reach  of  any  ride  or  ramble 
he  would  not  leave  unvisited,  even  if  he  had  to  climb  the  walls 
and  part  the  brambles  and  cut  away  the  mosses  to  inspect  its 
consecrated  records. 

When  Senator  Hill,  of  Georgia,  would  divest  himself  of  the 
guilt  of  secession,  reading  in  the  Seriate  from  his  own  letters 
before  secession  —  "I  will  consent  to  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union  as  I  would  consent  to  the  death  of  my  father,  never  from 
choice,  only  from  necessity,  and  then  in  sorrow  and  sadness  of 
heart  "  —  Mr.  Elaine  brought  up  Georgia's  vote  for  the  ordi 
nance  of  secession,  208  for,  among  which  was  Mr.  Hill's,  89 
against.  "  The  Senator  from  Georgia,"  he  commented,  "  who 
would  consent  to  it  just  as  he  would  to  the  death  of  his  father, 
made  up  his  mind  that  if  two  hundred  and  eight  men  wanted 
to  murder  the  old  man,  he  would  join  with  them.  Rather  than 
be  in  a  minority,  he  would  join  the  murderous  cr6wd  and  be  a 


458  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

parricide."  And  the  tumultuous  laughter  and  applause,  if  not 
senatorial,  were  all  on  the  side  of  the  Union  and  the  Consti 
tution. 

If  the  question  was  for  a  floor  for  the  National  Museum,  he 
threw  the  economy  of  a  concrete  floor  to  the  winds,  thought  it 
scorn  for  a  great  nation  to  indulge  in  the  demagogue's  saving, 
and  paved  the  nation's  floors  with  befitting  marble  tiles. 

An  Indian  war  he  would  thrust  back  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye.  u  Sensitiveness  between  two  great  nations  is  a  point  that 
must  always  be  held  at  the  point  of  the  sword.  Between  the 
United  States  with  50,000,000  and  4,000  Utes  in  the  mountains 
of  Colorado  there  can  be  no  question  of  dignity.  Whatever 
our  theory  of  their  treatment,  the  most  expensive  of  all  is  treat 
ing  them  by  war." 

When  a  Democratic  Senator  quoted  Daniel  Webster  as  hav 
ing  called  this  country  "  a  confederacy  of  States,"  "  a  confed 
eration  of  States,"  " a  compact"  and  "a  compact  between  the 
States,"  Mr.  Elaine  not  only  disputed  the  quotation  and  defied 
its  production,  but  traced  the  error  to  its  source,  and  made  the 
citation  thenceforth  impossible  to  any  intelligent  and  honorable 
man.  It  was  a  work  not  less  significant  than  congenial,  for 
the  National  Sovereignty,  its  grandeur  and  glory  Avere  the  ideal 
of  his  political  life.  With  truth  and  heart  could  he  have 
adopted  as  his  own  the  lofty  declaration  of  Daniel  Webster: 
"  The  preservation  of  the  Union,  the  maintenance  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  the  advancement  of  the  country  to  still  higher 
stages  of  prosperity  and  renown  have  constituted  my  polar  star 
during  the  whole  of  my  political  life." 

But  to  the  frequent  charge  brought  against  him  in  the  Senate, 
as  in  the  House,  that  he  had  a  habit  of  interrupting  speakers, 
his  closest  friends,  if  candid,  must  do  what  he  never  would  do, 
plead  guilty.  He  was  so  brimming  with  information,  he  was  so 
keen-scented  for  a  fallacy,  that  it  seemed  impossible  not  to  give 
chase  at  once  to  a  false  statement,  not  to  run  down  a  limping 
syllogism,  and  he  thought  time  lagged  withal  between  the  scent 
and  the  start.  Mr.  Blaine  did  interrupt,  and  with  a  frequency 
proportioned  to  his  interest  in  the  theme  under  discussion  rather 
than  to  the  custom  of  the  Senate,  and  the  Senate  bore  his 
marauding  with  as  good  grace  as  could  be  expected,  taking 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  459 

revenge  as  opportunity  offered.  Mr.  Blame  having  once  asked 
permission  in  the  decorous  senatorial  way,  of  Mr.  Carpenter, 
received  answer,  "  I  have  never  known  that  Senator  restrained 
by  any  rule  from  saying  anything  he  wanted  to  say,  and  I 
certainly  desire,  as  far  as  I  am  personally  concerned,  to  release 
him  now." 

On  another  occasion  the  same  Senator  asked  the  presiding 
officer,  "Who  has  the  floor?" 

u  The  Senator  from  Wisconsin  is  entitled  to  the  floor." 
"  I  was  getting  so  much  in  doubt  about  it  that  I  thought 
probably  I  was  intruding  upon  the  Senator  from  Maine,"  and 
perhaps  no  one  joined  in  the  laugh  that  followed  such  sallies 
with  keener  appreciation  than  Mr.  Elaine.  "There,"  ex 
claimed  his  good  friend,  Mr.  Thurman,  himself  provoked  out 
of  senatorial  dignity  —  "  there  is  another  example  of  the  mode 
of  the  Senator  from  Maine.  Without  asking  my  leave  he 
springs  to  his  feet  and  interjects  a  speech  of  his  right  into  the 
midst  of  my  remarks.  It  may  be  right,  but  it  is  not  the  usage 
of  the  Senate,  never  was  before  the  Senator  came  into  this  body." 

"  If  I  were  a  betting  man,"  growled  the  same  Senator  on  a 
similar  occasion,  in  whose  growl,  however,  there  was  always  an 
undertone  of  amused  good-nature,  a  twinkle  of  friendly  fun 
beneath  his  shaggy  eyebrows,  "  which  I  am  not,  I  would  give 
longer  odds  than  were  ever  given  011  the  race-course,  that  there 
will  not  be  a  Senator  who  will  speak  in  favor  of  this  bill,  that 
the  Senator  from  Maine  will  not  stick  his  speech  right  in  the 
centre  of  the  speech  of  the  Senator  who  is  speaking,  and  do  it 
more  than  once." 

Setting  an  example,  the  Senator  from  Delaware  asked : 

"  Would  it  be  agreeable  to  the  Senator  for  me  to  make  a 
remark  ?  " 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  Of  course. 

Mr.  BAYARD.  —  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  for  me  to  gauge  the 
motives  or  describe  the  intent  of  the  honorable  Senator  from 
Maine  — 

Mr.  BLAINE.  —  Nor  would  it  be  parliamentary  ! 

All  pretence  of  being  a  lawyer  Mr.  Blaine  disavowed  with  a 
frankness  which  sometimes  misled  men  into  discovering  limi 
tations  that  might  never  have  been  discovered  if  he  had  not 


4HO  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

himself  disclaimed  legal  pretension ;  and  many  an  opponent 
formed  the  habit  of  Richter's  Titan,  "  when  an  open-hearted 
soul  showed  him  its  breaches  of  marching  in  upon  it  through 
those  breaches,  as  if  he  himself  had  made  them."  Yet  they 
were  not  wholly  without  provocation.  Mr.  Elaine's  disclaimers 
were  often  precursors  of  trouble. 

"  I  feel  very  modest  about  correcting  the  gentleman  upon  a 
question  of  law"  — but  it  was  observed  that  if  he  hesitated,  he 
gave  himself  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  and  made  the  correction. 

"  The  gentleman  is  a  distinguished  lawyer.  I  am  not  a  lawyer 
at  all,  and  I  would  like  to  ask"  —  a  question  that  was  haply 
embarrassing  even  to  a  distinguished  lawyer. 

"If  I  were  a  lawyer  I  should  say"  -what  was  just 'as  much 
to  the  legal  point  as  if  he  had  been  a  lawyer.  In  fact,  he  had 
had  the  signal  advantage  of  two  years'  legal  training  and  legal 
study  without  that  narrowing  effect  of  legal  practice  which  in 
his  day  caused  it  to  be  said  of  a  famous  Senator  that  he  would 
have  been  a  great  man  if  he  had  not  been  a  great  lawyer. 

When  Mr.  Blame  dared  to  say  of  an  eminent  lawyer  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Chamber,  that  "  he  was  arguing  this  great 
question  as  if  we  were  restrained  by  the  narrowest  dogmas  of 
the  law,"  -  —  it  was  high  time  that  lie  should  be  taught  to  know 
his  place. 

A  combination  was  formed  in  the  Senate  to  teach  him.  At 
least  such  was  the  report  that  flew  around  Washington  one 
morning  and  sent  every  free  agent  in  town  to  the  Senate 
Chamber.  The  point  under  discussion  was  whether  a  part  of 
the  Alabama  award  money  should  be  paid  to  the  insurance 
companies,  or  to  the  ship-owners.  The  great  lawyers  of  the 
Senate  were  on  the  side  of  the  insurance  companies.  Mr.  Elaine 
agreed  with  his  friend  Mr.  Frye  who  had  charge  of  the  bill  in 
the  House  and  who  fought  it  through  both  House  and  Senate 
to  final  success,  that  those  companies  were  reimbursed  for  their 
losses  by  the  high  rates  of  insurance  paid  during  the  war,  and 
that  the  ship  captains  and  owners  deserved  consideration.  The 
lawyers  were  confining  it  to  technical  legal  points,  thus  ruling 
out  lay  debate  and  presenting  a  felicitous  opportunity  for  Mr. 
Elaine  to  be  "put  down." 

"  I  have  been  often  reminded,"  said  Mr.  Elaine,  "  that  I  was 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES  G.    ELAINE.  461 

not  myself  a  lawyer  —  wit  that  it  seemed  to  me  would  have  been 
brighter  and  its  thrust  a  little  keener  if  I  had  ever  professed  to 
be  a  lawyer.  For  the  satisfaction  of  those  who  may  have  this 
killing  taunt  still  in  reserve,  I  beg  to  say  that  I  am  not  a  lawyer. 
I  never  was  in  court  as  an  attorney,  nor  as  a  plaintiff,  nor  as  a 
defendant,  nor  as  a  juror,  nor  as  a  witness.  In  that  vast  sea  of 
adventure  I  am  an  '  exculpated  cruiser.'  '  He  not  only  ridi 
culed  but  riddled  the  attempt  of  Senate  lawyers  to  discredit 
Caleb  Cushing's  conclusive  testimony  on  the  ill-starred  plea 
that  the  pamphlet  cited  in  Congress  as  Mr.  Cushing's  carried 
no  legal  proof  of  its  authenticity.  This  palpably  absurd  as 
sumption  he  buried  under  a  funeral  pile  of  testimony,  topped 
bv  the  decisive  word  from  that  other  brilliant  man  of  genius, 
dead  ere  his  prime,  Richard  Spofford,  who  was  watching  the 
fray,  and  whom  Mr.  Elaine  presented  as  qualified  and  entitled 
to  represent  Caleb  Gushing  by  study  of  law  in  his  office,  by  long 
personal  association,  by  intimate  relations  with  him  at  the  bar, 
his  clerk  when  he  was  Attorney-General.  Mr.  Spofford  affirmed 
"  that  the  opinion  was  not  only  Mr.  Cushing's,  but  was  given 
partly  at  my  instance,  and  was  reprinted  from  time  to  time  for 
Congress" 

The  careful  calculation  that  fixed  the  amount  of  the  Geneva 
award,  Mr.  Blaine  scattered  to  the  winds.  "  Great  Britain 
wanted  seven  millions  —  we  wanted  twenty-two  or  three. 
Stsempfli  went  up  into  a  high  mountain  in  Switzerland  for  six 
or  eight  weeks,  less  or  more  —  I  have  forgotten  what  the  period 
was  —  to  make  this  calculation,  and  after  he  had  taken  all  the 
elements  that  were  before  him,  what  result  did  he  produce  ? 
He  produced  exactly  the  result  that  an  Ohio  or  Maine  farmer 
would  have  produced  in  a  dispute  between  neighbors.  Chalk 
ing  on  the  barn-door,  he  split  the  difference.  In  my  judgment, 
there  never  was  anything  in  the  whole  process  but  an  old-fash 
ioned  chalking  on  the  barn-door."  He  apologized  for  having 
used  the  word  split  when  Mr.  Cushing's  book  said  dividing  — 
^  but  to  men  who  are  not  lawyers  it  means  the  same  thing." 
His  rapid  and  rattling  volleys  no  less  than  the  roar  of  his  heavi 
est  guns,  caused  a  lively  commotion  in  the  Senate,  and  there 
were  hurried  consultations  among  the  embattled  lawyers.  See 
ing  Senators  Carpenter  and  Thurman  with  their  heads  close 


462  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

together  in  conversation,  lie  drew  all  eyes  upon  them  —  "  I  am 
very  anxious  that  the  two  honorable  Senators  should  know  just 
what  Mr.  Gushing  said,  just  how  little  I  know  about  this  case." 

kt  It  is  not  possible  that  the  honorable  Senator  from  Ohio  who 
has  indulged  himself  often  in  the  little  wit  of  reminding  me  that 
I  am  not  a  lawyer,  asks  me  where  a  great  case  is  to  be  found !  " 

"  Mr.  Mori-ill's  proposition  to  join  —  I  will  use  a  legal  phrase 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Senator  from  Wisconsin,  —  4  jine  drives  ' 
as  the  lumbermen  say,  for  I  am  arguing  this  on  law  points." 

"  The  blind  idea  which  Mr.  Gushing  had,  that  the  persons  who 
had  actually  lost,  had  as  much  claim  on  this  fund  as  those  who 
had  actually  profited." 

"  The  Senator,  I  imagine,"  questioned  an  opponent  rather 
superciliously,  "has  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  the  right  of  subro 
gation?  "  -"I  heard  it  all  demolished  the  other  day  by  the 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,"  was  Mr.  Blaine's  instant  reply. 

He  was  even  spurred  on  by  the  spirit  of  the  occasion  to 
an  unusual  but  not  wholly  inartistic  self-reference.  "  f 
have  here  the  digest  of  the  opinions  of  the  Second  Comp 
troller  whose  decisions  settle  the  ownership  of  more  money 
than  all  the  Supreme  Court  decisions  of  the  country.  I  will 
read  from  it  for  the  instruction  of  the  honorable  Senator, 
and  I  mean  literally  for  his  instruction,  for  with  all  the  large 
learning  of  the  honorable  Senator  he  has  skimmed  over  the 
mere  superficial  facts  of  this  case,  and  I  say  to  him  that  as  a 
good  lawyer,  one  of  the  first  requirements  is  to  get  at  the 
facts,  and  the  Senator  does  not  understand  the  facts.  In  regard 
to  them,  I  will  venture  to  say  to  him  as  Mr.  Webster  said  in 
this  body  on  a  memorable  occasion,  4 1  am  to  be  inquired  of  by 
the  honorable  Senator,  and  not  informed.' " 


To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  Lot  M.  Merrill : 

PORTLAND,  August  22,  1877. 

DEAR  SENATOR,  —  I  have  your  despatch.     Don't  refuse  to  be  present  at 
an  old-fashioned  mass  meeting  at  Wayne  on  Monday  of  next  week. 
You  will  do  the  service —  I  the  benediction. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  463 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  Emmons  (returning  from  Europe)  : 

AUGUSTA,  August  31,  1877. 

Doubtful  if  this  reaches  you.  I  write  it  with'  Tom,  Jack,  Almet,  and 
Joe  Smith  in  the  library  sending  off  election  documents.  If  you  feel  like 
it  and  have  time,  hadn't  you  better  run  over  to  Queenstown,  taking  the 
steamer  there  and  getting  a  glimpse  of  Ireland?  I  merely  suggest  it. 
Do  as  you  please. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

FRIDAY  P.M.,  ON  TRAIN  NEAR  PORTLAND. 

What  I  wanted  you  to  tell  C.  is  to  leave  when  he  does  leave  on  10.17 
A.M.  train  and  telegraph  R.  at  Rye  Beach  to  meet  him  at  Portsmouth 
Depot  at  half-past  three.  Tell  C.  when  he  arrives  at  the  depot  just  to  wait 
in  gentlemen's  room,  as  R.  will  probably  not  drive  up  till  a  few  minutes 
after  the  train  is  gone.  Be  sure  and  keep  Miss  C.  for  a  day  or  two. 
Have  W.  get  up  a  croquet  or  archery  party  or  a  ride  or  drive  or  something 
of  the  kind.  Her  father  can  join  her  when  she  is  ready  to  leave  at  Ports 
mouth.  She  can  come  along  in  Pullman,  Walker  escorting  her  as  far  as 
Portland  and  putting  her  in  Pullman  car  there.  I  am  met  everywhere  by 
everybody  with  a  perfect  shower  of  congratulations  on  all  hands.  I  find 
yesterday  is  regarded  as  a  great  day  for  the  party  and  for  me.  It  is  the 
universal  theme  of  talk.  See  that  Fred  sows  more  grass-seed,  and  inquire 
of  George  W.  what  good  fertilizer  can  be  used  to  stimulate  the  bare 
places  —  something  not  visible  when  put  on.  Mr.  Roman  could  tell  you. 
Forward  my  mail  to-night,  including  what  may  come  at  8.  Send  me  the 
"  Lewiston  Journal  "  of  to-day —  and  keep  all  the  papers  carefully  to  send 
as  I  may  ask.  Write  a  line  to-night. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Judge    (afterwards  Secretary)   W.  II. 

Hunt : 

NEW  ORLEANS,  January  9,  1878. 

Allow  me  to  introduce  to  you  a  gentleman  in  every  way  entitled  to 
your  esteem  and  confidence.  A  Republican  in  his  politics,  he  had  the 
manhood  to  avow  openly  his  opinions  at  the  last  election  in  Louisiana. 
As  a  consequence  he  has  been  subjected  to  an  ostracism  so  cruel  as  to 
lead  him  to  abandon  his  birthplace  and  seek  a  new  home  in  the  far  West. 
I  hope  and  believe  you  may  have  it  in  your  power  to  render  him  some- 
service. 

From  V. : 

WASHINGTON,  February  23,  1878. 

Not  a  week  before  his  speech,  Mr.  Blame  was  published  in  the 
Washington  papers  as  a  played-out  man  with  a  nervous  system  as  weak 
as  a  woman's,  and  capable  only  of  spurts.  Since  then  little  has  been 
said  of  it. 


464  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

.  .  .  In  the  evening  several  gentlemen  were  here  working  on  the 
Railroad  Bill.  When  I  see  how  earnestly  and  honestly  these  men  are  de 
liberating  about  that  matter,  how  vast  are  the  interests  involved  ;  how 
laboriously  they  counsel  together,  far  into  the  night,  eager  of  course  for 
their  own  interests,  yet  studying  the  law  at  all  points,  the  flimsy  flings 
at  them  seem  beneath  contempt ! 

March  20.  ...  At  a  dinner  last  night,  at  my  left  was  Lamar,  of 
Mississippi,  who  is  a  dreamer,  a  vague  sort  of  man  with  the  temperament 
of  genius,  if  not  genius  itself,  full  of  real  timidity  and  self-mistrust,  has  to 
be  praised  a  great  deal  and  is  quite  dependent  on  your  kindness  in  company 

—  says,  "  I  never  was  angry  but  once  with  Mr.  Blaine,  whom  I  love  very 
much,  and  that  was  because  he  spoke  ill  of  a  friend  of  mine.     I  did  not 
dare  say  anything  for  fear  he  would  pounce  down  on  me,  so  I  took  it 
out  in  sulking.     I  did  not  speak  to  him  for  weeks.     He  did  not  know  it, 
nobody  knew  it,  but  I  did  not  speak  to  him." —  "  Who  was  the  friend?" 

—  "Jefferson  Davis." 

And  again  :  "  Mr.  Blaine,  now,  for  all  his  bouts  in  Congress,  hasn't  any 
malice,  hasn't  really  malice  enough.  But  for  mercy's  sake  don't  try  to 
put  it  into  him,  for  he  comes  down  on  persons  enough,  if  he  doesn't  always 
come  down  on  the  right  ones."  He  says  if  Colliding  should  speak  of 
him,  or  to  him,  as  he  does  to  some,  he  would  shoot  him  ;  that  life 
is  not  so  sacred  at  the  South  as  it  is  with  us  at  the  North,  and  he  would 
rather  shoot  a  man  or  be  shot  himself  than  to  be  told  that  he  stole. 
He  says  that  the  Chisholm  tragedy  cannot  be  exaggerated,  that  his 
constituency  is  not  intelligent,  but  that  they  never  meant  to  shoot  the 
girl.  ...  I  said  I  was  not  rich,  but  I  knew  how  to  be  poor.  He  said 
it  was  not  so  with  him,  lie  was  poor  and  did  not  know  how  to  be;  that 
was  the  reason  his  wife  was  not  with  him  here,  because  he  was  poor. 
He  lives  constantly  in  fear  of  brain  disease,  is  like  a  child,  sometimes 
utterly  depressed  in  spirits.  .Mr.  Phelps  was  asked  whom  he  would  like 
to  be  next  at  dinner,  and  he  said  Lamar,  as  he  knew  him  and  liked  him, 
but  Lamar  scarcely  spoke  to  him  all  dinner-time.  .  .  .  Dr.  Loringsays 
the  Rules  of  the  House  are  the  most  ingenious  invention  for  obstructing 
business  he  ever  saw,  and  the  ex-Speaker  tells  him  that  is  because  he  is  a 
new  member,  and  by  his  second  term  he  will  be  talking  about  the  ignorance 
of  the  new  fellows  who  can't  get  the  run  of  the  Rules. 

.  .  .  A.  speaks  of  one  day's  report  contradicting  another,  which  is 
true;  but  if  people  personally  friendly  make  such  mistakes,  what  can 
you  expect  of  people  that  are  bitterly  hostile  ?  Many  went  oft*  at  half-cock 
about  the  fisheries  matter,  not  in  the  least  knowing  what  they  were  talk 
ing  about.  Mr.  Blaine  had  been  at  the  State  Departments  and  examined 
the  papers,  and  knew  exactly  where  he  stood  before  he  began.  So  about 
the  timber  matter.  He  had  been  in  consultation  with  officials ;  he  had  the 
statistics  all  before  him ;  he  had  the  authority  of  the  delegate  and  a  petition 
from  five  thousand  citizens.  But  men  who  had  never  heard  of  the 
thinjj  till  he  opened  it  in  Congress,  instantly  began  their  random  fire 
with  no  real  knowledge  of  the  matter,  and  no  idea  that  Mr.  Blaine  had  any. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  465 

April  1.  ...  Mr.  W.  took  a  long  walk  with  Mr.  Elaine,  and  from  his 
entire  affection  for  him,  as  he  said,  and  as  I  fully  believe,  undertook  to  talk 
seriously  with  him  about  his  course,  asking  him  if  he  did  not  think  he  was 
making  himself  very  unpopular.  Mr.  Blaine  told  him  there  were  three 
courses  he  could  take.  He  could  speak  and  act  in  advocacy  of  measures 
and  policies  in  which  he  did  not  believe,  but  which  were  adopted  by  the 
administration,  and  so  get  praise  ;  or  he  could  suppress  his  convictions  and 
keep  still,  and  so  avoid  censure  ;  or  he  could  act  in  accordance  with  his  con 
victions  and  principles  for  what  seemed  to  him  the  best  service  of  the 
country,  let  come  what  would.  These  three  courses  were  alone  open  to 
him — which  would  Mr.  W.  have  him  take?  Of  course  there  was  but 
one  answer.  Then  he  asked  Mr.  W.  to  specify.  Of  course  the  timber  ques 
tion  was  one.  Mr.  Blaine  asked  him  how  he  accounted  for  the  fact  that 
the  Senate  passed  his  amendment  by  a  vote  of  forty-two  to  four,  which  is, 
I  think,  the  most  one-sided  of  any  vote  in  the  Senate  this  winter.  Then 
the  fisheries  question,  which  Mr.  Blaine  explained  to  him,  and  which 
seemed  to  be  a  new  revelation  to  him,  he  exclaiming,  "  Why,  they  don't 
understand  it  so  in  Boston  at  all."  Mr.  W.  is  the  warmest  personal  friend 
of  Mr.  Blaine  and  has  been  staunch  through  all.  .  .  .  Mr.  Bancroft 
cannot  understand  Mr.  Fish's  backdown  on  the  Delfosse  matter.  Mr. 
Fish  fought  Delfosse  through  the  whole  three  months,  and  then  changed 
so  suddenly  that  Sir  Edward  told  Mr.  Blaine  he  feared  he  must  suddenly 
have  discovered  some  special  reason  why  Delfosse  would  be  favorable  to 
America  and  against  England.  Mr.  Blaine  thinks  the  matter  utterlv  dis 
creditable  to  England.  .  .  .  Sir  Edward  Thornton  dined  here  Thursday 
night,  also  Caleb  Gushing,  Senator  Booth,  R.  S.  and  H.  P.  Spoftbrd,  Secre 
tary  Sherman,  Stanley  Matthews,  D.,  of  New  York,  and  W.  W.  Phelps,  Mrs. 
B.,  and  Mrs.  N.  Wasn't  it  a  menagerie  ?  Mr.  X.  was  away,  but  got  home  at 
3  A.M.,  and  came  in  after  breakfast  to  ask  how  his  wife  behaved,  and  when 
he  was  told  "  magnificently/1  said  it  was  only  out  of  respect  to  her  hosts,  or 
fear,  for  at  General  Burnside's  she  was  dreadful  —  heard  some  one  saying 
that  the  no  wine  at  the  White  House  was  a  matter  of  principle,  and  called  out 
from  the  other  end  of  the  table,  "  How  could  that  be  when  the  President  drank 
wine  at  Mr.  Bancroft's  the  other  night  and  drank  all  kinds  ?  "  There  was  dan 
ger  lest  Mrs.  N.  should  clawl").  for  her  husband's  sake,  but  she  was  gracious, 
went  out  with  Caleb  Gushing,  who  is  an  Anglo-phobiac,  and  was  put  as 
far  from  Sir  Edward  as  possible.  Of  course  Sir  Edward  was  there.  Mr. 
N.  said  "Blaine  was  almost  in  a  personal  quarrel  with  him,  so  they  could 
not  leave  him  out."  Sir  Edward  is  very  sensitive  about  the  fisheries  mat 
ter,  and  talked  about  it  a  good  deal  after  dinner,  and  Mr.  Blaine,  being 
his  host,  could  not  very  well  clapper-claw  him.  Stanley  Matthews's  last 
railroad  speech  in  the  Senate  was  considered  very  able.  Dick  Spofford 
sat  next  to  Sir  Edward  on  my  left,  and  is  very  fond  of  England,  and  Stan 
ley  Matthews  next  to  Phelps,  who  would  be  a  liberal,  and  next  to  Secre 
tary  Sherman,  whom  he  wanted  to  see  —  so  our  wild  beasts  all  kept  their 
claws  sheathed  and  we  had  a  very  interesting  table.  Mr.  (Z.)  Chandler 
says  we  shall  inevitably  lose  the  elections  this  fall,  but  sweep  the  country 


466  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    €.    BLAINE. 

in  1880 — that  he  has  his  finger  on  the  public  pulse  in  every  State;  that 
Hayes  told  Mr.  Cameron  and  himself  that  he  would  appoint  Christiancy  to 
Mexico  —  I  think  it  was  —  and  then  appointed  somebody  else,  because  said 
Mr.  C.  "  he  knew  that  the  Legislature  would  put  me  into  the  Senate  in 
about  one  minute.'1  Mr.  Chandler  told  the  Cabinet  the  way  they  were 
going  on  was  like  preparing  for  battle  by  killing  all  the  officers. 


To  Mi1.  Blaine,  from  Emmons  : 


PORCELLIAN    CLUB. 


.  .  .  I  have  seen  no  one  from  Maine  for  the  last  fortnight,  so  that  I 
have  no  idea  which  way  the  wind  is  blowing.  ...  I  am  getting  up  a 
speech  which  I  propose  delivering  in  the  backwoods  this  summer  under 
the  auspices  of  the  State  Committee,  provided  the  compensation  is  up  to 
my  price.  Seriously  I  should  like  to  try  my  wings  in  this  campaign. 
There  is  so  much  to  be  said  that  T  want  to  find  out  if  it  is  easy  to  say  it. 
Still  I  will  wait  till  I  see  you  before  I  arrange  appointments. 

Class  Day  comes  Friday  and  Commencement  the  Wednesday  following. 
I  suppose  I  shall  be  at  home  Saturday  week  at  latest.  .  .  .  Lest  I 
should  not  hit  you  again  with  my  letters,  will  you  please  send  me  a  check 
for  $350,  —  and  blessings  crown  your  parental  head  ? 

With  my  love  to  all  the  family  that  are  left  —  that  I  suppose  means  the 
young  attorney  only. 

From  Mr.  Blaine,  to  General  Garfteld  : 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  July  3,  1878. 

Our  State  Convention  will  meet  at  Portland,  Tuesday,  July  30. 

Call  enclosed.     You  must  come  and  help  us  start  the  campaign. 

We  want  you  to  talk  hard  money  and  skip  all  points  of  difference.  No 
Hayes  —  no  anti-Hayes.  Come  and  stay  with  us  a  good  part  of  August, 
or  as  long  as  you  can.  But  in  no  event  fail  to  come  to  the  State  Conven 
tion.  Let  me  announce  you  now.  We  will  give  you  a  royal  welcome. 

Let  me  hear  from  you  at  once. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

TUESDAY  NIGHT,  Ten  o'clock  —  July  14. 

I  went  to  Boston  yesterday  —  transacted  my  business  this  morning,  and 
started  for  home  on  the  noon  train,  12.30.  In  the  Boston  depot  met  Senator 
Sargent  en  route  to  Hampton  to  look  for  summer  quarters.  The  cars 
being  crowded,  we  took  the  rear  one,  expecting  to  change  at  Salem.  We 
fell  into  "animated  conversation,1'  reached  Lynn  without  noticing  it,  and 
as  nobody  seemed  to  leave  the  car,  I  thought  it  all  right —  till  I  looked  out 
and  saw  the  train  a  hundred  yards  off.  We  hail  got  into  a  Marblehead  car, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  467 

and  there  we  were  in  Lynn  at  1  P.M. ;  no  other  train  to  Portland  till  the 
sleeping-train  —  the  3.15  and  t>  trains  both  being  taken  oft*  under  the  new 
regime.  At  once  we  set  out  to  improve  the  situation ;  went  to  the  Saga 
more  and  lunched  ;  took  a  carriage  and  drove  over  on  the  Nahant  beach, 
and  got  back  in  time  to  take  a  train  to  Salem,  reaching  there  at  3 ;  then 
we  took  a  carriage  and  drove  to  Witch  Hill,  to  the  old  Custom-House, 
and  to  every  other  spot  in  Salem,  and  at  4.30  took  the  Conway  train,  Sar 
gent  getting  oft*  at  Hampton,  and  I  coming  up  here  to  spend  the  night,  and 
here  I  am  —  reaching  here  at  8.15.  I  shall  go  home  in  the  morning. 
Now,  wasn't  this  making  the  most  of  a  day?  Had  it  been  you,  you  would 
have  sat  down  and  cried. 

From  Walker : 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  July  25,  1878. 

DEAREST  MOTHER  :  We  are  back  safely  from  Sitka.  Let  me  give  you 
a  programme  of  the  trip.  We  stayed  in  Victoria  until  the  afternoon  of  the 
3d  of  July,  driving  around  the  town  and  going  to  Esquimault  Bay,  the  har 
bor  for  the  British  fleet,  where  we  visited  H.M.S.  "  Shall,"  which  puts  any 
vessel  of  the  United  States  to  shame,  though  she  is  only  a  light  armed  frig 
ate.  There  we  set  sail  for  Nanaimo,  where  we  spent  most  of  July  4. 
There  was  a  celebration  some  mile  or  two  from  the  town,  but  we  did  not 
have  time  to  go  out  to  see  it  as  the  hour  of  our  departure  was  uncertain. 
From  Nanaimo  we  went  to  Wrangel,  reaching  there  Sunday  the  7th.  At 
ten  o'clock  the  night  of  the  4th  we  went  through  Eucabale  Rapids  (now 
called  Simpson's  Narrows  —  a  change  for  the  worse).  The  scene  was  wild 
enough.  The  current  swept  along  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  miles 
per  hour,  and  our  boat  raced  madly.  The  foam  beat  on  the  rocks  on 
either  side,  and  the  high  hills  covered  with  pine  made  the  whiteness  of  the 
foam-beaten  phosphorescent  waves  all  the  more  vivid.  As  we  stood  on  the 
bridge  while  the  boat  seemed  just  to  avoid  striking  the  rocks,  I  could  only 
think  of  Mark  Twain's  frightful  oath,  '*  By  the  shadow  of  death  but  he's  a 
lightning  pilot ! ''  But  no  chains  parted  and  no  bolts  wrenched  asunder,  and 
so  we  avoided  the  fate  of  the  good  ship  "  Saranac,"  whose  bones  lie  like  Sir 
Patrick  Spen's,  full  fifty  fathom  deep.  Then  the  next  day  and  the  next  on  we 
went  through  narrow  channels  where  grim  giants  of  mountains  guard  the 
straits  on  either  hand,  where  the  solitude  is  so  intense  that  it  seems  as  though 
like  Coleridge's  mariner  we  were  the  first  who  ever  burst  into  that  silent 
sea,  past  mountains  whose  snow-topped  peaks  peer  out  from  under  the 
coverlid  of  clouds  as  though  they  were  seven  giant  sleepers,  whose  rest 
was  thus  trivially  and  rudely  broken  ;  past  young  Niagaras  without  a  name, 
past  golden  archipelagoes  ;  by  thousands  of  snow-capped  mountains,  through 
myriads  of  fir-covered  isles ;  but  everywhere  a  dead,  appalling  silence,  a 
gull  or  eagle  the  only  animal,  the  wake  of  the  '*  California"  the  only  trace 
of  life.  I  despair  of  conveying  any  impression  of  the  grandeur  of  the 
scenery,  any  idea  of  the  profundity  of  the  silence,  the  awe  of  the  solitude. 
Imagine  a  narrow  strait  one  hundred  miles  long,  bounded  on  either  side  by 


468  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE. 

mountains,  three  to  five  thousand  feet  high,  with  eternal  snow  on  their  sum 
mits,  clad  in  deep  green  fir ;  where  strips  of  white  marble  only  serve  to 
deaden  the  green  color  which  overspreads  hill  and  sea,  and  where  the  nar 
rowing  Symplegades  whiten  the  straits  of  Propontis  with  spray.  Imagine 
valleys  unexplored  as  grand  as  the  Yosemite,  mountains  uncl imbed  as  pre 
cipitous  as  Washington,  and  all  surrounded  by  the  Dead  Sea,  portentously 
calm,  lit  up  by  daylight  which  never  ceases,  so  that  the  sun  rises  in  the  east 
and  the  moon  in  the  west  at  the  same  time  while  you  sit  comfortably  read 
ing  on  deck  at  half-past  ten  at  night. 

We  reached  Wrangel  at  ten  o'clock  Sunday  morning,  a  wretched  place, 
nine-tenths  Indian,  one-tenth  white,  Indians  as  a  rule  the  better;  where 
we  saw  an  Indian  boy  tortured  beneath  the  cross  in  the  cemetery  for  witch 
craft,  and  heard  of  a  girl  drowned  two  days  before  for  the  same  reason. 
From  Wrangel  to  Sitka,  reaching  there  Monday.  We  only  stopped  at  that 
time  for  about  ten  minutes  and  then  went  to  a  cannery  some  six  miles  dis 
tant,  returning  to  Sitka  the  next  day.  At  Sitka  Tuesday  evening  we  had  a 
ball.  Present,  everybody  in  Sitka.  I  danced  with  an  Irishwoman,  and  the 
daughter  of  a  Russian  tailor,  with  Miss  Kastrikoff,  Mademoiselle  Kassia- 
baroflf,  Mein  Fraulein  Kastiernittenoff,  and  hobnobbed  with  butcher,  baker, 
and  candlestick-maker.  We  explored  Sitka,  and  I  have  a  box  of  curios 
which  I  hope  will  be  some  amusement  to  you. 

The  harbor  is  magnificent.  Alps  rise  on  Alps,  and  there  are  two  or  three 
barely  extinct  volcanoes.  The  town  is  wretched.  Such  a  state  of  things 
as  now  exist  in  Alaska  never  existed  before.  I  mean  to  scribble  something 
about  it  when  I  get  leisure  and  authorities,  so  I  now  forbear.  From  Sitka 
on  Wednesday  to  Klahwach,  reaching  there  Thursday.  Klah  \varh  is  mud, 
and  a  cannery,  a  meaner  place  than  Yuena  by  all  odds.  Then  back  to 
Wrangel,  then  to  Victoria,  then  to  Port  Tovvnsend,  where  we  left  the 
steamer,  spent  the  night,  and  the  next  day  came  down  through  the 
Sound,  having  a  superb  view  of  Mt.  Rainier  and  the  Olympic  Range. 
Reached  Portland  last  Friday  afternoon  and  stayed  there  until  Monday. 
Rode  out  to  Vancouver  to  call  on  Mrs.  Howard,  and  left  Portland  Tues 
day.  Reached  here  at  one  to-day,  via  S.S.  "  Oregon.11  To-morrow  we 
go  to  the  Geysers,  on  Sunday  to  San  Rafael,  and  on  Monday  to  Santa 
Cruz. 

To  Mr.  Blaine  : 

ELLSWORTH,  August  20,  1878. 

I  am  extremely  anxious  for  you  to  speak  in  this  county  once  or  twice, 
and  as  soon  as  possible.  Mr.  Hale  says  yon  are  very  busy,  crowded  on  all 
sides,  and  he  does  not  wish  to  take  you  from  the  close  districts,  but  I  have 

not  the  same  feeling.     L did  an  immense   amount  of   mischief,   the 

county  looks  badly,  and  I  want  you  to  turn  the  tide  for  us.  All  who  heard 
you  at  Belfast  say  your  speech  was  the  best  they  ever  listened  to,  and  that 
it  would  do  us  infinite  good.  Then,  too,  all  turn  out  to  hear  you,  and  the 
talk  is  that  the  Greenbackers  propose  to  keep  away  from  Republican 
meetings. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  469 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  General  Garfield : 

CANTON,  O.,  August  25,  1878. 

Please  telegraph  me  at  Mentor  on  receipt  of  this,  where  ray  first  speech 
in  Maine  is  to  be.  I  want  to  stay  in  O.  till  the  last  moment  I  can  reach 
you  in  time.  .  .  . 

I  have  only  been  able  to  get  away  on  the  promise  that  I  will  bring  you 
and  Hale  and  Frye  back  with  me.  We  are  needy  and  greedy,  and 
demand  three  for  one.  You  are  abundant  and  generous,  and  will  give 
what  we  want. 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  General  Garfield : 

CHICAGO,  September  29,  1878. 

I  find  all  your  telegrams  here  —  I  had  left  home  before  they  reached 
me.  But,  my  dear  friend,  it  grew  to  be  impossible  for  me  to  come  to  you. 
I  was  engaged  last  month  to  open  in  Iowa,  October  1,  and  I  could  not  get 
started  West  in  season  to  make  a  halt  in  Ohio.  I  would  have  come,  how 
ever,  against  all  odds  and  all  points  had  you  needed  me.  But  you  did  not, 
Reed  will  be  with  you. 

From  V. : 

WASHINGTON,  February  5,  1879. 

.  We  went  to  the  observatory  last  night  and  looked  through  the 
big  telescope  .  .  .  under  the  guidance  of  Professor  Hall,  who  discov 
ered  the  moons  of  Mars,  and  who  feels  very  sure  of  them  ;  says  they  will  be 
around  again  before  long.  And  when  Mr.  Blaine  gets  home  he  demon 
strates  astronomically  that  Mars  could  not  have  any  moons,  and  with  such 
a  scientific  aroma  that  it  would  deceive  the  very  elect,  if  they  did  not  know 
that  he  does  not  know,  and  knows  we  know  that  he  does  not  know  anything 
about  it.  But  as  a  tour  deforce  it  was  captivating.  We  could  only  sarcass 
him  in  retort  by  suggesting  what  a  pity  he  had  waited  for  Professor  Hall's 
back  to  be  turned  before  confounding  science.  Then  lie  flourishes  his 
carpenter's  rule  : 

"  If  the  sun  were  a  two-foot  globe,  Mars  would  be  represented  by  a 
largish  pin's  head  revolving  in  a  circle  645  feet  in  diameter.  Xow,  your 
new  moons  are  only  allowed  to  be  ten  miles  in  diameter,  one-four  hun 
dredth  the  size  of  Mars.  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  the  human  eye  can 
discern,  over  a  hundred  feet  away,  a  speck  no  bigger  than  the  four  hun 
dredth  part  of  a  pin's  head?  Can't  do  it.  Nobody  ever  did  it.  Mars 
hasn't  any  moons.  If  he  has,  nobody  ever  saw  them." 

"  Is  Professor  Hall  a  knave,  then  ?  '' 

"  Oh,  no.  I  suppose  something  crawled  across  the  glass.  Or  he  saw 
a  candle  spark  flying  around.  He  never  saw  any  moons.  It  is  only  a 
cow's  foot  in  the  crock  of  milk." 


470  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    11LA1NE. 

To  Mr.  Blame,  from  Hon.  H.  S.  Footer 

NEW  ORLEANS,  March  25,  1879. 

Feeling  assured  that  you  are  not  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  the  bill 
pending  in  the  Senate  for  the  benefit  of  the  "  Methodist  Publishing 
House,1'  and  knowing  well  the  liberality  of  your  temper  and  your  freedom 
from  everything  like  petty  and  narrow  prejudices,  whether  sectional  or  sec 
tarian,  I  have  ventured  to  make  an  earnest  appeal  to  you.  .  .  . 

Senator  Bailey,  as  you  know,  has  charge  of  this  bill.  ...  I  wrote 
him  a  letter  about  ten  days  ago,  in  which  I  stated  that  if  he  judged  it 
expedient,  I  would  address  you  such  a  communication  as  the  present  one. 

Without  his  formal  consent,  I  enclose  you  his   response, 
by  reading  which  you  will  see  how  much  esteemed  and  respected  you  are 
by  a  Southern  Senator  of  political  principles  different  from  your  own,  but 
whose  manliness  and  generosity  of  temper  enable  him  to  do  full  justice 
to  an  eminent  political  opponent. 

"  .  .  .  By  all  means  write  to  Mr.  Blaine,  and  solicit  his  great  influ 
ence  in  behalf  of  the  bill.  His  head  and  heart  approve  this  act  of  justice 
and  beneficence  to  a  great  charity,  and  he  is  one  of  the  few  men  of  great 
prominence  in  public  life  that  will  dare  to  follow  the  promptings  of  his 
generous  nature." 

Whatever  course  you  may  conclude  to  adopt,  I  shall  become 
not  the  less  your  warm  political  and  personal  friend,  as  [  have  been  in 
the  past.  .  .  . 

I  am  hoping  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  people  of  New 
Orleans  will  have  the  happiness  of  seeing  you.  .  .  .  I  do  not  doubt  that 
you  will  find  all  true  patriots  here  prepared  to  accord  you  a  most  enthu 
siastic  reception. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  C.  M.  Reed : 

WASHINGTON,  PA.,  April  12,  1879. 

.  .  .  Had  our  meeting  not  broken  up  suddenly,  I  would  have  been 
glad  to  tell  some  things  of  Washington  county.  With  a  population  of 
more  than  50,000,  there  is  not  a  licensed  tavern  in  the  county,  so  that 
any  of  your  New  England  friends  who  might  want  a  drink  of  the  ardent 
'must  bring  the  bottle  with  them.  Yet  we  have  no  prohibitory  law,  solely 
the  force  of  public  sentiment.  I  sometimes  tell  a  story  of  our  parson, 
Dr.  Bronson.  During  the  war  he  went  out  as  agent  of  the  Christian  Com 
mission.  At  Washington,  by  way  of  saving  hotel  bills,  they  had  a  large 
warehouse  with  settees  to  accommodate  the  delegates  going  to  and  from 
the  army.  Dr.  Bronson  arrived  Saturday  P.M.,  and  in  the  evening  got  out 
his  brush  and  razors,  and  was  shaving  himself  and  blacking  his  boots 
preparatory  to  Sabbath.  An  old  New  England  delegate  walked  up  and 
said  aloud,  *'  I  never  saw  that  man  before,  but  if  I  were  to  guess  I  would 
say  he  was  an  old- school  Presbyterian  preacher;  and  if  I.  would  continue 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  471 

to  guess,  I  would  say  he  was  from  Pennsylvania;  and  if  I  were  to  guess 
further,  would  say  he  was  from  Washington  county,  and  perhaps  from 
Cannonsburg,  the  only  place  I  ever  saw  where  the  people  began  to  pre 
pare  for  the  Sabbath  on  Saturday  evening.11  He  was  educated  at  Jeffer 
son  College. 

Dr.  B.   wore  an  old  slouch  hat  and  shaggy  overcoat,  and  did 
clerical.     Some  of  your  old   college  friends  and   others  inquire  for  you 
with  great  interest,  Alex.  Wilson  among  the  number. 

To  M.  : 

AUGUSTA,  August  1,  1879. 

The  dust  from  your  chariot  wheels  had  not  subsided  before  I 
found  myself  engaged  in  a  little  round  with  Alice,  who  hoped  she  should 
never  be  called  selfish  again,  seeing  she  had  not  hesitated  to  give  you  her 
lisle  thread  gloves,  when  yours,  through  your  own  carelessness  in  the  su 
preme  moment  of  your  departure,  were  found  wanting.  In  vain  your 
father  assured  her  that  lisle  thread  gloves  grow  on  every  bush,  and  that 
he  would  make  her  a  present  of  half  a  dozen  pairs.  The  little  maid  would 
have  her  will,  and  said  "Nay,  we  are  even.11  And  then  the  three  who  were 
left,  Alice,  the  pater,  and  I,  adjourned  to  the  billiard-room,  where  I  looked 
on  at  this  child  beating  what  Emmons  and  E.  would  call  her  governor, 
dropping  her  cue  in  the  middle  of  the  game,  and  vanishing  without  cere 
mony  as  she  remembered  that  the  ice-cream  for  her  picnic  was  unordered. 

Six  o'clock  in  the  morning.     While  we  were  at  dinner  I  received  a  tele- 

o-ram  from saying  he  would  like  to  spend  Sunday  with  us.     Needless 

To  say  I  telegraphed  back,  -Delighted;1  though  it  made  Emmons  wince, 
as  he  had  arranged  to  go  to  Old  Orchard  with  Orville  Baker  to-morrow.  But 
he  is  a  generous  boy  and  refuses  to  leave  me  in  the  lurch,  so  that  arrange 
ment  has  been  unarranged.  Then  came  the  getting  off  to  the  picnic. 
A.  E.  took  the  Homan  wagon  and  Yorick,  and  drove  out  A.  T.  M.  and  D., 
a  freezer  of  ice-cream,  A.  P.  Merrill's  umbrella,  which  in  an  evil  moment 
lie  had  left  here,  and  wraps  enough  for  an  arctic  country  in  case  the 
weather  should  change.  As  soon  as  they  were  comfortably  off,  I  devoted 
myself  to  Mr.  Hale  and  your  father,  packing  the  latter1  s  bag  and  mending 
his  old  alpaca  coat.  Then  the  new  horse  was  put  to  the  borrowed  buggy, 
and  your  father  and  Mr.  Hale  mounted  and  Tom  took  the  nothing  which 
was  left  for  a  seat  and  drove  them  down. 

August  3.  ...  Your  father  got  home  at  two  this  morning  very  tired 
and  perhaps  a  little  cross.  He  had  a  fine  meeting  at  Saco.  . 
Emmons,  your  father,  Mr.  Reed,  and  Mr.  F.  —  you  see  I  do  not  pay  much 
attention  to  precedence  —  have  just  started  on  a  drive,  your  father  holding 
the  reins.  As  Mr.  Reed  is  on  the  back  seat,  imagine  the  way  in  which  his 
eyes  will  wander  from  those  horses.  .  .  . 

Auo-ust  6.  ...  Mr.  Frye  was  here  to  breakfast,  he  came  yesterday 
afternoon,  and  spoke  in  the  evening.  I  went  to  hear  him,  and  was  capti 
vated.  He  and  your  father  have  now  gone  to  Ml.  Vernon,  driving  over. 


472  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (7.     ELAINE. 

Just  before  they  got  away,  Mr.  Hale  turned  up,  dined  with  us,  and  now  he 
has  left  for  Norridgewock.  .  .  .  The  mail  has  come  bringing  us  a 
highly  prized  letter  from  Walker  and  a  postal  from  Emmons.  Walker 
returns  thanks  for  a  cheek,  and  Emmons  asks  for  an  X,  and  time  may  come 
and  time  may  go,  but  money  is  needed  forever.  Thursday  noon  I  went 
to  Richmond  with  your  father,  who  left  for  Portland,  and  Kittery,  and 
Hamilton,  while  I  returned  with  the  Bishops  in  their  car. 

August  10.  .  .  .  Sunday  afternoon  again,  and  Mr.  Ecob  preached 
an  advanced  sermon,  in  which  I  was  much  interested,  and  then  dinner,  and 
there  being  an  apple  pie  left,  Alice  took  it  up  to  Mr.  Ecob ;  and  this  is  all. 
The  library  and  billiard-room  are  both  full  of  men.  It  is  passing  into  a 
radiant  afternoon,  the  sky  all  lovely  blue  and  clouds,  the  earth  all  dewy 
green,  and  I  am  going  in  to  see  if  your  father  will  not  drive  around  Collins1 
with  me,  for  he  has  never  seen  it.  Monday  afternoon,  5  o'clock.  .  .  . 
Since  dinner  I  have  had  out  the  carriage,  and  been  to  the  station  for 
Emmons,  but  his  welcome  visage  was  not  there  to  gladden  my  eyes,  and 
I  came  home  to  learn  that  he  had  sent  a  telegram  early  in  the  day  to  say 
that  he  would  not  be  here  till  8.  Father  forgot  to  tell  me!  ...  I 
took  my  ride  yesterday  afternoon,  but  T.  would  go  with  us,  and  the  new 
horse  is  excessively  slow.  When  we  were  about  half-way  through,  your 
father  seized  the  reins  and  whip,  and  declared  he  would  find  out  whether 
there  were  any  go  in  the  creature,  but  by  the  time  he  had  administered 
two  blows,  T.  was  beside  herself,  and  he  stopped.  It  was  enough,  how 
ever,  as  from  that  moment  we  had  no  trouble. 

To  M. : 

AUGUSTA,  August  13,  1879. 

.  .  .  .  Father  is  reading  your  letter  on  the  porch,  and  remarks  that 
you  say  "  one  pleasing  aft'ect,"  meaning  effect.  ...  I  went  to  Granite 
Hall  last  night  to  hear  Mr.  Chandler.  lie  made  a  good  speech.  .  .  . 
Father  came  on  the  four  o'clock  train,  having  had  a  charming  day  on 
his  travels.  At  six  (next  A.M.)  left  for  Waldoboro1.  With  great  de 
votion  and  difficulty  I  got  him  downstairs  in  season  to  make  a  comfortable 
breakfast,  when  I  delightedly  passed  him  and  his  bag  and  his  winter 
overcoat  and  Emmons1  summer  one  and  his  own  alpaca  into  Frederick's 
hands,  who  speedily,  but  Avith  much  anguish  to  the  old  phaeton,  conveyed 
him  to  the  station. 

August  14.  .  .  .  All  day,  Emmons  alone  has  represented  the  junior 
part  of  the  Blaine  family,  and  has  most  agreeably  fulfilled  the  function,  cor 
recting  proof  for  "  Honest  Truth,11  reading,  endorsing,  and  sending  tele 
grams,  borrowing  my  last  V,  tearing  down  town  a  dozen  times  for  his 
father,  carving  a  mighty  sirloin  of  roast  beef  for  dinner,  the  knife  so  sharp 
it  went  into  it  like  butter,  to  use  his  own  words,  playing  billiards  whenever 
your  father  found  a  minute  in  which  to  whistle  "  For  he  might  have  been  a 
Prussian,11  and  to  hold  a  cue ;  and  finally  getting  your  father  to  the  station 
with  his  thin  coats  and  his  bag,  though  I  packed  the  bag,  and  Maggie  N. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    <7.     ELAINE.  473 

collected  the  coats,  and  Millie  and  Maggie  and  Tom  and  Kmmons  and  I  all 
joined  in  the  search  for  the  hat,  which  finally,  retaining  its  crown  and  rim, 
when  any  respectable  hat  would  have  given  up  the  ghost,  was  found  under  all 
the  newspapers  and  all  the  books,  having  evidently  been  used  all  day  for 
a  cushion  by  every  sitter-down  in  the  library.  I  hovered  on  the  outskirts 
to  bid  him  good-by,  afraid  to  come  recklessly  to  the  front,  lest  he  should 
want  some  money,  and  I  have  only  three  silver  quarters  in  my  dear  little 
purse  ;  I  have  drawn  so  much  money  this  month  —  how  can  any  one  who 
never  listens  to  or  enters  into  a  detail  understand  it  ?  But  M.  is  off  on  her 
travels  and  Q.  on  his,  and  Emmons  has  been,  and  Alice  and  T.  to-day,  and 
from  the  grain  that  feeds  the  horses  to  the  butter  that  spreads  my  bread,  I 
pay  for  everything. 

August  18.  ...  I  write  now  to  you,  as  connectedly  as  may  be  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hale,  Mr.  Davis  (Governor),  and  Mr.  Bartlett  in  the  room. 
The  conversation  too  is  on  Maine  politics  —  that  most  interesting  and  discour 
aging  of  topics  —  for  here  are  the  Democrats  coming  into  the  conventions 
and  capturing  the  Greenbackers  in  various  counties,  and  your  father  so  occu 
pied  that  after  he  emerges  from  his  chamber  in  the  morning  I  do  not  require, 
nor  receive,  so  much  civility  as  a  word  from  him,  and  sometimes  I  am  so 
deeply  disgusted  with  American  politics  —  our  whole  system  of  popular 
government,  with  its  passion,  its  excitement,  disappointment,  and  bitter 
reaction  —  that  any  sphere,  however  humble,  which  gives  a  man  to  his 
family,  seems  to  me  better  than  the  prize  of  high  place. 

Mrs.  Hale  came  Friday  evening  with  your  father,  who  boarded  the  train 
on  which  she  was  —  not  at  Etna,  but  at  Newport  —  he  having,  after  being 
driven  to  Etna  from  E.  Corinth,  procured  a  ride  for  himself  on  a  hand 
car  to  Newport,  that  he  might  see  Mr.  Dexter  about  the  old  wagon.  The 
night  was  dark,  and  first  he  lost  his  hat,  for  which  they  retraced  their  steps 
some  half-mile,  and  then  his  bag  was  found  missing,  and  for  this  they  went 
back  two  miles  but  found  it  not,  but  the  next  morning  at  ten  the  express 
delivered  it,  much  the  worse  for  its  travels,  the  Pullman  having  gone  over 
it.  The  contents  were  found  spilled  along  the  side  of  the  track.  One  shirt 
was  cut  all  to  pieces,  the  toilet  apparatus  was  never  found,  and  the  bag  \vas 
ruined ;  but  it  never  seemed  to  enter  his  dear  head  that  the  escapade  was  a 
risky  and  foolish  one,  and  not  to  be  expected  from  a  man  of  his  habits,  and 
although  he  saw  Mr.  D.  he  forgot  to  ask  the  price  at  which  the  wagon  was 
sold,  so  we  were  in  as  much  uncertainty  as  ever.  Clarence  came  from 
Portland  and  spent  Saturday  writh  us,  stopping  in  Gardiner  to  hear  Eugene 
speak  that  evening,  and  Emmons  drove  down  after  tea  in  the  darkness  and 
rain,  carrying  along  Mr.  Updegraff,  and  at  eleven  or  shortly  after  they  all 
arrived  at  this  hospitable  mansion,  where  a  couple  of  bottles  of  champagne 
and  a  good  supper  helped  out  the  welcome  which  was  awaiting  them. 
While  at  breakfast  yesterday,  Mr.  S.'s  card  was  sent  in.  Your  father  was 
not  up,  but  Emmons  saw  him  and  told  him  where  to  go  to  church,  and 
invited  him  to  dinner  at  two.  The  day  was  dreadfully  rainy,  but  Mrs.  II., 
Clarence,  Emmons,  and  I  braved  the  discomfort  of  a  long  ride  for  the  sake 
of  hearing  Mr.  Ecob,  who  gave  us  a  delightful  service ;  and  then  we  came 


474  KIOGRAPJIY    Or    JAMES    G.     HLAINE. 

home  to  find  your  father  still  in  bed,  where  he  stayed  till  dinner-time,  when 
he  got  up  and  eame  down  to  enact  the  host  in  his  most  delightful  manner, 
carving,  talking,  making  welcome  in  his  own  inimitable  way,  (ill  Mr.  S. 
tore  himself  away,  coming  back  to  tea,  while  Mr.  Updegraff  made  no 
pretence  of  going,  but  stayed  right  on  till  eleven  o'clock,  and  then  Mrs. 
Milliken  came  to  tea  and  sang  hymns  and  "Pinafore1'  all  the  evening. 
Clarence  went  this  morning,  and  your  father  and  Updegraff  and  S.  and 
Governor  Davis  to  Winthrop  at  one,  first  having  a  dinner  here,  and  then  at 
four  Mr.  H.  left  for  Waterville,  and  it  has  rained  and  rained  and  rained,  and 
now  at  eleven  in  the  evening  Emmons  has  just  gone  for  Mr.  Hale,  and  the 
Winthrop  team  has  returned,  and  they  have  all  had  supper  here,  and  now 
with  the  heavens  opening  and  the  Hoods  descending  Emmons  returns, 
bringing  Mr.  Hale  and  followed  by  I).,  bringing  up  Mr.  Downes  and  Mr. 
Campbell,  who  are  to  go  back  on  the  Pullman,  and  who  will  spend  the 
intermediate  hours  in  the  library. 

To  Mr.  Bliiiiiu,  from  Secretary  Evarts  : 

WINDSOR,  VT.,  August  23,  79. 

I  feel  a  good  deal  of  confidence  that  we  shall  come  out  all  right 
in  your  Maine  election.  If  we  do,  you  will  have,  and  should  have,  the 
credit  for  it. 

To  Mr.  Blciine,  from  Mr.  Jolm  Koiicli : 

NEW  YORK,  August  20,  1879. 

With  all  my  heart  I  hope  you  will  succeed  in  bringing  your 
campaign  to  a  success.  Hut  I  think  it  is  of  great  importance  that  you 
should  carry  your  State.  Allow  me  to  suggest  something  —  1  believe  in 
detail  work.  Would  it  not  be  a  good  plan  to  appoint  scouts,  or,  as  you 
might  call  them  "  whippers-in,"  selecting  those  districts  where  there  are  men 
to  follow  up  and  bring  out  every  vote?  One  hundred  men  divided  into  one 
hundred  districts  who  would  have  at  their  command  one  hundred  fast 
teams,  follow  those  persons  up.  Every  vote  brought  up  and  deposited 
counts.  ...  Go  ahead  ;  poor  as  I  am  1  will  stand  by  you.  The  English 
are  doing  everything  to  break  up  my  line.  We  are  now  shipping  goods 
from  Europe  to  Rio,  then  bringing  coffee  from  Itio  to  New  York  for  twenty 
cents  per  bag,  or  three  dollars  and  forty  cents  per  ton;  going  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool  —  not  returning  to  Rio  from  New  York.  This  has  cer 
tainly  broken  down  the  English  Merchants1  Line,  which  was  spoken  of  in 
the  Senate  so  much.  They  compel  us  to  bring  coffee  back  for  twenty  cents 
per  bag,  or  three  dollars  and  forty  cents  per  ton  for  five  thousand  miles. 
The  lowest  price  paid  for  coffee  to  New  York  before  my  line  was  started 
was  from  fifty  to  seventy  cents  per  bag,  or  from  eight  dollars  and  fifty  cents 
to  ten  dollars  per  ton.  I  am  going  to  stick  it  out  for  another  year.  Think 
of  my  plan  as  a  politician  with  regard  to  the  detail  work. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLALVE.  475 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker: 

ST.  PAUL,  MINN.,  August  30,  1870. 

.  .  .  Next  Tuesday  is  the  day  of  the  Republican  State  Convention, 
and  I  shall  sail  in  for  a  political  acquaintance  among  the  delegates  on  that 
day.  I  have  been  this  morning  to  see  a  ( 'ounty  Convention  in  session. 

Now,  one  thing,  and  don't  forget  this.  You  must  have  a  telegram  sent 
me  from  home  on  the  afternoon  of  the  election,  as  early  in  the  evening 
as  possible,  say,  by  seven  or  eight  o'clock,  stating  what  the  probable 
results  are,  and  have  it  sent  to  Metropolitan  Hotel,  as  the  office  will  be 
closed.  I  want  an  accurate  one,  for  my  own  information. 

Tell  Mons,  if  he  can  spare  the  time  from  his  French  audiences,  I  wish 
he  would  ask  Mr.  Stratton  to  make  out  a  certificate  of  the  fact  that  I  am  a 
member  of  the  bar  in  Maine  and  send  it  out  here  to  me.  I  shall  want  it 
when  I  apply  for  admission  in  Minnesota.  Tell  Mons  also  not  to  forgot 
my  Stephen's  Pleading. 

This  from  the  "  Pioneer  Press"  of  this  morning.  Don't  you  think  the 
family  is  quite  well  advertised  in  Minn.  ? 

A    Cllir    OF    THE    OLD    ULOCK. 

Maine  Letter  to  the  New  York  Tribune. 

"Mr.  Emmons  Blaine,  the  second  son  of  the  Senator,  who  graduated 
last  year  at  Harvard  and  is  now  studying  law,  shows  a  decided  taste  and 
aptitude  for  political  work.  He  is  the  right-hand  man  of  his  father 
in  the  labors  of  the  central  committee,  and  is  doing  some  very  creditable 
stump-speaking.  Next  week  he  is  going  away  up  to  the  valley  of  the 
upper  St.  Johns,  a  journey  involving  a  ride  of  nearly  one  hundred  miles 
through  a  wilderness,  to  visit  some  French  Canadian  settlements  and 
speak  to  the  natives  in  their  own  language.  This  venturesome  experi 
ment,  it  is  said,  was  never  tried  before  in  a  Maine  canvass."1 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Col.  John  Hay : 

CLEVELAND,  September  11,  1879. 

Pass  greatly  on !  Thou  that  hast  overcome !  .  .  .  You  have  won 
the  most  prodigious  personal  victory  of  the  time. 

From  Walker : 

ST.  PAUL,  September  13,  1879. 

;  •  .  .  The  Maine  election  has  been  a  great  victory,  for  which,  praise 
be  to  father.  I  think  it  deserves  to  be  recorded  as  his  greatest  personal 
triumph. 

.  .  .  Everything  the  country  over  looks  most  cheering  for  Republi 
can  victory  next  year,  but  really  I  have  something  the  feeling,  —  "  What 
care  I  how  fair  she  be,  if  she  be  not  fair  to  me  !  "  For  if  anybody  deserved 


476  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

it  lie  does,  and  how  are  we  going  to  be  enthusiastic   over  .      But  T 

breathe  not. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  John  H.  Evving: 

WASHINGTON,  September  25,  1870. 

.  .  .  Your  friends  here  are  very  desirous  that  you  shall  visit  your 
old  home  before  you  return  East.  I  am  aware  of  your  many  engagements, 
but  still  hope  you  can  so  arrange  as  to  give  us  a  passing  visit.  There  is 
no  place  in  this  wide  world  where  you  have  so  many  warm  friends. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker: 

ST.  PAUL,  MINN.,  October  7,  1879. 

.  I  also  send  you  the  printed  argument  submitted  by  Governor 
Davis  and  Mr.  Lowry,  and  copy  of  letter  addressed  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  and  Attorney-General.  .  .  .  Please  do  whatever  you 
can  in  the  matter.  Many  of  the  gentlemen  who  are  thus  sued  and 
harassed,  you  know.  They  are  good  Republicans  and  old  friends  of  yours, 
and  most  honorable  men,  and  I  can't  help  believing  that  the  responsibility 
fairly  belongs  on  other  shoulders  than  those  upon  which  the  impractical 
Dutchman  is  trying  to  put  it.  ...  I  see  that  you  are  to  speak  in  Iowa 
City  on  the  llth.  Cannot  you  manage  it  so  as  to  come  here  by  way  of 
Sioux  City,  if  you  only  stay  for  a  day  or  two.  You  would  enjoy  the  trip, 
I  think,  and  I  know  people  here  would  like  to  see  you.  You  went  by  St. 
Paul  last  time,  you  know. 

October  8.  ...  St.  Paul  is  quite  a  gay  city,  and  what  with  two  law 
courts  on  which  I  am  dancing  attendance,  and  the  reading  of  the  law,  I  get 
along  quite  busily.  I  wish  you  could  get  clients  as  easily  as  you  can  ac 
quaintances.  In  the  latter  respect  I  don't  have  much  to  reproach  myself 
with.  They  seem  to  have  heard  the  name  before,  and  the  society  is  very 
pleasant. 

November  4.  .  .  .  I  have  been  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  State,  which 
happened  last  Saturday  ;  second,  I  have  become  a  citizen  of  the  State,  and 
have  just  returned  from  the  polls,  where  I  exercised  the  freeman's  privilege 
by  voting  the  straight  Republican  ticket;  third,  I  have  started  a  law  school, 
and  am  now  giving,  at  five  o'clock  every  evening,  instruction  in  the  law 
to  some  three  young  gentlemen,  and  I  find  that  it  is  likely  to  be  of  great 
benefit  to  me  as  well,  as  it  refreshes  and  systematizes  my  knowledge  to  a 
very  great  extent.  ...  I  feel  encouraged  since  I  have  been  about  the 
courts  and  watched  the  progress  of  litigation.  I  don't  by  any  means  think 
I  am  a  great  lawyer,  but  I  think  with  work  I  can  become  a  pretty  good  one, 
and  I  feel  a  little  more  confidence  as  I  mentally  measure  other  men  and 
myself  against  them.  But  experimentia  docet,  and  a  year  from  now  I  shall 
probably  be  both  wiser  and  sadder. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  477 

To  V.: 

NEW  YORK,  November  9,  1879. 

Here  1  am,  having  a  most  delightful  second  visit.  Mr.  Elaine 
is  with  me.  .  .  .  We  are  just  from  church,  all  but  Mr.  Blaine,  who 
spent  the  precious  hours  in  which  I  was  learning  how  to  bring  up  a 
family,  in  writing  an  article,  as  many  pages  of  closely  covered  manuscript 
lying  on  the  table  testify ;  and  as  the  children  are  too  old  to  be  now  set  in 
other  grooves,  perhaps  he  is  the  happier  for  not  being  made  to  see  how 
much  we  have  left  to  nature  and  to  Providence,  which  we  ought  as  parents 
to  have  pursued  and  trained. 

Mr.  Blaine,  as  you  know,  is  in  the  best  of  health  and  spirits, 
while  Grant  is  booming  along,  and  welcome,  if  I  were  the  only  one  to  be 
consulted. 

From  Walker : 

The  newspapers  are  full  of  the  great  Senator  [Chandler] .  So 
far  as  reputation  is  concerned,  he  died  at  the  very  pinnacle  of  his  personal 
fame.  It  is  very  curious  to  me  to  see  how  the  ideas  that  two  years  ago 
were  unpopular  and  would  not  have  brought  men  into  prominence,  are, 
by  the  whirl  of  politics,  so  popular  that  to-day  everybody  applauds  the 
course  and  laments  the  dead.  .  .  .  Father  had  a  glorious  meeting  in 
New  York,  and  politics  are  all  afloat,  and  no  one  can  tell  how  the  wind  will 
blow,  save  that  it  will  always  blow  for  me  from  Augusta,  where  is  the 
heart  and  hearth  and  home  of  ever  yours. 

November  15,  1879.  I  send  you  by  this  mail  a  copy  of  the  morning's 
paper,  in  which  you  will  find  a  little  squib  of  mine  anent  the  Garcelon 
declaration  of  war  and  an  editorial  comment  thereon.  I  don't  believe 
Garcelon  and  the  council  will  dare  try  any  such  game,  or  that  it  will  ever 
come  to  anything,  but  I  thought  it  could  do  no  harm  to  start  a  war-whoop 
in  this  far  West. 

November  20.  ...  I  think  Grant  will  be  nominated  for  the  presi 
dency.  Father  can  afford  to  wait,  even  though  he  never  gets  it.  But  have 
you  observed  that  he  is  more  popular  than  ever  throughout  the  country,  and 
I  think  we  can  content  ourselves  with  that,  and  let  Grant -be  President. 

To  Emmons  : 

AUGUSTA,  November  21,  '79. 

This  is  one  of  my  tavern  weeks  —  the  board  being  spread  for  all  who 
come.  The  Republican  crowd  melted  away  by  Wednesday  —  Mr.  Reed 
going  that  day  at  noon.  .  .  .  Ft.  Smith  &  Little  Rock  has  fallen  from 
thirty-seven  and  a  half  to  thirty-two. 

Father  had  made  up  his  mind  this  morning  to  give  five  hundred  dollars 
to  the  Old  Ladies1  Home,  and  it  looks  like  a  slap  in  the  face  from  Prov 
idence  to  find  things  going  the  wrong  way  in  the  afternoon.  Don't  you 
think  so  ? 


478  KJOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

The  last  news,  or  report  of  the  situation,  is  the  convening  of  the  Superior 
Court  at  Augusta,  Monday,  the  Chief  Justice  in  the  chair  —  though  that  is 
not  the  name  of  his  seat. 

Your  father  is  in  the  best  of  spirits,  though  what  is  to  be  the  end  of  this 
audacity  no  one  knows.  He  expects  now  to  leave  town  Sunday,  though  I 
don't  believe  he  can.  George  Weeks  and  Mr.  Sprague  are  now  in  consul 
tation  with  him  in  the  library.  Have  you  an  overcoat  for  Mr.  Brown  ?  If 
you  have  not,  I  shall  be  under  the  painful  necessity  of  giving  him  a  new 
one,  as  I  cannot  see  him  drive  in  your  father's  old  blue  flannel.  Is  the 
heavy  overcoat  hanging  here  yours,  and  shall  I  give  it?  It  looks  too 
handsome.  Caroline  has  cooked  two  hundred  and  fifty  chickens  since  July, 
and  is  now  beginning  on  turkeys.  She  is  more  to  be  dreaded  than  the 
foxes  which  have  killed  off  all  the  Caldwell  turkeys  on  which  I  always 
depend  for  Christmas.  My  pen  will  not  permit  of  further  writing,  but  my 
love  knows  no  limitations. 

From  Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler : 

WASHINGTON,  December  13,  1879. 

.  .  .  Frye  and  I  are  fighting  the  battle  without  our  chieftain.  Do 
you  know  I  think  the  beloved  does  not  like  to  fight  as  well  as  he  once 
did  ?  But  we  cannot  fight  third  term  and  all  who  beat  us  before,  unless 
we  pitch  in.  Forbearance  toward  the  crowd  is  folly.  We  must  be  con 
fident  and  aggressive ;  and  if  we  are,  there  are  many  signs  that  we  shall 
win.  Are  we  to  fight  or  to  wilt? 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Emmons  (telegram)  : 

CHICAGO,  January  31,  1880. 
May  you  double  before  you  quit. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  479 


XVT. 

SECRETARY   OF   STATE. 

A  S  the  day  of  the  Republican  National  Convention  in  1880 
-£-^-  drew  near,  the  masses  of  the  Republican  party  signi 
fied  more  and  more  clearly  their  choice.  The  defeat  of  1876 
seemed  at  once  and  permanently  to  have  intensified  the  desire 
of  Republicans  that  Mr.  Blaine  should  be  the  candidate.  His 
four  years  in  the  Senate  had  widened  the  desire,  had  deepened 
it  to  determination.  Sundry  leaders  of  the  party  were  fain  to 
lead  in  other  directions.  Some  were  inspired  by  an  honorable 
personal  ambition  which  their  great  qualities  and  great  service 
justified.  The  larger  part  of  the  opposition  is  best  suggested 
in  a  characteristic  reference  by  Mr.  John  Hay  to  that  "lofty 
and  magnanimous  spirit  to  which  malice  and  meanness  were 
so  impossible,  and  therefore  so  furiously  hostile."  The  whole 
country  knew  that  in  Mr.  Blaine  they  were  dealing  with  an 
independent  and  unbending  force,  and  all  that  was  not  warmly 
with  him  was  desperate  against  him.  But  against  him  no 
other  political  leader  had  any  showing.  Many  Democrats 
avowed  more  or  less  openly  that  they  would  regard  being 
beaten  by  him  as  next  to  success. 

General  Grant  was  in  the  distinguished  retirement  of  an 
ex-President,  the  victorious  general  of  modern  history.  His 
warmest  friends  could  desire  nothing  better  than  that  he  should 
so  remain.  But  the  men  who  sought  above  all  things  Mr. 
Blaine's  defeat  were  ready  to  sacrifice  General  Grant's  brilliant 
repose  to  their  purpose.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  con 
sented  to  their  scheme  with  reluctance  and  under  misapprehen 
sion ;  that  he  was  led  to  believe  that  the  American  people  were 
not  unalterably  opposed  to  a  third  term,  if  that  third  term 
were  his  term — notwithstanding  that  one  of  his  chief  malm- 
gel's,  a  brave  and  popular  general,  was  rejected  as  a  delegate  in 


480  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

his  own  district,  and  that  ten  districts  out  of  nineteen  in  Grant's 
own  State  of  Illinois  protested  that  the  delegates  for  Grant  were 
fraudulently  chosen,  till  the  convention  was  forced  to  respect 
them  and  to  admit  the  rightfully  chosen  delegates.  Friends 
wrote  General  Grant  advising  him  to  withdraw,  affirming  that 
it  was  an  outrage  on  him  to  put  him  into  this  fight,  and  that  he 
would  surely  be  beaten  at  the  polls  if  he  were  nominated ;  but 
other  counsels  held  his  attention. 

Mr.  Elaine  apprehended  nothing  sinister  or  ulterior  in  Gen 
eral  Grant's  purpose,  but,  under  the  circumstances,  believed 
his  candidacy  to  be  a  menace,  and  his  election  a  dangerous 
precedent.  There  was  no  emergency  to  call  for  the  innovation, 
nor  had  President  Grant's  civil  administration  been  so  excep 
tionally  successful  as  to  justify  it.  The  election  of  any  Repub 
lican  president  was  doubtful.  The  election  of  ex-President 
Grant  seemed  to  Mr.  Blaine  as  impracticable  as  it  was  undesir 
able.  Mr.  Elaine's  opponents  assumed  not  only  that  Grant  was 
the  only  man  whose  hold  upon  the  people  was  strong  enough 
to  surmount  Mr.  Elaine's,  but  that  it  was  strong  enough  to 
enforce  his  election  if  by  any  means  his  nomination  could  be 
secured.  They  were  willing  to  put  his  name  and  fame  to  the 
hazard  to  wrest  from  the  people's  pride  a  violation  of  the 
people's  judgment. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  forever  disaffected  towards  the  candidacy, 
but  he  was  not  unwilling  to  throw  himself  into  the  breach  to 
prevent  the  defeat  and  threatened  disruption  of  the  Repub 
lican  party.  His  long  detention  in  Maine  by  the  u  count-out," 
and  his  non-action  in  regard  to  the  national  convention  occa 
sioned  much  affectionate  grumbling  among  his  intimate  friends 
vainly  attempting  to  rouse  him  to  personal  action.  "  I  won 
der  when  you  will  get  off  to  Washington,"  wrote  one  to  a 
member  of  his  family.  "  I  don't  see  how  the  conspirators  can 
stand  against  that  opinion  of  the  court  —  one  of  the  finest  papers 
ever  written,  in  view  of  the  circumstances.  Generally  it  seems 
as  if  things  were  going  wrong  —  there  is  no  logic  in  affairs. 
Here  is  Grant  getting  the  benefit  of  revived  radicalism,  and  the 
beloved  —  well,  he  is  to  be  Vice-President!" 

January  27.  "  My  congratulations  on  the  recent  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  which  ought  to  give  the  final  blow  to  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  481 

State  stealers,  and  I  hope  will  satisfy  the  grumblers  who  have 
been  anxiously  hoping  Mr.  Blaine  would  make  a  mistake.  .  .  . 
But  the  anti-Grant,  pro-Blaine  men  are  fighting  without  a  leader ; 
they  are  very  valiant,  but  are  flopping  like  a  chicken  with  his 
head  cut  off.  Perhaps,  when  Maine  is  disposed  of,  our  captain 
will  mount  the  saddle  instead  of  running  alongside  holding  on 
to  Grant's  stirrups.  There,  do  not  be  mad  at  that,  it  is  mild 
compared  with  my  feelings. 

"  I  am  glad  lie  lies  in  bed  till  noon.  I  do  not  want  him  to  be 
sick.  But  more  men  are  slaving  and  exciting  themselves 
for  him  all  over  this  country  than  ever  did  for  a  man  before. 
He  thinks  that  is  all  right,  he  is  getting  used  to  it." 

And  to  Mr.  Blaine :  "  I  hope  you  will  take  the  leash  off  your 
friends  and  let  them  go  to  work.  Pennsylvania  showed  clearly 
that  Grant  could  not  be  elected." 

Walker,  returned  to  Minnesota  from  Maine,  felt  the  thrill 
with  youthful  intensity  but  preserved  his  gravity.  "It  was 
delightful  and  made  me  feel  as  if  I  belonged  here,  to  be 
welcomed  back  as  I  was.  I  think  the  position  father  takes 
admirable,  but  I  sincerely  trust  that,  happen  what  may,  nobody 
in  the  country,  no  matter  how  hostile,  will  have  any  right  to 
say  that  he  is  a  chronic  seeker  for  the  nomination.  Personally 
it  does  not  worry  or  annoy  me  as  it  did  in  '70." 

March  8.  "  I  want  the  light  made  fairly  and  squarely  from 
this  out.  If  Grant  is  nominated  he  is  going  to  be  defeated  ; 
if  he  is  defeated  we  sha'ii't  regain  the  Republican  ascendency 
for  many,  many  years.  .  .  .  But  I  wish  that  forever  we 
might  be  out  of  all  lights  or  win  them.  And  if  you  ever  hear 
of  me  in  politics  it  will  be  as  nothing  higher  than  a  Ward 
Alderman  to  which  I  shall  be  bidden  by  the  unanimous  voice  of 
my  fellow  countrymen."  Ten  days  later  he  was  "  too  engrossed 
in  the  politics  of  the  country  to  give  great  attention  to  the  laws 
of  the  State  !  " 

So  far  as  his  own  nomination  was  concerned  Mr.  Blaine 
could  not  be  aroused.  He  declared  that  he  was  like  the  old 
soldier  who  always  counted  himself  for  dead  when  the  battle 
opened,  so  every  time  he  came  out  alive  it  was  clear  gain  ;  but 
he  was  frankly  against  the  third-term  movement,  which  he 
considered  unwarrantable  in  its  purpose  and  methods.  "Mr. 


482  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMJSS    G.     BLAINE. 

Blaine,"  said  a  letter  of  the  time,  "  walked  to  Mr.  Cameron's 
house  with  him  and  Mr.  Robeson  a  night  or  two  ago  after  they 
had  been  here,  and  talked  plainly  about  the  third  term ;  told 
Mr.  Cameron  he  would  gladly  give  -f 50, 000  to  be  free  from  the 
wisps  and  thongs  that  bound  him  so  that  he  could  make  battle 
with  him  and  Conkling  for  the  great  crime  they  are  committing 
in  forcing  Grant  upon  an  unwilling  people.  Mr.  Blaine  gets  so 
impatient  sometimes  over  being  a  candidate  that  he  can  hardly 
contain  himself.  If  it  were  not  for  the  hosts  involved  in  him 
I  do  not  think  he  would  hesitate  one-half  minute  in  sacrificing 
any  possible  presidency  and  rushing  full  front  into  the  anti- 
third  term  fight.  General  II.  says  if  Grant  is  nominated,  no 
Democratic  nominee  can  save  him  from  being  beaten,  except 
Tilden." 

Every  week  the  extraordinary  urgency  increased  —  urgency 
that  Mr.  Blaine  should  wisli  the  nomination,  that  lie  should 
want  the  nomination  ;  arguments  were  plied  to  members  of  his 
family  to  induce  them  to  induce  him  to  want  it,  to  work  for  it. 
"  He  owes  it  to  himself  and  to  his  friends  all  over  this  country 
who  are  ready  to  sacrifice  everything  for  his  success,  to  do  all 
that  lies  in  his  power  to  win  at  Chicago."  Every  plea  of  party 
fealty  was  used.  u  There  is  more  involved  than  Mr.  Blaine's 
success.  The  nomination  of  Grant  is  the  inevitable  defeat  of 
the  Republican  party  and  the  triumph  of  Democracy  with  all 
its  attending  evils." 

The  pressure  upon  him  to  go  to  Chicago  was  very  strong. 
"I  beg  of  you  to  have  Mr.  Blaine  think  of  this  matter.  If  he  is 
on  the  ground  to  tend  his  own  fight  he  will  be  nominated.  It  is 
the  judgment  of  all  his  friends  here  [Augusta],  even  the  careful 
considerate  men,  that  he  should  go.  I  do  not  think  I  can 
possibly  state  this  case  as  strong  as  it  is.  He  is  a  candidate 
and  it  is  right  and  just  that  he  should  use  all  honorable  means 
to  secure  his  nomination.  More,  it  is  due  to  his  friends.  It  is 
impossible  for  Mr.  Blaine  to  have  any  man  at  Chicago  who 
could  represent  him  as  Conkling  represents  Grant,  for  no  man 
does  stand  as  Mr.  Blaine's  mouth-piece.  ...  I  do  want 
him  to  succeed  as  I  want  to  live.  His  defeat  will  be  to  me  a 
blow  that  will  shadow  my  life.  1  am  so  wrought  up  in  his 
success  because  of  my  admiration  and  love  for  him,  that  there 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  483 

is  no  sacrifice  I  could  make  for  his  success  which  I  would  not 
gladly  offer." 

This,  however,  was  absolutely  out  of  the  question.  It  was  a 
point  to  which  Mr.'  Blaine  could  not  bring  himself. 

General  Grant  had  been  making  a  tour  of  the  world  and  he 
went  into  the  nomination  contest  through  the  Golden  Gate  of 
the  Pacific,  his  laurels  still  quivering  with  the  world's  plaudits. 
Mr.  Blaine  met  him  with  the  prestige  of  a  defeat  four  years 
before,  with  whatever  antagonisms  might  have  followed  many 
subsequent  battles  ;  but  the  military  conqueror  was  broken. 

The  first  contest  in  the  convention  was  made  upon  the  unit  rule, 
or  representation  by  States,  which  was  upheld  by  the  Grant 
men,  against  the  more  direct  district  representation,  which  was 
held  by  the  Blaine  men.  The  convention  adopted  district  repre 
sentation  by  a  vote  of  449  to  306.  Thirty-six  ballots  were 
taken  on  the  nomination.  President  Grant  started  with  304 
votes  and  Mr.  Blaine  with  284  ;  but,  as  in  1876,  Mr.  Blaine's 
votes  were  from  the  electing  States,  his  opponent's  votes  from 
the  nominating  States.  Of  other  candidates,  Mr.  Sherman  had 
93  votes  ;  Mr.  Elihu  B.  Washburne,  31  ;  Mr.  George  F.  Edmunds, 
34  ;  Mr.  William  Windom,  10. 

Telegrams  between  the  convention  and  Mr.  Blaine's  house 
were  in  constant  exchange.  Mr.  Frye  reported  :  .  .  .  "  It  is 
hard  to  hold  back  your  friends  in  the  Convention,  and  they  are 
held  back  against  my  wishes.  I  submit  only  for  peace,  believing 
submission  to  be  a  mistake."  Mr.  Hale  telegraphed:  u  Ever 
since  morning  our  rooms  have  been  crowded  with  delegates  from 
twenty-three  different  States.  Newspaper  men  say  that  our  crowd 
to-day  has  been  much  larger  than  all  other  head-quarters  com 
bined.  Mr.  Hamlin  has  been  a  great  accession  and  has  helped  us 
amazingly.  The  unit  rule  will  have  a  hard  road  to  travel.  The 
tough  fight  will  be  over  the  legitimate  fruit  of  its  destruction  - 
district  representation.  ...  I  talked  Avith  General  Arthur 
(of  New  York)  this  morning  fully.  He  is  dead  set  for  the 
unit  rule — -says  anything  else  would  throw  away  the  power  of 
a  State  in  the  national  convention.  With  delegations  voting 
individually,  I  think  we  can  beat  the  unit  rule  by  100  —  that 
Grant  is  beaten  as  largely.  Then  we  must  take  our  chances  on 
the  break-up." 


484  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

Telegrams  came  all  night  to  Washington. 

Mr.  Sherman  was  waked  by  messenger  from  the  telegraph  office,  who 
told,  from  the  sidewalk  below,  that  there  was  great  excitement  in  Chicago, 
and  they  thought  Mr.  Blaine  ought  to  know  it.  They  had  been  up  once 
and  found  it  impossible  to  rouse  anybody;  "  the  incidental  mention  of 
Blaine's  name-  by  a  California!!  roused  gallery  and  convention  to  wild 
cheering  for  five  minutes."  Then  Mr.  Hale  telegraphs  :  "  The  Grant  men 
made  a  point  of  seeing  who  could  howl  loudest  and  longest,  and  cheered 
and  hurrahed  and  waved  flags  for  fifteen  minutes  —  Conkling  himself  con 
descending  to  wave.  After  they  had  tired  themselves  out,  the  Blaine  men 
took  it  up  and  shouted  twenty  minutes ; "  Mr.  Hale  says  the  Grant  men  got 
enough  of  it.  Four  of  their  tallest  men  mounted  on  settees  and  Hale 
mounted  on  their  shoulders  and  waved  the  flag,  expecting  every  minute,  he 
said,  that  he  should  fall  and  break  his  neck.  Think  of  the  position  for  a 
man  who  is  not  an  acrobat!  Meanwhile  Mr.  Blaine  went  oft* to  bed  dead 
sleepy,  and  is  this  morning  reading  the  papers  witli  provoking  indifference. 
He  is  not  of  course  indifferent,  but  he  is  self-possessed,  and  when  I  heard 
him  talking  yesterday,  with  all  the  force  and  fire  of  the  Senate,  1  thought 
it  was  a  pity  to  take  him  away  from  the  Senate  after  all.  Mr.  Chandler 
telegraphs,  as  things  are  now  he  considers  the  chances  of  Mr.  Blaine's 
nomination  as  4  to  1,  but  not  to  be  counted  on  till  it  comes. 

Through  34  ballots  Mr.  Blaine's  strength  could  not  be  shaken. 
Mr.  Sherman  on  the  thirtieth  ballot  rose  to  120.  Mr.  Wash- 
burne  to  44.  Mr.  Edmunds  never  again  went  so  high  as  on 
the  first  ballot,  and  Mr.  Windom  never  higher.  Mr.  Conkling 
on  the  thirty-first  ballot  received  his  only  vote,  1.  General 
Garfield  on  the  thirty-fourth  received  17  votes.  Mr.  Blaine  in 
Washington  Avas  in  constant  telegraphic  communication  with 
the  convention,  and  on  the  next  ballot  the  Blaine  forces  gave 
General  Garfield  250  votes.  On  the  thirty-sixth  ballot  the  out 
lying  forces  joined  the  Blaine  men  and  Garfield  received  899 
votes,  which  nominated  him. 

The  result  was  most  welcome  to  Mr.  Blaine.  Not  only  was  the 
third-term  movement  overthrown,  but  the  man  selected  was  his 
early  and  close  friend,  a  man  of  ideas  and  aspirations,  with  whom 
he  could  work  in  harmony  and  hope.  All  General  Garfield's 
political  weakness,  so  far  as  he  had  any,  lay  in  the  sphere  of  the 
lesser  rather  than  the  greater  politics.  Mr.  Blaine  used  to  tell 
him  banteringly  that  he  had  been  spoiled  by  his  constituents 
who  elected  and  reflected  him  so  entirely  as  a  matter  of  course 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  485 

that  he  did  not  know  what  personal   opposition  was  or  how  to 
handle  it. 

If  Mr.  Elaine's  friends  could  not  as  readily  as  himself  merge 
regrets  at  his  failure  to  receive  the  nomination,  in  rejoicings 
over  his  essential  and  important  triumph,  they  none  the  less 
overwhelmed  him  with  congratulations.  By  the  sagacity  and 
swiftness  of  his  self-devotion,  he  was  declared  to  have  averted  a 
dangerous  alternative  and  to  have  restored  a  defaced  and  dis. 
honored  ideal  of  patriotism ;  and  his  defeat  was  crowned  with 
the  tokens  of  victory. 

The  nomination  by  the  Democrats  of  the  beloved  and  honored 
General  Hancock  increased  the  uncertainty  of  the  result.  An 
ticipating  a  sharp  struggle  between  the  two  parties  Mr.  Elaine 
prepared  for  it  by  rest  at  White  Sulphur  Springs,  of  which  his 
own  account  June  22  is  : 

"Senator  Eooth  and  I  have  fallen  into  a  regular  and  very 
agreeable  routine  ;  rise  at  eight ;  spend  half  an  hour  at  the 
spring ;  breakfast  at  nine  ;  take  our  bath  at  twelve  ;  dine  at  two  ; 
do  nothing  in  particular  until  five  when  we  mount  two  easy 
good  riding  horses  and  ride  for  two  hours  ;  at  7.80  tea ;  at  ten 
we  retire. 

"We  have  a  cottage  of  three  rooms  all  to  ourselves,  and  are 
getting  along  very  lazily  and  very  .comfortably  and  I  think 
gaining  daily.  My  gout  is  rapidly  disappearing  and  I  think  I 
shall  come  out  all  bright  and  new." 

He  came  out,  as  lie  hoped,  bright  and  new.  His  spirit 
animated  his  friends,  and  those  who  had  been  first  in  seeking  his 
nomination  were  first  also  in  securing  General  Garfield's  elec 
tion.  The  "  Plumed  Knight"  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  eloquence,  four 
years  before  had  at  once  touched  the  imagination  of  men.  Mr. 
Elaine  deprecated  and  disallowed  it,  but  something  of  the  hero- 
worship  which  disappears  only  in  a  nation's  decadence  caught 
the  note  of  fitness,  a  touch  of  the  grace  and  graciousness  of  an 
earlier  time,  and  a  helmet  with  white  plume  became  the  signal 
of  the  hosts  who  fought  his  battle,  not  under  his  banner,  and 
won  the  victories  he  prized,  the  triumph  of  national  honor  and 
individual  well-being. 

Mr.  Conkling  had  not  been  able  to  accept  defeat  with  the 
patriotic  acquiescence  or  the  cheerful  anticipation  of  better  luck 


486  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

next  time,  which  characterizes  that  large  part  of  the  American 
people  that  is  doomed  to  annual  political  disappointment.  It 
remained  for  a  while  a  question  whether  he  would  join  the 
Republican  councils,  or  whether  he  would  actively  or  passively 
oppose  them.  His  defection  would  have  boen  greatly  regretted, 
his  adhesion  was  earnestly  desired.  Republicans,  however,  were 
confident  that  his  sincerity  and  his  sense  must  in  the  end  lead 
him  to  the  right  course. 

From  the  moment  of  Mr.  Gariield's  nomination  Mr.  Blame 
identified  himself  with  his  friend.  Letters,  notes,  suggestions, 
arguments,  questions,  answers,  flew  back  and  forth  between 
them.  Mr.  Blaine  bethought  himself,  occasionally,  to  make  a 
quasi-apology  for  his  abundant  proffer  of  opinion,  but  never 
until  the  proffer  had  been  made  !  The  two  men  walked  in 
harmony.  The}r  could  take  each  other  for  granted.  There  was 
no  more  friction  than  was  necessary  to  polish  and  perfection. 
They  had  the  same  ends  in  view,  and  where  they  differed  as  to 
means  they  compromised  on  the  best  practicable. 

While  Mr.  Blaine  was  still  at  White  Sulphur  Springs  General 
(larfield  wrote  him  from  Mentor,  Ohio,  June  29,  1880: 

MY  DEAR  BLAINE  :  I  was  greatly  disappointed  at  not  seeing  you  again 
before  I  left  Washington,  for  there  were  many  things  I  wanted  to  say  to 
you,  and  still  more  which  I  wanted  you  to  say  to  me.  .  .  .  The  feeling 
amon^  Republicans  generally  is  hopeful  and  good.  Your  friends,  partak 
ing  of  your  own  spirit,  are  generous  and  helpful,  because  they  love  a 
common  cause,  and  because  you  and  they  are  responsible  for  my  nomina 
tion.  In  one  quarter  alone  the  oracles  are  dumb  and  seem  not  yet  to  have 
determined  whether  it  shall  be  peace  or  war. 

I  have  not  yet  touched  the  letter  of  acceptance.  Please  write  me  your 
suggestions  on  any  phase  of  it  you  please,  but  specially  on  these  points  : 

1.  The  Chinese  question,  —  you  know  the  platform  is  pretty  full  on  that 
subject  —  but  our  Pacific  coast  friends  are  anxious,  and  this  side  the  moun 
tains  are  suspicious.     Please  write  such  a  paragraph  as  you  would  use. 

2.  The  civil  service  plank.     Please  give  me  your  best  thoughts  on  the 
subject,  and  embody  them  in  a  drafted  paragraph. 

3.  The  Southern  question. 

4.  The  silver  question  ;  and  finally  anything  else  that  is  in  your  heart. 

July  4  came  the  answer  from  White  Sulphur  Springs : 

MY  DEAR  GARFIELD  :  .  .  .  Let  me  answer  condensedly.  First,  on 
financial  question,  no  man  has  a  better  record  than  yourself,  and  no  man 


BIOGRAPIfY    OF    JAMES    (7.    BLAINE.  487 

can  express  himself  better.  You  need  neither  hint  nor  help  on  the  ques 
tion  in  any  of  its  phases.  Second,  on  Southern  question,  you  and  I  have 
not  at  all  times  precisely  agreed  ;  but  I  am  sure  you  will  find  it  easy  to  treat 
it  in  a  manner  that  will  satisfy  all  shades  of  Republican  opinion.  Third, 
on  Chinese  question,  you  must  recognize  that  the  three  Pacific  States  will 
be  largely,  if  not  entirely,  controlled  by  ii.  And  you  will,  I  think,  bo 
compelled  to  take  the  ground  that  a  servile  class  —  assimilating  in  all  its 
conditions  of  labor  to  chattel  slavery  —  must  be  excluded  from  free  immi 
gration.  It  is  far  better  that  you  should  clothe  the  proposition  in  your  own 
language  than  that  you  should  take  any  phrase  of  mine.  Your  letter  will 
be  thereby  more  completely  logical  and  harmonious. 

I  cannot  believe  that  New  York  parties  will  hold  back  from  your  cordial 
support.  A  little  time  must  be  allowed  for  pouting  and  petting;  but  they 
cannot  in  the  end  aftbrd  to  scuttle  a  ship  on  which  they  are  passengers. 
I  think  your  nomination  has  been  splendidly  received,  and  that  a  great 
wave  will  roll  over  the  country  bearing  you  onward  to  victory.  It  will 
start  just  about  the  time  the  pop  beer  corks  for  Hancock  have  2(\\  fizzed  out. 
God  bless  you  and  preserve  you!  If  I  had  not  the  watering-place  la/iness 
full  upon  me  I  would  write  more,  but  I  presume  you  thank  me  for  making 
it  so  brief. 

MENTOR,  O.,  July  21,  1880. 

Mv  DEAR  BLAINE  :  Thanks  for  your  good  letter  of  the  4th  hist. 

I  think  you  and  I  are  not  far  apart  on  any  essential  doctrine  of  the 
party. 

How  do  you  find  the  situation  in  Maine?  By  this  time,  you  know  it  with 
your  peculiar  thoroughness. 

Did  you  get  the  inside  of  affairs  in  Old  Virginia,  so  as  to  see  any  good 
likely  to  come  to  us  from  their  fight? 

Let  me  know  your  plans  and  hopes,  and  always  send  me  any  sugges 
tions.  I  don't  see  how  the  New  York  friends  can  stand  oft'  very  long.  I 
give  them  time  and  silence  as  the  best  I  can  do  for  them. 

MENTOR,  O.,  July  30,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  BLAINE  :  .  .  .  The  trip  to  New  York  was  greatly  against 
my  judgment.  But,  at  last,  the  committee  are  nearly  or  quite  unanimous 
that  I  ought  to  go.  .  .  .  It  is  therefore  too  late  to  retreat,  as  I 
have  just  telegraphed  you,  and,  my  dear  friend,  you  must  stand  by  me. 
Many  of  our  friends  who  have  written  me  think  there  are  evidences  that 
a  few  leaders  in  New  York  meditate  treachery,  and  say  that  the  visit 
will  either  prevent  it  or  so  develop  it,  that  the  country  will  understand 
it  and  place  the  responsibility  where  it  belongs.  Of  one  thing  you  may 
be  assured :  There  shall  be  no  surrender  to  any  unreasonable  demand.  I 
will  do  nothing  to  compromise  myself  or  the  noble  men  who  stand  up  to 
the  fight.  Of  course,  it  is  possible  that  the  trip  will  make  matters  worse 
rather  than  better,  but  the  risk  must  now  be  taken ;  T  am  sure  you  will  not 
disappoint  me.  I  want  to  go  over  the  ground  with  you  so  soon  as  I  reach 


488  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

New  York,  and  I  want  you  to  find  the  exact  situation  if  possible  before  I 
arrive.  I  want  to  know  how  large  a  force  C.  has  behind  him,  and  just 
what  the  trouble  is.  I  will  not  be  treated  as  a  suspected  Republican.  If  1 
cannot  have  comradeship  with  the  leaders  of  the  party,  there  shall  be  no 
relations  whatever.  I  think  the  letter  of  acceptance  is  broad  enough  and 
generous  enough  for  all  who  want  success.  If  the  Regulars  wish  to  repel 
the  Independents,  they  want  the  party  defeated.  If  that  is  the  situation 
we  ought  to  know  it. 

Mr.  Blaine  took  up  the  electoral  contest  as  his  own,  beginning 
as  usual  with  Maine-,  whose  State  election  in  September  was 
always  considered  to  strike  the  note  for  the  national  election  of 
November.  Maine  had  another  disappointment  to  overcome  in 
the  loss  of  her  candidate,  the  Republicans  did  not  gain  the  full 
effect  of  their  victory  in  the  count-out  until  two  years  of  dis 
cussion  had  fully  set  forth  its  character  to  the  people,  change 
in  the  Constitution  had  for  the  first  time  given  the  election  to 
a  plurality ;  and  Fusionists  and  Democrats  worked  together 
with  renewed  hope  and  with  a  success  most  valuable  to  the 
Republicans.  At  the  State  election  September  13,  1880,  there 
was  no  majority.  The  Fusion  candidate  in  nearly  150,000 
votes  had  a  plurality  of  less  than  200.  The  disaffected  and 
indifferent  were  roused  to  a  sense  of  danger,  to  a  consciousness 
that  if  a  national  victory  were  to  be  achieved  it  would  only  be 
by  combined  and  constant  effort. 

UI  am  watching  your  splendid  campaign  in  Maine  with  great 
satisfaction  and  pride,"  wrote  General  Garfield  on  the  seventh 
of  September;  and  again  on  the  fourteenth  : 

The  Democracy  of  Maine  has  again  enabled  you  to  fight  a  great  battle 
in  the  presence  of  the  nation  for  the  purity  of  the  ballot-box.  .  .  . 

I  will  have  your  Ohio  meetings  announced  to-morrow  morning  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  programme  I  mailed  you  some  days  ago. 

With  kindest  regards  and  with  great  admiration  for  the  energy  you 
have  displayed  in  this  remarkable  campaign,  I  remain, 

As  ever,  your  friend, 

J.  A.  GARFIELD. 

Many  were  dismayed  by  the  Maine  election.  General  Gar- 
field  preserved  his  equanimity.  Mr.  Blaine  saw  only  in 
ducement  to  redoubled  effort.  He  went  through  the  country 
speaking  with  unabated  energy  till  his  voice  failed  him. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     RLAINE.  489 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  October  29,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  GARFIELD  :  I  have  your  kind  note  of  inouiry.  My  health  is 
good;  my  trouble  was  like  Hancock's  tariff  issue,  "  purely  local.11  I  had 
rough  hoarseness  which  prevented  my  speaking,  but  I  was  not  sorry  to  be 
forced  to  come  home.  I  have  been  doing  some  effective  work  here. 
I  think  your  election  is  sure.  You  will  have  every  northern  State,  I 
think.  I  regard  Nevada  as  the  least  certain.  I  do  not  feel  absolutely 
certain  of  California.  But  there  will  be  enough.  Your  triumph  will  be 
as  joyous  to  me  as  my  own  would  have  been.  All  that  I  am,  all  that  I 
can  do,  will  be  at  the  service  of  your  administration.  My  love  to  your 
wife  and  my  respectful  salutation  to  your  venerable  mother.  "What  a 
proud  woman  the  Queen  maun  be  !  "  Will  endeavor  to  telegraph  you  early 
Tuesday  evening  of  the  result  in  Maine. 

A  part  of  this  "effective  work"  appeared  the  same  day  in 
the  "  Bangor  Whig  and  Courier,  "  in  a  letter  written  by  Mr. 
Elaine  to  a  prominent  and  influential  Irish  citizen  in  Eastern 
Maine  : 

I  received  your  friendly  letter  with  much  pleasure.  Let  me  say  in 
reply,  that  the  course  of  yourself  and  other  Irish  voters  is  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  anomalies  in  our  political  history.  Never,  probably,  since 
the  execution  of  Robert  Emmet,  has  the  feeling  of  Irishmen,  the  world 
over,  been  so  bitter  against  England  and  Englishmen  as  it  is  at  this  hour; 
and  yet  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  voters  in  the  United  States  will,  on 
Tuesday  next,  vote  precisely  as  Englishmen  would  have  them  vote  —  for 
the  interests  of  England. 

Having  seen  Ireland  reduced  to  misery  and  driven  to  despair  by  what 
they  regard  as  the  unjust  policy  of  England,  the  Irishmen  of  America  use 
their  suffrage  as  though  they  were  the  agents  and  servants  of  the  English 
Tories.  The  Free-traders  of  England  desire  nothing  so  much  as  the  defeat 
of  Garfield  and  the  election  of  Hancock.  They  wish  to  break  down 
the  protective  tariff  and  cripple  our  manufactures,  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
Irish  voters  in  this  country  respond  with  alacrity,  "  Yes,  we  will  do  your 
bidding  and  vote  to  please  you,  even  though  it  reduce  our  own  wages  and 
take  the  bread  from  the  mouths  of  our  children.11 

There  are  many  able  men  and  many  clever  writers  among  the  Irish  in 
America,  but  I  have  never  met  any  one  of  them  able  enough  or  clever 
enough  to  explain  this  anomaly  on  any  basis  of  logic  and  good  sense 

I  am  glad  to  see  from  your  esteemed  favor  that  the  subject  is  beginning 
to  trouble  you.  The  more  you  think  of  it  the  more  you  will  be  troubled, 
I  am  sure.  And  you  will  be  driven  finally  to  the  conclusion  that  the  pros 
perity  of  the  Irish  in  Ihis  country  depends  as  largely  as  that  of  any  other 
class  upon  the  maintenance  of  the  financial  and  industrial  policy  repre 
sented  by  the  Republican  party. 


490  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Garfield  was  elected  by  a  majority  which  admitted  no  dis 
pute,  and  Mr.  Blaine  adopted  his  administration  with  absorb 
ing  ardor.  The  cross-tire  of  letters,  notes,  and  suggestions 
went  on  with  renewed  enthusiasm.  Mr.  Blame's  mind  was 
teeming  with  purposes,  plans,  hopes.  Large  questions  of 
policy,  secondary  yet  scarcely  subordinate  questions  of  persons, 
alike  engaged  his  attention.  He  watched  every  sign  of  the 
times  for  harm  or  help  to  the  new  administration.  '*  I  can  see 
you  smiling,"  he  wrote  to  General  Garrield,  "  at  my  arguing 
a  point  that  is  in  every  sense  absurd,  but  I  am  talking  from  the 
Washington  and  not  the  Mentor  standpoint." 

SENATE  CHAMBER,  December  10,  1880. 

I  redeem  a  promise  made  you  to  write  fully  and  freely  ...  in  striet 
confidence.  I  shall  discuss  many  topics  under  several  heads : 

1.  The  more  I  think  of  the  State  Department  the  more  I  am  inclined 
thereto,  though  up  to  this  time,  and  still  continuing,  my  mind  is  the  theatre 
of  conflicting  arguments  and  even  emotions.     I  believe  with  you  as  Presi 
dent,  and  in  your  full  confidence,  I  could  do  much  to  build  up  the  party  as 
the  result  of  strong  and  wise  policy.     I  find  myself  drawn  towards  it,  and 
possibly   by  the  date   which   you  fixed  as  a  limit  I  may   be  wholly  and 
enthusiastically  disposed  thereunto.     .     .     . 

2.  ...    You  are  to  have  a  second  term  or  to  be  overthrown 

by  the  Grant  crowd.  .  .  .  An  analysis  of  the  Chicago  vote  before  your 
name  came  forward  shows  that  out  of  167  actual  or  possible  Republican 
districts  in  the  country,  Grant  had  only  32,  his  delegates  being  almost 
wholly  from  States  and  districts  hopelessly  Democratic.  Sherman, 
Edmunds,  and  Washburne  had  only  36  Republican  districts  behind  them 
all  while  I  had  99-  My  vote  became  your  vote — and  the  final  division 
when  Sherman  and  the  others  were  all  welded  as  against  Grant  is  as 
follows : 

Garfield,  135  Republican  districts. 

Grant,         32 

But  the  Grant  forces  were  never  more  busy  than  at  this  hour.  .  .  . 
Of  course  it  would  not  be  wise  to  make  war  on  them.  Indeed,  that  would 
be  folly.  They  must  not  be  knocked  down  with  bludgeons  :  they  must 
have  their  throats  cut  with  a  feather.  .  .  .  The  Republican  party  of 
this  country  is  divided  into  three  sections.  First  the  great  body  of  the 
North,  with  congressional  representation  and  electoral  strength  behind 
it,  is  with  the  section  which  for  convenience  of  designation  I  will  call  the 
Blaine  section, — I  mean  the  strength  behind  me  in  two  national  conven 
tions.  In  some  States  this  strength  went  for  "  favorite  sons,1'  as  Ohio  for 
Hayes  in  '76  and  Sherman  in  '80.  You  are  the  only  Ohio  man  who  on  pure 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  491 

absolute  personal  preference  could  have  beaten  me  in  that  State  either  in  76 
or 'SO.  It  was  the  "locality-struck"  that  carried  it  against  me  both  for 
Hayes  and  Sherman.  Now  this  Blaine  section  is  all  yours  with  some 
additional  strength  that  Blaine  could  not  get,  and  represents  the  reliable 
strong  background  of  preference,  friendship,  and  love  on  which  your 
administration  must  rest  for  success.  I  use  the  designation  "  Blaine  "  only 
for  convenience  to  identify  the  class.  They  are  all  now  Garfield  without 
rebate  or  reserve  "  waiving  demand  and  notice." 

The  second  section  is  the  Grant  section,  taking  all  the  South  practically, 
with  the  machine  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Illinois  —  and  having  the 
aid  of  rule  or  ruin  leaders.  ...  I  think  I  am  not  wrong  in  saying  that 
this  section  contains  all  the  desperate  bad  men  of  the  party,  bent  on  loot 
and  booty,  and  ready  for  any  Mexican  invasion  or  Caribbean  annexation,  and 
looking  to  excitements  and  filibustering  and  possibly  to  a  Spanish  war  as 
legitimate  means  of  continuing  political  power  for  a  clique.  These  men 
are  to  be  handled  with  skill,  always  remembering  that  they  are  harmless 
when  out  of  power,  and  desperate  when  in  possession  of  it. 

The  third  section  is  the  Reformers  by  profession,  the  "unco  good." 
They  are  to  be  treated  with  respect,  but  they  are  the  worst  possible  political 
advisers  —  upstarts,  conceited,  foolish,  vain,  without  knowledge  of  meas 
ures,  ignorant  of  men,  shouting  a  shibboleth  which  represents  nothing  of 
practical  reform  that  you  are  not  a  thousand  times  pledged  to !  They 
are  noisy  but  not  numerous,  pharisaical  but  not  practical,  ambitious  but 
not  wise,  pretentious  but  not  powerful!  They  can  be  easily  dealt  with, 
and  can  be  hitched  to  your  administration  with  ease.  1  could  handle  them 
myself  without  trouble.  You  can  do  it  more  easily  still. 

In  this  threefold  division  of  the  Republican  party,  your  true  friends 
will  be  found  on  the  first. 

In  the  second  section  will  be  found  all  the  men  who  have  an  ulterior 
purpose,  who  accept  your  administration  because  they  cannot  help  it,  and 
are  looking  as  longingly  to  a  restoration  of  Grant  as  the  cavaliers  of  Eng 
land,  in  the  time  of  the  Protector,  looked  for  a  return  of  the  Stuarts. 

The  third  section  can  be  made  to  cooperate  harmoniously  with  the  first, 
but  never  with  the  second,  —  you  can  see  that  at  a  glance. 

I  have  written  at  immoderate  and  immodest  length  :  my  pen  ran  away 
from  me  !  I  find  all  that  I  have  said  is  merely  introductory  to  a  personal 
discussion  of  Cabinet  ministers,  which  I  shall  venture  to  lay  before  you  in 
a  subsequent  note  if  you  desire  it.  That  you  can  indicate ;  ...  of 
course  I  do  not  ask  assent,  dissent,  or  comment  from  you.  But  I  desire 
to  submit  certain  views  touching  men  which  may  in  the  end  prove  valuable 
to  you,  if  you  wish  to  receive  them. 

I  wish  you  would  say  to  Mrs.  Garfield  that  the  knowledge  that  she  de 
sires  me  in  your  Cabinet  is  more  valuable  to  me  than  even  the  desire  of  the 
President-elect  himself.  Indeed,  I  would  not  think  of  going  into  the  Cabi 
net  at  all  if  Mrs.  Garfield  was  not  friendly  and  favorable.  Please  read 
this  letter  to  her  and  her  alone. 


492  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

WASHINGTON,  December  13,  1880. 

If  you  will  turn  to  the  treaty  of  Washington  you  will  see  that  the 
concessions  and  guarantees  contained  in  xviii  to  xxv,  and  in  articles 
xxviii,  xxix,  xxx,  have  a  ten-year  limit  for  notice  and  two  years  after 
notice.  This  throws  the  whole  subject  open  for  fresh  and  I  hope  more 
lasting  adjustment  during  your  "first  term."  The  subjects  involved  are 
the  Fisheries,  the  navigation  of  Lake  Michigan  by  British  vessels,  the 
freedom  of  the  St.  John,  the  right  of  transit  for  Canadian  goods  through 
our  territory,  the  free  international  use  of  the  Wclland  canal,  the  St.  Clair 
Flats  canal,  and  many  other  topics.  In  short  it  opens  the  whole  Canadian 
question  and  gives  a  splendid  opportunity  to  achieve  some  things  of 
which  we  have  already  spoken. 

Whereupon  in  the  most  provoking  manner  in  comes  a  petty  little 
proposition  to  institute  a  commission  now  on  the  Fisheries  on  account  of 
the  Fortune  Bay  shindy  —  the  result  of  which  will  be  that  on  the  magnifi 
cent  domain  for  diplomacy  which  properly  opens  to  your  administration 
in  March,  1881,  you  will  find  some  obtrusive  squatters  whom  you  will  be 
compelled  to  warn  off  before  you  can  begin  proper  settlements  and 
improvements.  I  do  not  wish  to  take  any  notice  of  the  movements  or 
make  the  slightest  criticism,  lest  I  might  seem  to  give  color  to  rumors 
about  the  State  Department  which  thus  far  are  the  merest  wild,  vague 
speculation,  and  upon  which  I  have  never  given  a  wink.  But  can't  you 
quietly  drop  a  note  to  Hayes  suggesting  that  the  whole  question  of  a 
readjustment  of  Canadian  matters  should  be  left  without  embarrassment  to 
your  administration?  He  will  be  compelled  to  take  heed  of  the  simplest 
request  you  can  make,  and  thus  the  matter  can  be  very  quietly  ended. 

[     want  you   to  read   my   letters  to   Mrs.  Garfield ; 
the  advice  of  a  sensible  woman  in  matters  of  statecraft  is  invaluable. 

Don't  be  afraid  that  I  intend  to  write  you  daily. 

DECEMBER  15,  1880. 

I  do  not  know  but  that  my  reference  to  Mrs.  Garfield  as  a  valuable 
adviser  needs  some  explanation.  I  know  that  all  her  instinct  will  be 
right  and  all  her  counsel  valuable.  I  want  her  to  be  to  you  what  the  wives  of 
several  of  your  *«  illustrious  predecessors  "  have  been  to  their  husbands. 
Mrs.  Washington  made  it  possible  for  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  to  get 
along  in  the  same  Cabinet,  kept  John  Adams  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
Pater  Patriae,  and  preserved  Washington  from  extravagance  and  ill 
temper  on  the  French  question.  She  is  also  credited  by  good  social 
tradition  with  the  tact  which  secured  the  confirmation  of  Jay's  Treaty  — 
especially  for  inducing  Fisher  Ames1  great  speech. 

Mrs.  Madison  saved  the  administration  of  her  husband  —  held  him  back 
from  the  extremes  of  Jeffersonism  and  enabled  him  to  escape  from  the 
terrible  dilemma  of  the  war  of  '12.  But  for  her,  DeWitt  Clinton  would 
have  been  chosen  President  in  1812.  Did  you  ever  notice,  by  the  way,  how 
fearfully  near  he  came  to  it  any  way  ? 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  493 

Mrs.  Polk  saved  her  husband  from  the  blunder  of  making  Benton 
Lieutenant-Genoral  and  placing  him  in  command  over  Scott  and  Taylor  ; 
and  she  tried  to  avert  the  blunder  of  stripping  Taylor  of  his  army  while 
on  the  Saltillo  line  for  the  City  of  Mexico — a  petty  persecution  which 
went  far  to  make  Taylor  President  two  years  after. 

I  could  give  examples  on  the  other  side,  but  I  prefer  to  mention  ladies 
only  in  the  language  of  compliment.  .  .  . 

From  all  these  blunders  Mrs.  Garfield  will  be  assuredly  and  happily 
exempt,  and  1  augur  the  happiest  results  from  her  advent.  I  am  very 
anxious  and  ambitious  to  see  your  administration  a  great  social  success 
as  well  as  a  great  political  success,  and  the  one  has  very  much  to  do 
with  the  other.  .  .  .  Your  administration  will  never  incur  similar 
hazards,  but  you  must  not  neglect  or  overlook  brilliant  society  prestige 
as  among  the  political  dynamics.  I  hope  Mrs.  Garfield  will  excuse  the 
freedom  with  which  I  use  her  name.  I  only  mean  by  it  to  attest  the 
confidence  with  which  I  look  forward  to  her  command  of  the  social  forces 
which  will  so  much  contribute  to  the  glory  of  your  reign. 

MENTOR,  O.,  December  19,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  ELAINE.  Yours  of  the  10th,  13th,  and  15th  came  duly  to 
hand  and  were  read  with  great  interest.  I  have  been  so  raided  upon 
that  1  have  not  been  able  to  acknowledge  them  until  now.  Besides,  I 
have  had  some  serious  work  with  a  party  of  important  persons  —  with  a 
prospect  of  a  serious,  perhaps  dangerous,  misunderstanding.  I  think, 
however,  that  1  shall  see  daylight  through  the  tangle.  .  .  .  Your 
grouping  of  the  elements  which  now  compose  the  Republican  party  is 
striking,  and  I  think  is  correct.  I  have  not  yet  seen  a  complete  list  of 
the  Chicago  delegates,  but  I  think  the  per  cents,  you  give  are  nearly 
accurate.  Your  first  group  is,  no  doubt,  tlie  chief  electing  force  of  the 
party.  The  second,  though  quite  inferior  as  an  electing  force,  was 
nevertheless  the  leading  nominating  force,  and  hence  passes  in  public 
estimation  for  more  than  it  really  is.  For  this  reason,  among  others,  it 
must  not  be  ignored  or  neglected.  In  your  next  letter  please  give 
me  your  views  of  the  best  way  to  recognize  it,  so  as  not  to  be  shackled, 
and  yet  to  do  fair  justice.  The  third  group,  the  Independents,  are  very 
impracticable  in  methods,  but  still  they  embrace  a  class  of  people  who 
ought  to  be  with  us  —  and  reasonable  pains  should  be  taken  to  retain 
them.  They  did  good  service  in  the  late  campaign.  My  idea,  in  refer 
ence  to  their  question,  is  that  we  should  harness  all  the  civil  service  reform 
sentiment  of  the  country  to  the  work  of  getting  Congress  to  pass  a  law 
defining  and  fixing  the  tenure  of  the  great  mass  of  inferior  offices  and  the 
ground  for  removals,  and  thus  remove,  as  far  as  possible,  from  Congress 
and  the  Executive,  the  endless  annoyance  that  comes  from  the  swarm  of 
small  office-seekers.  Offer  this  as  a  beginning  —  to  be  followed  up  later, 
if  the  experiment  is  successful.  Let  the  Reformers  wrestle  with  Congress 
rather  than  with  the  Executive.  How  does  this  strike  you  ? 


494  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

Please  write  me  fully  your  view  of  persons  who  come  in  the  range  of 
wise  choice.  Tell  me  also  what  you  think  would  be  the  attitude  of  .the 
second  group  towards  you  incase  you  should  go  into  the  State  Department. 
I  will  write  to  the  President  and  suggest  that  the  Canadian  question  be  not 
taken  up  piecemeal.  I  have  sent  your  letters  to  Mrs.  Garn'eld,  who  has 
greatly  enjoyed  your  terse  and  vigorous  characterizations  of  the  various 
classes  that  make  up  our  Republican  array.  Let  me  hear  from  you  again 
soon. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  A.  GARFIELD. 

DECEMBER  23,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  GARFIELD:  ...  In  answer  I  can  say  that  second  section, 
so  far  as  I  can  see,  would  take  the  appointment  very  cordially,  all  the 
Grant  Senators,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  being  outspoken.  .  .  . 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

WASHINGTON,  December  20,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  GARFIELD  :  I  enclose  one  of  the  most  important  letters 
(to  myself)  which  I  ever  wrote. 

I  send  it  under  cover  to  you  because  I  wish  no  eye  but  yours  and  the 
General's  to  see  it.  Its  conclusion  need  not  be  made  public  until  after 
inauguration. 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  December  20,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  GARFIELD  :  Your  generous  invitation  to  enter  your  Cab 
inet  as  Secretary  of  State  has  been  under  consideration  for  more  than 
three  weeks.  The  thought  had  never  once  occurred  to  my  mind  until  you 
presented  it,  with  such  cogent  arguments  in  its  favor  and  with  such 
warmth  of  personal  friendship  in  aid  of  your  kind  offer. 

I  know  that  an  early  answer  is  desirable,  and  I  have  waited  only  long 
enough  to  make  up  my  mind  definitely  and  conclusively.  I  therefore  say 
to  you,  in  the  same  cordial  spirit  in  which  you  invited  me,  that  I  accept 
the  position. 

It  is  proper  for  me  to  add  that  I  make  this  decision,  not  for  the  honor 
of  the  promotion  it  gives  me  in  the  public  service,  but  because  I  believe  I 
can  be  useful  to  the  country  and  the  party,  —  useful  to  you  as  the  responsi 
ble  leader  of  the  party  and  the  great  head  of  the  government.  I  am 
influenced  somewhat,  perhaps,  by  the  letters  I  am  daily  receiving  urging  me 
to  accept,  written  to  me  in  consequence  of  the  mere  unauthorized  news 
paper  report  that  you  were  intending  to  offer  me  the  place.  I  have  been 
especially  pleased  and  even  surprised  at  the  cordial  and  widely  extended 
feeling  in  my  favor  throughout  New  England. 

In  accepting  this  important  post  I  shall  give  all  that  I  am  and  all  that  I 
can  hope  to  be  freely  and  joyfully  to  your  service.  You  need  no  pledge 
of  my  loyalty  both  in  heart  and  in  act.  I  should  be  false  to  myself  did  I 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  495 

not  prove  true  to  the  great  trust  you  confide  to  me  and  to  your  own 
personal  and  political  fortunes  in  the  present  and  in  the  future. 

Your  administration  must  be  made  brilliantly  successful  and  strong  in 
the  confidence  and  pride  of  the  people;  not  obviously  directing  its 
energies  to  reelection,  but  compelling  that  result  by  the  logic  of  events 
and  by  the  imperious  necessities  of  the  situation. 

To  that  most  desirable  consummation  I  feel  that,  next  to  yourself,  I  can 
contribute  more  influence  than  any  other  man.  I  say  this,  not  from 
egotism  or  vain-glory,  but  merely  as  a  deduction  from  an  analysis  of 
the  political  forces  which  have  been  at  work  in  the  country  for  five  years 
past,  and  which  will  be  operative  for  many  years  to  come. 

I  hail  it  as  one  of  the  happiest  circumstances  connected  with  this 
important  affair,  that  in  allying  my  political  fortunes  with  yours  — or 
rather  merging  mine  in  yours  —  my  heart  goes  with  my  head,  and  that  I 
carry  to  you,  not  only  political  support,  but  personal  and  devoted  friend 
ship.  I  can  but  regard  it  as  somewhat  remarkable  that  two  men  of  the 
same  age,  entering  Congress  at  the  same  time,  influenced  by  the  same 
aims  and  ambitions,  should  never,  for  a  single  moment  in  eighteen  years, 
have  a  misunderstanding  or  a  coolness,  and  that  their  friendship  has 
steadily  strengthened  with  their  strength. 

It  is  this  fact  which  has  led  me  to  the  momentous  conclusion  embodied  in 
this  letter,  —  for  however  much  I  might  admire  you  as  a  statesman,  I  would 
not  enter  your  Cabinet  if  I  did  not  believe  in  you  as  a  man  and  love  you 

as  a  friend. 

Faithfully  yours, 

J.  G.    BLAINE. 

MENTOR,  ().,  December  23,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  BLAINE  :  Yours  of  the  20th  inst.  is  at  hand,  and  gives  me 
great  satisfaction.  Our  long  and  eventful  service  together,  and  our  friend 
ship,  never  for  a  moment  interrupted,  but  tested  in  so  many  ways,  give 
assurance  that  we  can  happily  unite  in  working  out  the  important  prob 
lems  which  confront  us.  I  would  not  rejoice  in  your  decision  if  I  did  not 
confidently  believe  that  you  can  serve  the  country,  in  the  new  field,  even 
more  effectively  than  in  the  position  you  now  so  worthily  fill. 

The  whole-heartednesswith  which  you  accede  to  my  request  is  everyway 
gratifying,  and  goes  far  to  lighten  the  burden  whose  weight  I  feel  in 
advance.  It  will  be  better  for  you,  and  is  indispensably  necessary  to  me, 
that  this  decision  should  be  known  to  nobody  but  ourselves  and  our  wives. 

.  .  .  I  have  written  to  the  President  in  reference  to  the  Fisheries  and 
other  Canadian  questions.  .  .  . 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.  Elaine  : 

NEW  YORK,  December  24,  1880. 

Your  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  should  be  taken  from  the  West.  This 
is  soi  evident  that  I  do  not  stop  to  argue.  He  must  be  identified  with 


496  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

an  agricultural  community,  not  a  manufacturing  or  commercial  com 
munity. 

The  West  to  which  you  are  limited  embraces  these  Sates :  Ohio,  Indi 
ana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa.  These  seven  and 
no  more !  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Missouri  geographically  west  are 
politically  south.  Kansas  and  Nebraska  arc  classed  and  grouped  witli 
States  and  Territories  beyond  the  Missouri  —  distinct  in  location  and  in  inter 
est.  I  assume  you  do  not  want  to  take  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  from 
Ohio.  .  .  . 

Then  comes  Allison.  You  reach  him  by  the  process  of  exclusion,  be 
cause  you  can  find  no  other  man  in  the  Territory  named  so  fit — nor  is 
there  any  other  man  so  fit,  with  you  and  John  Sherman  counted  out.  Sher 
man  said  the  other  day  that  he  thought  Allison  better  posted  in  financial 
legislation  than  any  man  in  Congress,  except  Garfield  and  Elaine.  This 
is  authentic.  Allison  is  known  to  you  thoroughly  —  and  long.  He  is 
true,  kind,  reasonable,  fair,  honest,  and  good.  He  is  methodical,  indus 
trious,  and  intelligent  —  and  would  be  a  splendid  man  to  sail  along  with 
smoothly  and  successfully.  He  would  always  hearken  to  your  views.  In 
the  whole  United  States  I  do  not  believe  you  could  do  so  well. 

With  you  as  President,  taking  your  two  chief  advisers  from  the  friends 
of  your  manhood  —  who  all  entered  Congress  the  same  day,  all  the  same 
age  nearly,  and  all  three  in  unbroken  harmony  of  friendship  for  eighteen 
years — there  would  be  presented  a  picture  without  a  precedent — poetic 
as  well  as  political. 

[  do  not  wish  to  urge  any  man  upon  you,  but  I  want  you  to  have  a 
perfectly  staunch  friend  in  the  Treasury.  Shall  send  you  some  other  sug- 


General  Garfield,  to  Mr.  Blaine : 

MENTOR,  O.,  January  7,  1881. 

I  note  what  you  say  in  reference  to  the  Treasury.  How  do  you  think 
your  suggestion  would  be  received  by  the  protective  tariff  men  and  the 
very  hard  money  men ;  in  short,  by  Eastern  Republicans  ?  Could  he  put 
himself  in  line  on  those  questions,  so  as  to  leave  no  serious  discord  between 
his  view  and  mine  ?  Please  be  ready  and  give  me  very  certain  information 
on  these  points.  We  must  not  take  any  backward  steps  in  finance  —  though 
I  think  we  can  broaden  the  field  so  as  to  include  more  of  our  friends  than 
we  have  done  heretofore. 

Don't  fail  to  get  through  a  funding  bill  (at  not  less  than  .'»£  per  cent.) 
before  January  ends. 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.   Blaine : 

WASHINGTON,  January  7,  1881. 

I  am  glad  you  have  sent  for  Colonel  Hay,  and  now  as  Lincoln  used  to  say 
to  Stanton,  "  You  can  fight  it  out  between  you."  .  .  . 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    SLA  INK.  497 

All  kind  of  speculation  rages  here  about  the  Cabinet,  but  I  hope  you  stub 
bornly  adhere  to  your  determination  to  consider  February  and  the  first  four 
days  of  March  as  better  for  decision  than  December  or  January.  Cabinet- 
making-  is  a  trade  that  becomes  quickly  embarrassed  if  it  be  conducted 
with  long  paper.  Don't  put  any  out.  See  how  freely  I  dispense  advice. 
Perhaps  you  can  as  easily  dispense  with  it. 

General  Garfield  was  a  large-natured  man  and  could  not  be 
made  to  see  that  smaller  natures  could  find  aught  objectionable 
in  a  continuance  of  the  old  close  relations.  General  Garfield 
desired  Mr.  Blaine  to  come  to  Mentor,  and  it  was  the  latter  who 
had  to  suggest  that  it  might  "  lead  to  infinite  gossip  about  '  fixing 
up  a  Cabinet'  —  might  arouse  suspicion,  start  unpleasant  rumor, 
and  create  needless  prejudice." 

Mr.  Conkling  had  allowed  himself  to  be  partially  conciliated 
before  the  election  and  had  aided  in  the  electoral  struggle,  but 
became  an  increasingly  prominent  object  for  conciliation  after  the 
election.  General  Garfield  and  Mr.  Blaine  were  equally  desir 
ous  of  harmony  in  the  interests  of  effectiveness,  but  neither 
was  willing  to  sacrifice  one  faction  to  another.  They  believed 
that  justice  and  patience  Avould,  in  the  end,  destroy  faction  and 
beget  peace.  The  question  was  indeed  considered  by  Mr.  Gar- 
field,  Mr.  Blaine,  and  some  others,  whether  a  reconciliation 
might  not  be  brought  about  by  asking  Mr.  Conkling  into  the 
Cabinet.  General  Garfield  thought  that  if  he  should  accept  and 
there  should  be  peace  all  would  be  well.  If  it  were  to  be  war, 
fighting  at  short  range  might  be  better  than  from  behind  the 
entrenchments  of  an  executive  session.  Yet  he  could  never 
quite  get  his  own  consent  to  the  suggestion,  though  there  was  a 
certain  audacity  in  it  that  made  it  interesting.  Mr.  Blaine  on 
reflection  felt  that  it  would  be  unwise  and  impracticable,  partly 
for  reasons  personal  to  Mr.  Conkling,  partly  because  it  would 
produce  a  coalition  Cabinet  with  proverbial  failure  waiting 
upon  it,  and  would  alienate  the  50,000  Garfield  Republicans  of 
New  York  at  the  outset. 

It  would  be  personally  unpleasant  and  politically  disastrous  to  have  him 
in  Cabinet  association.  ...  No  Cabinet  could  get  along  with  him,  nor 
could  the  President  himself.  .  .  .  He  would  insult  everybody  hav 
ing  business  with  his  department  whom  he  did  not  happen  to  like,  and 
he  really  happens  to  dislike  about  ninety-nine  in  every  hundred  of  his 


498  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

acquaintances.  .  .  .  Conkling  is  bound  to  go  with  you  anyway  if  your 
treatment  of  him  be  decent  and  honorable,  and  you  will  never  deal  other 
wise  with  him.  .  .  .  You  can  always  trust  a  man  not  to  saw  off  the 
limb  of  a  tree  when  he  is  on  the  other  end. 

General  Garfield,  to  Mr.  Blaine : 

MENTOR,  O.,  January  15,  1881. 

.  .  .  I  am  disappointed  at  your  resolution  about  coming  here,  for!  want 
to  see  you  for  very  many  reasons.  Still  it  mav  be  better  to  postpone  your 
coming  until  February  —  sometime  during  the  first  half  of  that  month.  I 
think  you  had  better  come  openly,  as  others  have  come,  and  let  the  public 
put  any  construction  on  it  they  please.  Perhaps  by  that  time  the  affairs 
in  New  York  will  be  in  such  a  shape  that  I  can  go  there.  But  until  the 
trials  are  disposed  of,  I  don't  think  it  best  to  put  myself  in  a  position  to  be 
clawed  over  by  a  Democratic  Tombs  lawyer.  I  had  heard  that  you 
favored  Wayne  McVeagh.  Don't  you  think  the  latter  would  meet  two 
wants,  viz.,  satisfy  Cameron,  and  please  the  Independents  ?  Write  me 
fully  on  these  points.  .  .  .  The  oftener  you  write  the  better  I  shall  be 
pleased. 

January  17.  How  do  you  feel  over  the  financial  outlook?  Think  of 
$1,300,000  of  money  in  circulation,  with  silver  certificates  increasing  in 
definitely,  the  coinage  of  89-cent  dollars  going  on  ad  nauseam,  and  from 
every  unknown  crack  and  cranny  of  the  world  the  old  fractional  silver, 
antedating  1800,  coming  back  to  us,  perhaps  being  manufactured  beyond 
our  jurisdiction,  and  shipped  here  at  a  profit  of  twenty-five  per  cent., 
and  no  law  for  retiring  it.  How  many  miles  above  Niagara  are  we  ? 

If  the  funding  bill  fixes  the  roll  at  three  per  cent.,  the  law  will  fail.  If 
no  bill  passes,  an  extra  session  may  be  necessary,  which  is  bad.  Write  me 
on  these  things. 

P.S.  What  I  have  said  about  old  fractional  silver  would  be  made  more 
dangerous  if  publicly  known. 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.  Blaine  : 

U.S.  SENATE,  January  18,  1881. 

Your  administration  must  be  as  actually  and  veritably  clean 
as  that  of  -        —  was  pretentiously  and  ostentatiously  so. 

JANUARY  20. 

Don't  say  no  to  the  following! 

My  judgment  is  very  strong  in  favor  of  your  coming  to  Washington  for 
a  week  or  ten  da}rs  —  say  from  any  day  next  week.  .  .  .  The  vast 
advantage  of  this  would  be  found  in  the  entire  removal  of  all  possible 
jealousy.  .  .  .  Every  man  that  goes  to  Mentor  (I  mean  every  leading 
man)  is  popularly  considered  to  be  invited  there,  and  those  who  are  not, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  499 

feel  jealous,  wounded,  and  angry.  If  you  came  here  you  could  hear 
every  man's  story,  all  on  equal  basis,  and  none  would  be  excluded.  If 
Conkling,  Logan,  Carpenter,  Edmunds,  and  all  others  did  not  then  see  you 
it  would  be  their  fault.  This  course  commits  you  to  nothing  except  a 
patient  and  courteous  hearing  of  the  party  chieftains,  and  a  fair  considera 
tion  of  their  personal  and  party  claims.  This  attention  and  civility,  which 
will  cost  you  nothing,  may  save  and  avert  infinite  annoyance,  and  serious 
trouble  afterward. 

This  idea  is  not  originally  mine,  but  I  most  cordially  and  unreservedly 
approve  it.  ...  Unless  you  have  some  overwhelming  reasons  to  the 
contrary  (which  I  cannot  anticipate)  I  beg  you  will  in  this  case  yield  to 
the  judgment  of  your  best  friends. 

From  General  Garfield,  to  Mr.  Blaine : 

MENTOR,  O.,  January  24,  1881. 

The  Conkling  men  want  me  to  go  to  them.  They  hear  rumors  which  dis 
quiet  them  ;  that  they  are  to  be  ignored,  etc.  The  road  to  Mentor  is  open 
and  they  shall  be  welcomed  and  treated  fairly.  Cameron  came,  and  I  do 
not  hear  that  he  complains  of  his  treatment.  One  Senator  writes  me  that 
Conkling  has  heard  that  I  interfered  against  him  in  the  New  York  sen 
atorial  election  (which  is  not  true),  and  the  writer  thinks  I  ought  to  go  to 
Washington  and  disabuse  his  mind  on  that  question.  I  am  not  a  suitor  for 
favors  at  the  hand  of  any  who  do  not  care  to  open  correspondence  with 
me,  and  to  appear  to  be  so  would  create  a  world  of  misunderstandings. 
If  in  the  end  they  are  treated  fairly,  it  will  cure  the  apprehension  of  evil 
they  now  feel.  In  making  the  visit  I  should  necessarily  be  compelled  to 
decline  interviews  with  so  many  people,  that  the  wounded  birds  would  be 
a  majority.  Besides,  I  know  it  will  not  be  possible  to  gratify  the  wishes, 
and  even  approximately  meet  the  expectations,  of  most  of  those  I  should 
consult.  Two  courses  are  open  to  me,  as  a  substitute  for  the  proposed 
visit :  First,  To  go  to  Washington  a  week  or  ten  days  before  the  inaugura 
tion,  leaving  the  full  cast  of  the  Cabinet  open  until  then.  Second,  To  invite 
Conkling  and  Logan  and  such  others  as  may  be  thought  best  to  visit  me 
here  soon.  What  do  you  think  of  these  propositions? 

I  understand  your  embarrassment  in  coming.  It  is  enhanced  by  the  talk 
of  a  class  of  people  that  you  are  to  dominate  the  administration  to  the  ex 
clusion  of  other  elements.  You  can  do  a  great  deal  to  allay  that  fear.  If 
those  I  have  named  should  come,  or  even  be  invited,  it  would  relieve  your 
visit  of  embarrassment.  ...  I  have  only  cared  to  keep  your  designa 
tion  to  the  State  Department  a  secret  until  well  into  February.  Then  I 
prefer  it  should  be  known.  The  public  has  already  passed  judgment  upon 
the  wisdom  of  the  choice ;  and  the  only  motive  I  have  had  for  secrecy  was 
to  prevent  the  jealousy  of  rival  forces.  I  mean  to  make  an  appointment  / 
for  New  York  which  shall  give  Conkling  no  just  ground  of  complaint,  and/ 
no  undue  advantage  if  he  means  fight. 


500  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

The  Southern  member  still  eludes  rne,  as  Creusa's  image  eluded  ^Eneas. 
One  by  one  the  Southern  roses  fade.  Do  you  know  of  a  magnolia  blossom 
that  will  stand  our  Northern  climate  ? 


To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.  Blaine : 

U.S.  SENATE,  January  28,  1881 . 

I  have  yours  in  regard  to  coming  to  Washington.  I  don't  know  but  your 
reasons  are  good.  At  all  events  I  would  not  have  you  come  against  your 
conviction  and  your  will.  I  think,  however,  it  would  have  the  very  happiest 
effect  if  you  were  to  invite  Conkling  and  Logan  to  Mentor,  —  of  course 
inviting  them  separately,  in  neither's  note  mentioning  the  other,  and  there 
fore  not  recognizing  that  they  are  united  in  any  common  cause  or  repre 
senting  any  quasi-hostile  force  to  you.  ...  I  shall  never  urge  a  man 
upon  you  for  the  Cabinet,  but  I  will  not  hesitate  to  protest  vigorously  against 
wrong  men.  I  think  that  is  a  good  distinction  for  me  to  observe. 

If  you  intend  to  invite  Logan  and  Conkling,  please  do  so  at  once.  You 
need  invite  no  one  else.  The  Triumvirate  will  all  have  had  a  chance  at 
you,  and  the  Garfield  men  proper  care  nothing  for  the  etiquette  of  an 
invitation.  .  .  .  Excuse  my  freedom  in  tendering  advice  so  lavishly, 
but  1  am  very  anxious  that  you  should  do  just  the  right  thing  with  Conkling. 

General  Garfield,  to  Mr.  Blaine : 

MENTOR,  O.,  January  31,  1881. 

I  have  written  Logfan  (in  answer  to  a  recent  letter  making  some  sug 
gestions),  and  have  invited  him  to  visit  me.  I  think  he  will  come.  I  will 
write  Conkling  and  ask  him  to  come  here  for  a  conference.  Whatever  his 
answer,  it  will  stop  the  cry  of  exclusiveness. 


From  General  Garfield,  to  Mr.  Blaine  : 

MENTOR,  (.).,  January  25,  1881. 

I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Frye,  in  which  he  says  there  is  danger 
that  the  Legislature  of  Maine  will  adjourn  about  the  middle  of  February. 
You  know  about  this  better  than  I,  and  1  write  to  say  that  whenever  you 
think  it  is  necessary  to  make  public  your  future  plans  by  resignation,  let 
me  know  and  I  will  send  you  a  formal  letter  which  you  can  make  the  basis 
of  your  resignation.  I  had  supposed  your  Legislature  would  sit  till  into 
March,  and  that  you  could  stay  in  the  Senate  a  day  or  two  after  the  inaugu 
ration,  and  help  organize  the  new  Senate.  Please  let  me  know  your  wish 
in  this  matter  and  write  me  immediately.  Of  course  it  will  not  do  to  run 
any  risk  of  having  an  appointment  of  a  Senator  made  by  your  Governor. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JA^fES    G.    ELAINE.  501 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.  Elaine : 

WASHINGTON,  February  5,  1881. 

.  .  .  I  want  you  to  remember  that  you  are  elected  President  of  the 
United  States,  that  the  power  of  the  Executive  is  lodged  in  your  hands,  and 
that  you  have  all  the  power  and  rights  and  are  bound  to  assert  and  maintain 
all  the  dignity  and  independence  of  the  great  office.  All  I  fear  is  that  your 
instinctive  generosity  will  cariy  you  beyond  the  limits  of  fair  justice  to 
yourself,  and  that  you  will  err  on  that  side.  I  say  this  because  I  do  not 
want  you  to  trust  the  great  patronage  departments  where  there  is  the  re 
motest  danger  of  their  being  used  adversely  to  your  personal  interests.  You 
want  a  secretary  of  the  treasury  and  postmaster-general,  to  whom  you  can 
talk  as  freely  and  as  closely  as  you  can  to  me,  and  in  whose  fidelity  to  you 
personally  there  can  be  no  shadow  of  doubt.  ...  I  disclaim  all  and 
every  effort  to  force  or  attempt  to  force  anybody  on  you,  but  I  am  awfully 
anxious  that  you  shall  have  a  true  friend  in  the  treasury.  .  .  .  T  think 
a  Western  man  at  the  head  of  the  treasury  is  a  sine  qua  iwn  for  your 
success.  ...  I  beg  you  to  keep  your  thoughts  in  that  direction. 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.  Blaine  (by  telegraph) : 

FEBRUARY  9,  1881. 

The  count  was  perfectly  smooth  and  unobstructed.  You  are  now  the 
President-elect  and  inherit  your  great  office  by  the  divine  right  of  a  con 
stitutional  majority.  I  congratulate  the  American  people. 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Mr.  Blaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  February  13,  1881. 

.  .  .  I  have  been  confined  to  my  room  for  a  week  with  a  sharp  attack 
of  my  old  enemy,  the  gout.  ...  In  some  way  gout  is  associated  in 
the  public  mind  with  drinking  and  high  living,  of  neither  of  which 
I  am  at  all  guilty.  I  inherit  my  diathesis,  but  manage  by  temperance 
and  careful  living  to  run  clear  of  outbreaks,  but  the  execrable  weather 
of  the  past  month  betrayed  me.  I  have  improved  my  hours  of  misery 
by  reading  "  Trevelyan's  Early  Days  of  Fox,1'  and  am  freshly  reminded 
that  gout,  at  least  in  England,  is  the  concomitant  of  wise  statesmanship, 
so  that  I  hope  your  administration  will  not  suffer  from  the  only 
physical  ailment  which  I  know  myself  to  possess.  In  all  other  re 
gards  my  health  has  been  exceedingly  good  throughout  the  winter. 
.  .  .  I  suppose  they  have  been  after  you  in  divers  and  sundry  ways  to 
intervene  in  the  Pennsylvania  Senatorial  fight.  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
policy  vou  proclaimed  when  I  saw  you  in  November  of  non-intervention  in 
all  such  matters  is  the  only  one  you  can  wisely  adopt  and  safely  follow. 
.  .  .  I  am  afraid  there  are  cunning  preparations  being  made  by  a  small 


502  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

cabal  to  steal  half  a  million  a  year  during  your  administration.  I  again  beg 
you  to  keep  yourself  free  from  all  possible  committals  as  to  the  minor 
Cabinet  which  in  the  department  is  even  more  important  than  the  major. 
I  beg  you  also  to  be  very  careful  ...  as  some  harpies  have  designs  there, 
inconsistent  with  your  wishes  for  the  public  welfare.  Mr.  Lincoln  used  to 
say  "  anybody  "  could  be  always  had,  but  "  somebody  "'  was  most  difficult  to 
find.  How  truly  you  realize  this  in  your  search  for  the  seven  Constitutional 
advisers.  .  .  .  N.  tells  me  that  he  faithfully  narrated  to  you  all  that  I 
charged  him  with  respecting  the  importance  of  giving  to  William  E. 
Chandler  the  Solicitor-Generalship. 

Tell  Mrs.  Garfield  we  are  all  waiting  to  welcome  her  to  the  national 
palace.  Of  courtiers  there  will  be  many,  but  of  time  friends  there  will  also 
be  many. 

General  Garfield  to  Mr.  Blaine  : 

MENTOR,  February  15,  1881. 

I  too  have  been  reading  Trevelyan's  '*  Life  of  Fox."  Brilliant  as  the 
book  is  I  am  sure  it  cannot  altogether  alienate  the  pains  of  gout,  even 
though  that  disease  appears  to  have  added  lustre  to  the  fame  of  Lord 
Chatham. 

To  the  President-elect,  from  Mr.  Blaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  February  16,  1881. 

.  .  I  assume  that  you  will  give  one  place  to  New  England,  one  place 
to  New  York,  one  place  to  Pennsylvania,  and  one  to  the  South.  This  leaves 
you  only  three  for  the  great  West,  extending  from  the  base  of  the 
Alleghanies  to  the  foot-hills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  No  Republican 
Cabinet  has  been  organized  from  Lincoln's  till  now  that  did  not  assign  three, 
members  to  this  great  section,  unless  we  except  some  of  those  extraor 
dinary  combinations  of  Grant's  in  which  at  one  time  he  put  two  Massa 
chusetts  men  into  the  Cabinet,  and  at  another,  two  New  York  men.  But 
Grant's  notions  of  Cabinet-making  are  abnormal.  .  .  .  When  you  take 
the  nine  Republican  States  that  begin  with  Ohio  and  end  with  Kansas,  you 
have  the  very  heart  of  the  Republican  party,  and  your  administration  must 
nurture,  develop,  and  sustain  the  party  in  those  States.  Not  satisfied  with 
its  strength  to-day,  yon  must  increase  it  by  strong  additions  in  Ohio  and 
Indiana  and  by  better  organization  and  discipline  in  Illinois. 

.  .  The  last  two  Southern  Cabinet  members  came  from  Tennessee. 
Would  it  not  be  better  to  seek  a  representative  from  another  State  ?  The 
more  1  turn  the  subject  over  "  upside  down  and  t'other  end  to,"  the  more 
I  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Wayne  MacVeagh  on  the  whole  is  the  strong 
hold  for  Pennsylvania  and  for  the  Reformers.  There  is  no  other  Cabinet 
stone  in  your  hand  that  will  kill  so  many  political  dogs  at  one  throw.  I 
guess  you'd  better  tire  it. 


BLOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  503 

March  1.  This  idea  strikes  me:  why  might  it  not  be  wise  to  consult 
Conkling  himself  ?  ...  I  have  a  notion  that  he  would  as  lief  have  one  as 
the  other. 

SENATE  CHAMBER,  WASHINGTON. 

MY  DEAR  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AND  TO-DAY  actual:  .  .  .  You  do  not 
want  to  be  bothered  with  Cabinet  matters  this  forenoon.  I  shall  so  infer 
unless  vou  send  me  word  otherwise.  I  will  report  at  the  White  House  as 
soon  after  the  inauguration  as  possible.  I  have  not  entered  it  for  thirty- 
seven  months,  my  last  visit  being  February  4,  1878. 

Better  let  things  remain  in  statu  quo  until  after  you  reach  the  White 
House. 

RIGGS  HOUSE,  WASHINGTON,  10  A.M.,  March  4,  1881. 
DEAR  BLAINE  :     .     .     .     Come  to  me  at  the  White  House  the  first  mo 
ment  I  am  free.     AVith  the  love  of  comradeship  of  eighteen  years  and  with 
faith  in  the  next  four, 

I  am  as  ever  yours, 

J.  A.  GARFIELD. 

Mr.  Blaine  at  once  assumed  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State, 
an  office  to  which  he  was  as  imperatively  designated  by  the  will 
of  the  people,  as  he  was  cordially  appointed  by  the  President. 
On  the  5th  of  March,  Walker,  to  his  great  joy,  was  appointed 
by  his  father  a  clerk  in  the  Department  of  State  and  private 
secretary  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  an  employment  most  con 
genial  to  his  tastes,  but  whose  priceless  perquisite  was  that  it 
enabled  him  to  live  where  his  heart  always  remained,  at  home. 
Mr.  Robert  R.  Hitt,  First  Secretary  of  Legation  in  Paris, 
was  summoned  home  to  become  First  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State,  —  and  the  cherished  life-long  friend  of  the  Secretary. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  the  globe  in  his  library  was  like  an  inspiration. 
On  it  he  would  trace,  with  a  friend,  not  only  the  geography  of 
the  earth,  but  the  paths  and  progress  of  the  human  race.  He 
saw  overcrowded  Europe  with  its  four  hundred  millions  di 
vided  into  hostile  camps,  forever  jostling  each  other,  and  over 
crowded  Asia  with  its  eight  hundred  millions  laborious,  patient, 
silent,  and  between  them  our  own  continent  stretching  north 
and  south,  —  the  natural  entrepot  of  both  worlds,  but  unaware 
and  inactive.  It  had  been  too  busily  occupied  with  growing  to 
take  measurement  of  its  growth.  Its  boastful,  youthful  talk 
had  happily  subsided,  but  it  had  not  yet  quite  learned  that  it  was 
entitled  to  an  authoritative  voice  among  the  nations.  "  Friend- 


504  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

ship  with  all"  can  never  be  a  maxim  outworn.  "Entangling 
alliances  "  is  a  phrase  which  our  happy  history  has  robbed  of 
its  appositeness.  So  the  country  lay  supine,  a  sleeping  beauty, 
waiting  the  magic  touch  that  should  arouse  her  to  her  rightful 
inheritance. 

When  Mr.  Blaine  entered  political  life,  Protection  could 
hardly  be  called  a  living  question.  It  was  little  more  than 
what  General  Hancock  had  named  it,  a  "  local  issue,"  and  its 
locality  was  limited.  Its  inter-relations  were  imperfectly  seen, 
and  therefore  its  universality  was  hardly  imagined.  In  the 
West  and  Northwest  even  Republican  platforms  and  leaders 
advocated  a  tariff  for  revenue  only.  Mr.  Blaine  disputed  this 
ground  at  the  beginning,  and  incessantly  advocated  a  tariff  for 
the  protection  of  American  labor,  for  the  upbuilding  of  manu 
facture,  for  the  rewarding  of  agriculture,  for  the  increase  of 
commercial  interchange  and  the  establishment  of  practical  as 
well  as  theoretical  independence  of  foreign  countries.  The  vast 
and  perfectly  free  internal  trade  among  the  States  he  repeatedly 
brought  to  public  notice  and  debate.  While  the  nation  was 
waking  to  the  importance  of  this  trade,  and  was  growing  rich 
and  replete  under  this  policy  of  protection,  he  was  looking  to 
new  fields  in  which  the  enterprise  already  begun,  .the  industry 
already  engaged,  and  the  wealth  already  produced,  should  find 
still  further  extension.  At  last  the  opportunity  had  come. 

He  laid  out  his  work  in  the  most  practical  manner.  Holding 
that  the  whole  continent  belongs  to  the  new  order,  he  viewed 
Canada  as  already  in  the  line  of  natural  assimilation,  akin  in 
blood,  traditions,  institutions,  and  safely  to  be  left  to  the  peace 
ful  development  of  time.  The  Latin  nations  to  the  south,  of  a 
different  race  but  tending  to  Republican  institutions,  would 
have  a  healthier  growth  by  retaining  their  autonomies,  but 
could  be  cherished  and  strengthened  by  the  great  republic  of 
the  north.  The  bickerings,  turmoil,  revolutions,  which  made 
their  daily  chronicles,  once  removed  and,  still  better,  prevented, 
industry  would  find  its  natural  reward  in  wealth,  and  wealth 
would  stimulate  industry.  Their  inexhaustible  material  re 
sources  would  be  developed.  Trade  relations  would  speedily 
be  established.  The  South  furnishing  all  that  we  lack  and 
needing  what  we  can  supply,  commercial  treaties  would  be 


MR.    BLAINE    AT    FIFTY-ONE. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  505 

made.  Reciprocity,  the  complement  of  Protection,  would 
speedily  follow.  Political  harmony,  international  friendship, 
and  national  prosperity  would  enable  the  American  republics 
to  give  the  law  to  the  world,  and  that  law  would  be  peace,  and 
in  the  train  of  peace,  prosperity,  true  progress,  happiness. 

But  first  must  be  peace.  This,  Mr.  Blaine  believed  could  be 
accomplished  only  by  the  aid  of  our  own  country,  which  must  at 
once  abandon  her  attitude  of  segregation  and  isolation,  and  as 
sume  the  fraternal  relations  and  responsibilities  of  a  nation  not 
only  the  most  powerful"  of  the  Western  hemisphere,  but  the 
founder  and,  in  some  sense,  the  guarantor  and  guardian  of 
Republican  principles  on  the  American  continent.  European 
powers  had  been  interested  in^promoting  strife  between  the 
Spanish-American  countries.  V  Weak  Southern  republics,  were 
in  European  toils,  unwilling  victims,  unwitting  accomplices  of 
those  who  had  no  interest  in  republics  save  to  wrest  from  them 
personal  gain  ;  whose  object  was  to  foment  the  discord  which  it 
was  our  advantage  to  allay.  V  Mr.  Elaine's  purpose  was  to  con 
solidate  their  interests  and  conciliate  their  friendship  with  the 
strong  republic  of  the  North,  —  ultimately  building  up  by  the 
natural  alliances  of  mental  activity,  comfort,  and  culture,  a  con 
tinental  system  of  governments  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people,  in  which  the  United  States  should  hold  the  first  place 
because  first  in  the  confidence  of  all.  His  aspiration  was  to 
win  for  our  country  the  primacy  of  peace,  otherwhere  sought 
through  war.  He  believed  the  time  had  fully  come  to  estab 
lish  and  perpetuate  the  Republic  of  God ;  to  show  that  the  path 
of  prosperity  need  not  be  a  way  of  blood  and  tears,  but  lies 
along  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  other  nations. 

Immediately  a  revivification,  which  was  like  the  thrill  of  new 
life,  stirred  in  the  republic.  A  straw  shows  the  way  of  the 
wind;  a  despatch  addressed  to  one  of  the  smaller  Southern 
nations,  the  new  Secretary  directed  to  be  re-written  with  greater 
deference,  explaining,  "  We  will  reserve  that  tone  for  the 
strong  nations."  It  was  evident  that  occasional  and  inciden 
tal  intervention  was  inadequate,  and  that  a  comprehensive 
plan  should  be  adopted  if  war  were  to  cease  in  the  Western 
hemisphere.  Formal  proposals  should  be  made  and  discussion 
shared  by  all  the  States,  of  some  method  by  which  the  Christian 


506  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

principles  of  Christian  nations  should  prevail  in  national  affairs. 
Southern  turbulence  was  recognized  as  not  a  theme  for  jest, 
still  less  a  reason  for  avoidance,  but  a  matter  for  the  concen 
tration  of  the  most  serious  thought.  The  President  and  the 
Secretary  of  State  agreed  upon  a  plan  to  invite  all  the  inde 
pendent  governments  of  North  and  South  America  to  meet  in 
a  Peace  Congress  at  Washington. 

Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  put  the  Monroe  doctrine  into 
the  President's  message  in  1823,  had  planned  a  similar  Congress 
to  meet  at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama;  but  the  plan  encountered 
great  opposition  in  the  National  Congress,  and  was  never  car 
ried  out.  The  country  adopted  enough  of  the  Adams-Monroe 
doctrine  to  keep  the  heavy  hand  of  the  Holy  Alliance  from 
forcing  the  revolted  colonies  back  to  Spain,  but  slept  while 
England  put  her  vigorous  sickle  to  the  harvests  which  the 
United  States  had  enabled  the  South  to  plant,  but  had  forbid 
den  Spain  to  reap.  So  far  short  of  comprehending  the 
Adams-Monroe  doctrine  had  our  statesmen  been,  that  in  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  they  had  formulated  and,  as  Great  Brit 
ain  maintained,  had  perpetuated  equality  of  transit  rights 
between  herself  and  the  United  States,  across  the  isthmus. 
For  sixty  years  the  slumber  had  lasted  when  Garfield  and 
Blaine  opened  a  new  page  and  summoned  to  Washington  a 
Congress  of  all  the  Americas. 

The  three  republics  of  Chile,  Peru,  and  Bolivia  were  in  a 
state  of  war  whose  result  had  been  not  only  defeat  for  Peru,  but 
a  dissolution  of  her  government.  To  secure  the  attention 
and  attendance  of  these  States,  tranquillity  must  first  be  re 
stored.  It  was  a  matter  of  great  importance  and  delicacy  to 
interpose  for  the  autonomy  of  the  conquered  without  trenching 
upon  the  sensitive  pride  of  the  conqueror,  to  convince  both  that 
it  was  against  the  interests  of  all  that  a  South  American  nation 
should  perish.  A  provisional  government  had  been  formed  in 
Peru  and  was  viewed  with  favor  by  Chile.  The  American 
Minister  was  instructed  to  recognize  it  if  it  were  supported  by 
the  character  and  intelligence  of  Peru,  and  were  honestly  work 
ing  to  reestablish  domestic  order  and  restore  peace  with  Chile; 
to  assure  the  Peruvians  of  the  sympathy  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  encourage  them  to  accept  even  hard  conditions,  rather 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     TILAINE.  607 

than    by  demanding    too    much,   to    force   the    continuance    of 
Chilian   control. 

At  the  same  time,  recognizing  the  rights  which  Chile  had  ac 
quired  by  success,  the  Minister  was  instructed  to  impress  upon 
the  Chilian  authorities,  in  possession  of  Peru,  that  the  more 
liberal  and  considerate  their  policy  the  surer  would  it  be  to 
secure  a  lasting  settlement.  Relying  upon  Chile's  declaration 
that  it  was  not  a  war  for  conquest,  but  for  guarantee  of  future 
peace,  he  was  to  exert  all  his  influence  to  induce  Chile  not  to 
insist  upon  cession  of  territory,  the  last  humiliation  of  war,  as 
a  sine  qua  non  of  peace,  as  a  condition  precedent  to  negotiation, 
but  only  as  a  subject  of  negotiation;  and  to  secure  for  the 
provisional  government  a  sufficient  freedom  and  force  of  action 
to  give  it  standing  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  same  friendly  voice  warned  off  intruders  and  gave  notice 
that  American  questions  were  to  ba  disentangled  from  foreign 
and  monarchical  complications.  With  the  assurance  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  was  seeking  only  to  perform 
the  part  of  a  friend  to  all  the  South  American  republics,  were 
coupled  the  significant  hint  and  hope  that  the  negotiations  for 
peace  would  be  conducted,  and  final  settlement  between  the  two 
countries  determined,  without  invoking  on  either  side  the  aid 
or  intervention  of  any  European  power ;  and  that  the  United 
States  would  regret  to  be  compelled  to  consider  how  far  a  more 
active  interposition  might  be  forced  upon  it,  by  any  attempted 
complication  of  this  question  with  European  politics. 

Even  the  friendly  overtures  of  the  French  President  towards 
concerted  intervention  by  France,  Great  Britain,  and  the  United 
States  were  sympathetically  and  respectfully  declined,  with  the 
reminder  that  the  United  States  had  not  belonged  to  that 
system  of  States,  of  which  France  and  Great  Britain  are  im 
portant  members,  and  had  never  participated  or  desired  to 
participate  in  the  adjustment  of  their  contentions ;  while  by 
their  proximity  of  situation,  similarity  in  origin  and  frame  of 
government,  unity  of  political  interest  on  all  questions  of  foreign 
intercourse,  and  their  geographical  remoteness  from  Europe, 
the  republics  of  America  are  younger  sisters  of  this  govern 
ment. 

The  same   warning  signal    was   promptly    hoisted    over   the 


508  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Isthmus  of  Panama.  Mr.  Blaine  saw  that  the  increasing  com 
merce  of  the  world  pressing  hard  up  against  our  shores  could  not 
much  longer  be  restrained,  but  must  pierce  that  narrow  neck  of 
land  and  flow  through  from  ocean  to  ocean  irresistible  as  their 
tides.  Many  thought  he  was  making  a  caxuss  MU.  He  was  sim 
ply  making  good  the  coast-line  of  America.  The  Great  Powers 
of  Europe,  already  considering  a  joint  guarantee  of  the  fut 
ure  interoceanic  canal,  were  reminded  that  every  step  deemed 
requisite  in  the  premises  had  been  taken  by  this  government 
in  the  last  generation  and  required  no  re  enforcement,  accession, 
or  assent  from  any  other  power ;  that  this  government  had  al 
ways  vindicated  the  neutrality  so  guaranteed,  and  apprehended 
no  contingency  in  which  such  vindication  would  not  be  within 
its  power ;  and  that  any  movement  towards  supplementing  this 
guarantee  would  be  regarded  as  an  uncalled  for  intrusion. 
The  integrity  of  our  motives  was  set  forth  with  no  less  frank 
ness  and  detail  than  the  distinctness  of  our  intention  to 
retain  political  control  of  the  isthmus  transit  in  cooperation 
with  the  United  States  of  Colombia  and  with  the  United  States 
of  Colombia  only,  of  whose  coast-line,  equally  with  our  own,  the 
projected  canal  would  form  a  part.  Professing  and  proving 
a  policy  of  peace  and  friendship  towards  every  government  and 
people,  this  government  conveyed  in  the  plainest  manner  its 
conviction  that  any  extension  to  our  shores  of  the  political 
system  by  which  the  Great  Powers  have  controlled  and  deter 
mined  events  in  Europe,  would  be  attended  with  danger  to  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  this  nation.  Emphasis  was  laid  upon  the 
fact  that  this  was  not  the  development  of  a  new  course  or 
the  beginning  of  aggressive  measures.  It  was  the  pronounced 
adherence  of  the  United  States  to  principles  long  since  enun 
ciated  by  the  highest  authority  of  the  government,  and  now 
firmly  inwoven  as  an  integral  and  important  part  of  our  na 
tional  policy. 

With  England  as  the  most  interested,  the  most  aggressive,  and 
the  strongest  maritime  nation,  the  argument  was  pressed  the 
closest ;  and  essential  modifications  of  the  Claytori-Bulwer 
treaty,  made  more  than  thirty  years  before  under  exceptional 
conditions  which  had  long  ceased  to  exist,  were  urged  with 
a  clearness  and  force  which  have  never  been  met,  while  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   .TAMER    K.     BLATNE.  509 

Secretary's  familiar  acquaintance  with  British  history,  from 
the  earliest  time  to  our  own,  enabled  him  to  use  the  argumentum 
ad  homine.m  with  a  force  that  never  can  be  met.  The  Ameri 
can  Minister  was  instructed,  and  empowered  if  necessary,  cour 
teously  to  communicate  his  instructions,  that  tk  this  government, 
with  respect  to  European  States,  will  not  consent  to  perpetuate 
any  treaty  that  impeaches  our  rightful  and  long-established  claim 
to  priority  on  the  American  continent ;  that  the  right  of  Euro 
pean  powers  to  assent  to  the  terms  of  neutrality  implies  the  right 
to  dissent,  and  thus  the  whole  question  would  be  thrown  open 
for  contention  as  an  international  issue  ;  that  it  is  the  fixed  pur 
pose  of  the  United  States  to  consider  it  strictly  and  solely  as 
an  American  question,  to  be  dealt  with  and  decided  by  the 
American  powers.  .  .  .  Whenever,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
United  States  government,  the  time  shall  be  auspicious  and  the 
conditions  favorable  for  the  construction  of  the  Nicaragua!!  canal, 
no  aid  will  be  needed  outside  of  the  resources  of  our  own  govern 
ment  and  people.  .  .  .  Between  the  United  States  and  the 
other  American  Republics  there  can  be  no  hostility,  no  jealousy, 
no  rivalry,  no  distrust  —  the  United  States  will  act  in  entire  har 
mony  with  the  governments  within  whose  territory  the  canals 
shall  be  located.  The  present  proposal  of  this  government  is 
to  free  the  Clayton-Bui wer  treaty  from  embarrassing  features, 
and  to  leave  it,  as  its  framers  intended  it  should  be,  a  full  and 
perfect  settlement,  for  all  time,  of  all  possible  issues  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  with  regard  to  Central 
America."  It  was  urged  that  the  existing  status  was  practical 
abrogation,  since  no  agreement  was  ever  reached  as  to  what  its 
language  meant ;  and  should  be  recognized  by  the  formal  abro 
gation  of  certain  clauses,  especially  the  one  forbidding  the 
United  States  to  fortify  the  canal  in  conjunction  with  the 
country  in  which  it  was  to  be  located.  This  clause,  Mr.  Blaine 
pointed  out,  left  the  great  naval  power  of  Great  Britain  perfectly 
unrestrained  while  preventing  the  United  States  from  using  its 
equally  illimitable  military  power.  Clear-sighted  English  jour 
nals  saw  at  once  and  proclaimed  that  the  Secretary  of  State  de 
signed  to  establish  a  despotism  over  all  the  Americas,  while  the 
directness  of  his  language  caused  great  distress  to  the  etiquette 
of  England:  but  no  one  furnished  a  formula  under  which 


510  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

American  determination  to  take  this  continent  in  hand  alone 
could  be  so  diplomatically  couched  as  to  win  the  approbation 
of  England. 

To  the  new  administration  which  had  just  come  into  power 
in  Mexico,  the  new  administration  of  the  North  sent  cordial 
congratulations,  desiring  that  the  ties  of  commercial  and  indus 
trial  interchange  should  be  so  continued  and  increased  as  to 
strengthen  the  mutual  good-will  of  the  two  countries,  and  that 
the  development  of  Mexican  resources,  even  by  cooperation  of 
United  States  citizens,  should  be  for  the  primary  benefit  of  the 
Mexican  people  themselves,  recognizing  in  the  independence  and 
integrity  of  the  Mexican  nation  a  natural  finality  which  enabled 
both  Republics  to  unite  in  a  closer  union  of  political  sympathy 
and  friendship. 

Trouble  having  arisen  between  Mexico  and  Guatemala  on  a 
question  of  boundaries,  the  latter  State  asked  the  good  offices 
of  this  government  as  the  natural  protector  of  Republican 
interests.  They  were  promptly  and  warmly  rendered.  The 
unselfishness  of  American  interposition  was  illustrated  by  the 
support  which  the  United  States  had  freely  lent  to  Mexico  even 
when  we  were  engaged  in  a  desperate  domestic  struggle,  and 
only  that  broader  selfishness  was  appealed  to  which  involves  the 
benefit  of  all  in  the  benefit  of  one.  To  upbuild  strong  Re 
publican  governments  in  Spanish  America,  and  to  cement  the 
natural  union  of  these  Republics  against  the  tendencies  of  other 
and  distant  forms  of  government,  was  avowed  to  be  the  cher 
ished  plan  of  the  President ;  and  the  strength,  the  generosity,  and 
the  friendliness  of  Mexico  were  alike  and  earnestly  addressed 
in  favor  of  a  settlement  of  differences  by  diplomacy  or  by 
arbitration,  rather  than  by  the  conflict  of  arms.  Mexico  was 
reminded  that  the  two  governments  acting  in  cordial  harmony 
could  induce  all  other  independent  governments  of  North  and 
South  America  to  aid  in  fixing  the  policy  of  peace  forever 
between  nations  of  the  Western  hemisphere.  With  or  with 
out  the  cooperation  of  Mexico,  this  government  announced  its 
determination  to  continue  the  policy  of  peace. 

When  the  Guatemalan  Envoy  was  presented  to  the  President, 
complimentary  reference  was  made  to  his  family,  honorably 
distinguished  at  the  siege  of  Saragossa,  and  the  President 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMKS    G.     HLAINE.  511 

expressed  his  great  personal  and  official  interest  in  the  reunion 
of  Central  America,  and  his  hope  to  see  its  accomplishment  dur 
ing  his  own  administration. 

Watchmen  on  the  outer  walls  reported  that  Great  Britain  was 
insinuating   herself   between    Hawaii    and   the    United    States. 
Instantly  the  American  flag  was  flung.     Hawaii  was  a  preempted 
and  important  port  of  American  commerce  encircling  the  world. 
It  was  officered  by  Americans,  and  was  to   be   held  by  Ameri 
cans.     The  Hawaiian  government  was  assured  that  if  any  other 
power  should  deem  it  proper  to  employ  undue  influence  to  per 
suade  or  compel  action  in  derogation  of  the  treaty  of  1875,  the 
government  of  the  United  States  would  not  be  unobservant  of  i 
rights  and  interests,  and  would  be  neither  unwilling  nor  unpre 
pared  to  support  the  Hawaiian  government  in  the  faithful  dis 
charge  of  its  treaty  obligations.     The  good  v/ill  of  the  Hawaiian 
government   was  'not  impeached,  and   its  desire    to  carry  out 
treaty  provisions  in  good  faith  was  encouraged,  but  the  Ameri 
can  position  was  restated  with   a   comprehensiveness  which  in 
cluded   every    form    of   finesse    or   legal    technicality  whereby 
Hawaii,  without  formal  change  of  government,  might  be  brought 
under  the  controlling  influence  of  a  foreign  power.       "  The  gov 
ernment   of   the  United  States  has  always    avowed   and    now 
repeats   that,  under  no  circumstances  will  it  permit  the  transfer 
of  the   territory  or    sovereignty   of  these  islands  to  any  of  the 
European  powers.     It  is  too  obvious  for  argument  that  the  pos 
session   of  these  islands   by  a  great  maritime  power  would  not 
only  be  a  dangerous  diminution  of  the  just  and  necessary  in 
fluence  of  the  United  States  in  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  but 
in  case  of  international  difficulty  it  would  be  a  positive  threat 
to  American  interests  too  important  to  be  lightly  risked. 

"  The  policy  of  this  country  with  regard  to  the  Pacific  is  the 
natural  complement  to  its  Atlantic  policy.  The  history  of  our 
European  relations  for  fifty  years  shows  the  jealous  concern  with 
which  the  United  States  has  guarded  its  control  of  the  coast 
from  foreign  interference.  Its  attitude  toward  Cuba  is  in  point. 
That  rich  island,  the  key  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is,  though  in 
the  hands  of  Spain,  a  part  of  the  American  commercial  system. 
My  predecessor,  Mr.  Secretary  Everett,  showed  that,  without 
forcing  or  even  coveting  possession  of  the  island,  its  condition 


512  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     KLAINE. 

was  essentially  an  American  question  ;  that  if  ever  ceasing  to 
be  Spanish,  Cuba  must  necessarily  become  American,  and  not 
fall  under  any  other  European  domination,  and  that  the  cease 
less  movement  of  segregation  of  American  interests  from  Euro 
pean  control,  and  unification  in  a  broader  American  sphere  of 
independent  life,  could  not  and  should  not  be  checked.  The 
material  possession  of  Hawaii  is  not  desired  by  the  United  States 
any  more  than  was  that  of  Cuba.  But  under  no  circumstances 
can  the  United  States  permit  any  change  in  the  territorial  con 
trol  of  either  which  would  cut  it  adrift  from  the  American  system, 
whereto  they  both  indispensably  belong,  by  the  operation  of  natu 
ral  laws,  and  must  belong  by  the  operation  of  political  necessity. 
The  United  States  was  one  of  the  first  among  the  great  nations 
of  the  world  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  upbuilding  of 
Hawaiian  independence,  and  the  creation  of  a  new  and  potential 
life  for  its  people.  It  has  consistently  endeavored,  and  with 
success,  to  enlarge  the  material  prosperity  of  Hawaii  on  an  inde 
pendent  basis.  It  proposes  to  be  equally  unremitting  in  its 
efforts  hereafter  to  maintain  and  develop  the  advantages  which 
have  accrued  to  Hawaii,  and  to  draw  closer  the  ties  which  imper 
atively  unite  it  to  the  great  body  of  American  Commonwealths. 
It  firmly  believes  that  the  position  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  as 
the  key  to  the  dominion  of  the  American  Pacific,  demands  their 
neutrality,  to  which  end  it  will  earnestly  cooperate  with  the 
native  government.  If,  through  any  cause,  the  maintenance  of 
such  a  position  of  neutrality  should  be  found  by  Hawaii  to  be 
impracticable,  this  government  would  then  unhesitatingly  meet 
the  altered  situation  by  seeking  an  avowedly  American  solution 
for  the  grave  issues  presented." 

The  attention  of  the  administration  was  not,  how*'ever,  ab 
sorbed  by  the  new  policy,  or  hostile  to  the  Old  World.  The 
United  States  Minister  at  St.  Petersburg  was  directed  to 
consult  informally  with  his  British  colleague  there,  touching 
wrongs  done  to  American  and  British  Hebrews  in  Russia,  and 
the  United  States  Minister  at  London  was  instructed  to  bring 
the  subject  to  the  formal  attention  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty's 
government,  in  the  firm  belief  that  the  community  of  interests 
between  the  United  States  and  England  in  this  great  question 
of  civil  rights  and  equal  tolerance  of  creed  for  their  respective 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  513 

citizens  in  foreign  lands  would  lead  to  consideration  of  the 
matter  with  a  view  to  common  action  thereon.  It  was  suggested 
that  a  movement  might  be  initiated  embracing  other  powers 
whosr  service  in  the  work  of  progress  was  commensurate  with  our 
own,  to  the  end  that  Russia  might  be  influenced  by  their  joint 
representations,  and  that,  while  abating  no  part  of  his  intention 
to  press  upon  the  Russian  government  the  just  claim  of  Ameri 
can  citizens  to  less  harsh  treatment  in  the  empire  by  reason  of 
their  faith,  the  President  would  await  with  pleasure  an  oppor 
tunity  for  an  interchange  of  views  upon  the  subject  with  the 
government  of  Her  Majesty. 

Upon  the  assassination  of  Czar  Alexander,  nine  days  after 
President  GarfiekTs  inauguration,  the  American  government 
was  prompt  to  signalize  not  only  its  abhorrence  of  assassination 
as  a  crime  and  a  failure,  but  American  gratitude  to  the  slain 
emperor.  It  recalled  his  generous  policy  towards  this  country 
in  its  hour  of  supreme  trial  —  more  noticeable  in  contrast  with 
the  policy  of  England  and  of  France.  The  latter  the  Secretary 
was  careful  however  to  attribute  to  the  already  overthrown 
dynasty  of  Buonaparte,  and  not  to  the  French  people,  who 
"•have  always  been  our  friends;"  and  with  the  heartiest  wishes 
for  the  success  of  the  new  Emperor  as  a  sovereign  joined  wishes 
as  hearty  for  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  Russian  people. 

The  Irish  question,  over  which  England  has  for  generations 
struggled  with  varying  degrees  of  failure,  vexed  the  politics  of 
this  as  of  other  administrations.  Law-abiding  Irishmen,  natu 
ralized  into  American  citizens,  and  imprisoned  by  the  British 
authorities  upon  accusation  of  crime  while  visiting  their  mother- 
country,  are  a  fruitful  source  of  trouble.  This  government  dis 
claimed  desire  to  shield  any  citizens  from  the  legal  consequences 
of  their  acts,  but  it  must  u  insist  upon  the  safeguards  common  to 
English  and  American  law  —  the  right  of  the  accused  to  be  in 
formed  immediately  upon  arrest  of  the  specific  crime  or  offence 
upon  which  he  is  held,  to  be  afforded  an  opportunity  for 
a  speedy  trial  before  an  impartial  court  and  jury-,  and  to  prompt 
release  in  case  there  is  no  specific  charge  against  him." 

When  the  Umpire  of  the  Spanish  Claims  Commission  gave  an 
opinion  whose  effect  was  to  undo  a  decree  of  court  naturaliz 
ing  a  Spanish  claimant,  the  State  Department  extinguished  it 


514  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    RLAINE. 

with  the  simple  principle  that  Congress  can  exercise  no  greater 
right  overan  American  citizen  than  the  Constitution  gives,  and 
that  what  the  Executive  Department  cannot  do,  it  cannot  per 
mit  a  commission  to  do;  and  the  timeliness  and  vigor  of  their 
utterance  gave  to  these  old  truths  a  new  power. 

The  Secretary's  report  upon  our  consular  courts  in  Eastern 
countries,  pointing  out  defects  and  suggesting  needed  modifica 
tions  in  the  extra-territorial  jurisdictional  systems,  is  brought 
into  strong  relief  by  the  great  movement  which,  fifteen  years 
afterwards,  is  changing  the  face  of  the  Eastern  world. 

All  this  wide-reaching  beneficence  came  to  a  crazy  and  calam 
itous  end. 

From  the  great  measures  which  the  President  loved  he  was 
necessarily  often  called  to  consider  minor  but  important  points : 
the  filling  of  subordinate  offices,  the  reconciling  of  small  and 
often  of  selfish  interests,  all  of  which,  however  distasteful,  was 
indispensable  to  the  smooth  running  of  the  government  machin 
ery,  and  was  therefore  his  imperative  duty.  It  was  such  details 
that  made  him  cry  out  one  day  impatiently  to  Mr.  Blaine, "  I  have 
been  dealing  all  these  years  with  ideas,  and  here  I  am  dealing 
only  with  persons.  I  have  been  heretofore  treating  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  government,  and  here  T  am  consider 
ing  all  day  whether  A  or  B  shall  be  appointed  to  this  or  that 
office.''  And  again,  u  My  God  !  what  is  there  in  this  place  that 
a  man  should  ever  want  to  get  into  it?" 

While  conducting  his  own  department  with  a  novel  vigor 
which  was  sometimes  mistaken  for  aggressiveness,  Mr.  Blaine 
steadfastly  upheld  the  President  through  his  lesser  cares  and 
annoyances  with  cheerful  common-sense,  never  making  small 
things  great,  or  great  things  small.  He  acted  on  one  principle, 
"To  all  complaints  whether  coining  from  high  or  low  there  is 
but  one  answer  to  give,  —  trtrtt  both  tides  fairly,  and  in  this 
line  you  must  be  as  (inn  and  resolute  as  if  you  were  fighting 
Chickamauga  over  again."  Regarding  two  men  Avho  found 
themselves  unable  to  work  together,  he  suggested  to  the 
President,  "Turn  to-day  sitting  in  a  Cabinet  with  two  associ 
ates  who  have  abused  me  far  more  and  far  more  harshly  than 
ever  A  abused  B.  A  never  impeached  B's  personal  or  official 
integrity.  Both  C  and  1)  have  attempted  to  publicly  impeach 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAJNE.  515 

mine.  If  you  can  show  the  magnanimity  of  overlooking  what 
A  said  of 'you— when  you  are  directly  responsible  for  his 
appointment  — surely  B  can  overlook  what  he  said  of  him 
when  he  is  not  responsible  at  all.  Do  as  you  please  in  your 
own  best  judgment." 

He  believed  that  the  President  had  showed  a  chivalric 
generosity  towards  all  comers,  sometimes  to  his  own  manifest 
disadvantage.  u  Elaine  and  I,"  the  President  once  said,  u  have 
too  much  feeling  to  be  where  we  are  —  we  have  too  much  pain 
in  the  refusals  we  have  constantly  to  make." 

The  Secretary  believed  the  power  and  dignity  of  the  Execu 
tive  involved  in  the  right  of  nomination  to  the  great  offices. 
"  John  Sherman  at  the  height  of  his  prestige  as  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  desired  removals  and  appointments  to  which  Presi 
dent  Hayes'  could  not  consent,  and  Sherman  submitted.  You 
are  a  far  greater  man  than  Hayes,  and  John  Sherman  is  a  far 
greater  man  than  F.  If  Sherman  should  submit  to  Hayes,  a 
fortiori  should  F  submit  to  Garfield.  If  F  carries  his  point 
now,  you  will  have  seven  masters  in  the  Cabinet  instead  of 
seven  ministers  under  your  own  Constitutional  direction." 

From  New  York  he  wrote  the  President  of  the  "splendid 
impression  your  work  has  made,"  and  "  If  the  gentlemen  who 
have  had  nine  or  ten  consecutive  large  appointments  are  growl 
ing,  it  only  shows  their  utter  unreasonableness  and  discloses 
the  design 'that  would  have  used  your  administration  to  crush 

your  friends." 

But  these  troubles  were  over.  Mr.  Conkling,  leader  of  the 
defeated  faction,  whose  large  capacity  for  discontent  and  extraor 
dinary  ability  in  its  expression  had  induced  the  most  vigor 
ous  and  persistent  attacks  on  the  constitutional  prerogatives 
of  the  Chief  Executive,  falsified  Mr.  Elaine's  augury,  and 
sawed  off  the  limb  of  the  tree  while  he  was  on  its  outer  end. 
Failing  to  secure  from  President  Garfield  all  the  appointments 
which  to  imperiously  demanded,  and  from  the  Senate  the  rejec 
tion  of  all  those  which  he  imperiously  opposed,  he  resigned  his 
seat  in  that  body.  His  constituents  acquiesced  in  his  action,  re 
fused  to  return  him  to  the  Senate,  and  he  was  thus  forever 
retired  from  public  life. 

On  the  evening  of  June  30,  the  President  walked  from  the 


516  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

White  House  to  Mr.  Blaine's.  Mrs.  Blame,  chancing  to  see 
him  from  the  window,  immediately  opened  the  door  to  him  her 
self,  and  perhaps  gave  him  one  more  night  in  this  world ;  for  the 
assassin,  lurking  in  the  darkness  opposite,  faltered.  When  the 
visit  was  concluded,  Mr.  Blaine  walked  home  with  the  President 
leisurely,  and  again  his  life  was  spared,  for  the  assassin  follow 
ing  stealthily  behind,  could  not  nerve  himself  in  the  double 
presence.  The  President  was  to  go  next  day  to  Massachusetts 
to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  his  college,  and  Mr.  Blaine 
promised  to  meet  him  at  the  White  House  and  accompany  him 
to  the  station.  In  the  morning  the  President's  elder  sons, 
boys  of  fourteen  and  sixteen,  who  were  going  with  him,  rushed 
into  their  father's  room  as  soon  as  they  were  up  and  before  he 
had  risen,  and  in  the  heat  of  youthful  blood  one  of  them  took 
a  flying  leap  over  his  bed.  "  There,"  exclaimed  the  youngster, 
"you  are  President  of  the  United  States,  but  you  can't  do 
that," — "  I  don't  know  about  that"  said  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  immediately  rose  and  did  it ;  and  further, 
tucking  a  boy  under  each  arm,  carried  them  to  their  rooms  and 
depositing  them  on  the  floor  bade  them  "  dress." 

Mr.  Blaine  awoke  late,  and  to  keep  his  appointment  drove  to 
the  White  House  before  breakfast,  begging  his  family  to  await 
his  return.  They  waited  and  he  did  not  come. 

He  had  driven  to  the  station  with  the  President  "slowly, 
in  conscious  enjoyment  of  the  beautiful  morning,  with  an  un 
wonted  sense  of  leisure  and  a  keen  anticipation  of  pleasure." 
They  alighted  and  walked  arm  in  arm  nearly  across  the  outer 
room  when  the  assassin  fired  the  fatal  bullet.  It  wrought  a 
fell  work,  but  it  passed  Mr.  Blaine  by  four  inches. 

Through  all  that  sad  summer  the  centre  of  the  administra 
tion  was  a  bed  of  weakness  and  pain,  and  never  a  great 
country  moved  so  softly.  It  seemed  as  if  a  hush  was  upon  the 
world.  Hope  rose  and  fell  and  swayed  again  ;  rumors  chased 
each  other,  buoyant,  sanguine,  despairing.  Men  became  pres 
ently  aware  that  the  bulletins  of  Mr.  Blaine  might  be  depended 
on,  and  waited  for  them  — •  as  they  that  watch  for  the  morning. 
They  were  scientifically  prepared,  from  personal  observation, 
surgical  consultation,  careful  comparison,  with  delicate  judg 
ment,  in  measured  and  accurate  language.  When  there  was 


KIOGTIAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 


517 


ground  for  encouragement  he  gave  it  freely,  but  it  was  in 
the  midst  of  rose-colored  reports  that  his  steady  good  faith  with 
the  people  gave  them  premonition  of  the  end. 

It  came  on  the  nineteenth  of   September. 

During  the  long  illness  Mr.  Blaine  was  practically  at  the  head 
of  the  administration,  and  the  tranquillity  of  a  self-governing 
people  was  not  for  one  moment  disturbed.  After  the  death  of 
the  President  the  Vice-President  took  the  oath  of  office  and 
became  President. 

Mr.  Arthur  had  not  been  nominated  to  the  vice-presidency 
with  a  view  to  the  succession.  His  political  experience  and 
apparently  his  political  interest  had  been  chiefly  confined  to  the 
city  of  New  York.  With  Mr.  Blaine  his  relations  had  been  en 
tirely  friendly,  though  never  intimate.  When,  under  President 
Hayes'  administration,  Mr.  Blaine  had  thought  him  too  severely 
attacked  as  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  he  had  defended 
him  warmly.  Walker,  in  a  letter  of  that  time,  had  written  from 
New  York : 

" .  .  .  I  met  Collector  Arthur,  who  was  very  cordial,  inviting 
me  to  his  house  and  to  the  Custom  House,  and  telling  me  that 
he  would  be  very  glad  to  do  for  me  anything  that  lay  in  his 
power.  '  Your  father  has  laid  me  under  a  debt  of  gratitude,' 
said  he.  '  Of  course  I  learnt  of  his  speech  only  in  confidence, 
but  he  made  a  magnificent  defence  for  me  in  Executive  ses 


sion. 


The  transition  from  the  collectorship  to  continental  politics  - 
for  the  vice-presidency  need  not  be  accounted  of  —  was  abrupt. 
Those  who  were  nearest  the  Vice-President  at  the  time  of  the 
assassination  thought  him  alive  to  the  magnitude  of  the  issue,  and 
the  impressiveness  of  the  situation  ;  thought  that  he  dreaded 
rather  than  desired  the  Presidency.  When  the  hour  came  he 
bore  the  test  as  well  as  the  country  had  a  right  to  expect.  So 
long  as  Mr.  Blaine  remained  in  the  State  Department,  its  foreign 
policy  was  wide  in  scope,  high  in  motive,  positive,  progressive, 
imposing.  When  he  retired,  it  was  broken  in  pieces.  To  its 
integrity  and  to  its  destruction  the  President  maintained  an 
attitude  of  equal  acquiescence. 

On  the   22d  of  September  Mr.  Blaine,  with  the   other  mem 
bers  of  the  Cabinet,  tendered  his  resignation.     President  Arthur 


518  BIOGRAPHY    OF  JAMES    O.     KLAINE. 

desired  all  to  remain  until  after  the  regular  meeting  of  Congress 
in  December.  On  October  13th  Mr.  Elaine  renewed  his  resigna 
tion  in  a  note  to  the  President : 

As  Secretary  Windonvs  expected  return  to  the  Senate  may  precipitate  a 
vacancy  in  the  Treasury  Department  in  a  few  days,  I  have  thought  it  might 
also  render  an  earlier  reconstruction  of  your  Cabinet  desirable  to  you.  In 
that  event  I  trust  you  will  not  be  embarrassed,  at  least  so  far  as  I  am  con 
cerned,  by  your  previous  assignment  of  a  date  for  withdrawal.  It  will  be 
entirely  agreeable  to  me  to  turn  over  the  department  to  my  successor  on 
any  day  that  will  prove  most  desirable  and  convenient  for  yourself.  I 
intended  to  say  this  to  you  yesterday,  but  from  pressure  of  other  things 
forcrot  it. 


The  President  repeated  his  request  that  Mr.  Blaine  should 
remain  until  December,  and  he  remained. 

In  October  came  the  pleasing  duty  of  receiving  the  guests  of 
the  nation,  the  families  of  Von  Steuben  and  of  Lafayette,  who  in 
July  had  been  invited  to  be  present  at  our  centennial  celebra 
tions,  especially  of  the  surrender  of  Yorktown.  In  writing  the 
invitations,  care  was  taken  to  distribute  the  glory  and  the  grati 
tude  as  widely  as  possible  over  the  countries  of  the  respective 
guests.  In  arranging  their  reception  and  entertainment,  espe 
cially  the  five  days'  trip  to  Yorktown,  Mr.  Blaine  and  Mr.  Hitt 
generously  awarded  the  lion's  share  of  the  work  and  the  praise 
to  Walker,  whose  appointment,  July  l,as  Third  Assistant  Secre 
tary  had  been  a  pleasant  surprise  from  President  Garfield,  and 
was  the  last  appointment  that  he  signed.  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
were  still  in  the  memory  of  France,  and  Yorktown  itself  was 
celebrating  British  defeat,  but  the  strong  spirit  of  peace  over 
bore  all  discord,  and  when  Mr.  Blaine  pronounced  that  "  in 
recognition  of  the  friendly  relations  so  long  and  so  happily  sub 
sisting1  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  in  the  trust 

O 

and  confidence  of  peace  and  good  will  between  the  two  conti 
nents,  for  all  the  centuries  to  come,  ...  it  is  hereby  ordered 
that  at  the  close  of  these  services,  commemorative  of  the  valor 
and  success  of  our  forefathers  in  their  patriotic  struggle  for 
independence,  the  British  flag  shall  be  saluted  by  the  forces  of 
the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States  now  at  Yorktown," 
the  great  acclaim  was  echoed  around  the  world. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  519 

Arrangements  for  the  Peace  Congress,  which  had  been  inter 
rupted  by  the  assassination,  were  renewed,  and  on  the  29th 
of  November  the  President  extended  "to  all  the  independent 
countries  of  North  and  South  America  an  earnest  invitation 
to  participate  in  a  General  Congress  to  be  held  in  the  city  of 
Washington  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  November,  1882,  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  and  discussing  the  methods  of  prevent 
ing  war  between  the  nations  of  America.  Pie  desires  that  the 
attention  of  the  Congress  shall  be  strictly  confined  to  this  one 
great  object ;  that  its  sole  aim  shall  be  to  seek  a  way  of  per 
manently  averting  the  horrors  of  cruel  and  bloody  combat  be 
tween  countries,  oftenest  of  one  blood  and  speech,  or  the  even 
worse  calamity  of  internal  commotion  and  civil  strife  ;  that  it 
shall  regard  the  burdensome  and  far-reaching  consequences  of 
such  struggles,  exhausted  finances,  oppressive  debt,  onerous  taxa 
tion,  ruined  cities,  paralyzed  industries,  devastated  fields,  ruthless 
conscription,  the  slaughter  of  men,  the  grief  of  the  Avidow  and 
the  orphan  ;  —  with  a  legacy  of  embittered  resentments,  that  long 
survive  those  who  provoked  them  and  heavily  afflict  the  innocent 
generations  that  come  after/' 

The  day  was  set  far  ahead  in  the  hope  that  Chile,  Peru,  and 
Bolivia  might  compose  their  differences  in  season  to  take  part 
in  the  deliberations  of  the  Congress. 

Instructions  to  the  ministers  to  Peru  and  Chile  had  been 
explicit,  and  were  framed  with  a  view  to  the  reestablishment  of 
domestic  order  and  the  restoration  of  peace.  The  sympathy  of 
the  United  States  was  freely  proffered,  and  while  the  claims 
of  American  citizens  were  to  be  defended,  the  ministers  were 
cautioned  against  taking  unfair  advantage  of  the  disturbed  con 
dition  of  society,  either  in  pressing  American  claims  or  in  adopt 
ing  and  pushing  the  claims  of  citizens  or  corporations  of  other 
countries.  Some  misapprehensions  of  facts  or  some  mistakes  of 
judgment  by  the  ministers,  partly  occasioned  perhaps  by  the 
pardonable  error  of  too  great  sympathy  with  the  nation  to  which 
each  was  accredited,  created  erroneous  and  hurtful  impressions 
in  Peru  and  Chile  regarding  the  intentions  of  the  United  States, 
and  special  envoys  were  sent  to  the  two  countries,  not  to  su 
persede  the  ministers,  but  to  assume  control  of  the  negotiations. 
In  this  delicate  matter,  bearing  not  only  on  the  general  interests 


520  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

of  peace,  but  on  the  especial  interests  of  the  new  movement 
for  continental  friendship,  the  Secretary  selected  two  men  in 
whose  diplomacy  he  had  the  utmost  confidence,  Hon.  William 
H.  Trescott,  a  South  Carolina  Democrat,  who  had  been  assist 
ant  secretary  of  State  under  General  Cass  and  special  envoy 
to  China,  and  Walker  Elaine. 

Unhappily  before  they  reached  their  destination  Mr.  Elaine's 
resignation  of  the  secretaryship  had  taken  effect,  Mr.  Freling- 
huysen's  appointment  had  been  confirmed,  and  an  attack  upon 
his  predecessor's  policy  was  made  all  along  the  line.  The  in 
vitations  to  the  Peace  Congress  were  practically  cancelled  by 
Secretary  Frelinghuysen  January  9,  1882,  but  not  before  half 
the  nations  invited,  and  by  far  the  most  populous  half,  had 
gladly  and  even  enthusiastically  accepted  them.  An  inaccu 
rate  copy  of  the  invitation  was  surreptitiously  published  .and 
misrepresented  in  newspapers.  Secretary  Elaine's  instructions 
to  the  special  envoys  were  published,  together  with  new  in 
structions  practically  revoking  the  former  and  without  notice 
to  the  envoys  who  were  thereby  publicly  discredited,  and  whose 
mission  was  practically  reduced  to  witnessing  the  spoliation  of 
Peru.  Private  letters  to  Secretary  Elaine  were  garbled  and 
sent  to  the  Senate.  A  persistent  attempt  was  made  to  wear 
away  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Garfield  administration  with  the 
corrosion  of  personal  scandal,  and  to  substitute  for  it  a  home 
policy  of  which  no  other  object  appeared  than  the  destruction 
of  Mr.  Elaine  as  a  political  power.  )  Investigations  were  set 
on  foot  in  which  prolonged  and  vindictive  effort  was  made  to 
prove  that,  as  the  popular  mind  apprehended  it,  his  South  Amer 
ican  policy  had  consisted  in  trying  to  put  the  guano  beds  of  Peru 
into  his  own  pocket.  While  official  papers  still  slept  in  the 
State  Department  rumors  were  started  outside  that  Mr.  Elaine 
meant  to  plunge  the  country  into  war,  that  the  Peace  Congress 
had  been  convoked  without  President  Arthur's  knowledge,  that 
Messrs.  Trescott  and  Walker  Elaine  had  been  despatched  with 
secret  instructions  from  the  Secretary,  and  the  nation  was  con 
gratulated  that  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  if  not  so  brilliant  a  Secretary 
as  Mr.  Elaine,  was  "safe." 

Mr.  Elaine  was  more  than  ever  impatient  at  the  malign  petti 
ness  of  the  men  and  the  measures  employed  to  overthrow  him, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  521 

but  he  availed  himself  of  this  ignoble  opposition  to  unfold  his 
plans  to  the  public  view  and  stamp  them  on  the  American  mind, 
so  that  whatever  the  issue  of  the  moment,  the  great  policy  of 
peace,  of  continental  fraternity,  of  Christian  government,  should 
be  the  policy  of  the  future.  As  always  lie  fought  in  the  open. 
He  addressed  to  the  President  a  public  letter  of  remonstrance  : 

To  the  President  of  the  United  States  : 

FEBRUARY  3,  1882. 

The  suggestion  that  a  Congress  of  all  American  nations  should  assemble 
in  the  city  of  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  agreeing  on  such  a  basis  of 
arbitration  for  International  troubles  as  would  remove  all  possibility  of  war 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  was  warmly  approved  by  your  predecessor. 
.  .  .  After  your  accession  to  the  Presidency  I  acquainted  you  with  the 
project,  and  submitted  to  you  a  draft  for  the  invitation.  You  received  the 
.suggestion  with  appreciative  consideration,  and,  after  carefully  examining 
the  form  of  invitation,  directed  it  to  be  sent.  ...  In  a  communication, 
recently  sent  to  the  Senate,  addressed  by  the  present  Secretary  of  State  the 
ninth  of  last  month  to  Mr.  Trescott,  now  on  a  special  mission  to  Peru  and 
Chile,  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  find  a  proposition  looking  to  the  annul 
ment  of  these  invitations,  and  I  was  still  more  surprised  when  I  read  the 
reasons  assigned.  I  (mote  Mr.  Frelinghuysen's  language  : 

"  The  United  States  is  at  peace  with  all  nations,  and  the  President 
wishes  hereafter  to  determine  whether  it  will  conduce  to  the  general  peace, 
which  he  would  cherish  and  promote,  for  this  government  to  enter  into 
negotiations  and  consultation  for  the  promotion  of  peace  with  selected 
friendly  nationalities  without  extending  the  line  of  confidence  to  other 
people  with  whom  the  United  States  is  on  equally  friendly  terms.  If  such 
partial  confidence  would  create  jealousy  and  ill  will,  peace,  the  object 
sought  by  such  consultation,  would  not  be  promoted.11  .  .  . 

If  I  correctly  apprehend  the  meaning  of  these  words,  it  is  that  we  might 
otfend  some  European  powers  if  we  should  hold  in  the  United  States  a 
Congress  of  "selected  nationalities1'  of  America.  This  is  certainly  a 
new  position  for  the  United  States,  and  one  which  I  earnestly  beg  you 
Avill  not  permit  this  government  to  assume.  European  Powers  assemble 
in  Congress  whenever  an  object  seems  to  them  of  sufficient  gravity  to 
justify  it.  I  have  never  heard  of  their  consulting  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  in  regard  to  the  propriety  of  their  so  assembling,  nor  have 
I  ever  known  of  their  inviting  an  American  representative  to  be  present ; 
nor  would  there,  in  my  opinion,  be  any  good  reason  for  their  so  doing. 
Two  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  in  the  year  1881,  adjudged  it  to  be 
expedient  that  American  Powers  should  meet  in  Congress  for  the  sole  pur 
pose  of  agreeing  upon  some  basis  for  arbitration  of  differences  that  may 
arise  between  them,  and  for  the  prevention,  as  far  as  possible,  of  wars  in 


522  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

the  future.  If  that  movement  is  now  to  be  arrested  for  fear  it  may  give 
offence  in  Europe  the  voluntary  humiliation  of  the  United  States  could  not 
be  more  complete,  unless  \ve  should  petition  European  Governments  for 
the  privilege  of  holding  the  Congress. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  how  this  country  could  be  placed  in  a  less  enviable 
position  than  would  be  secured  by  sending  in  November  a  cordial  invitation 
to  all  the  Independent  Nations  in  America  to  meet  in  Washington  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  devising  measures  of  peace,  and  in  January  recalling  the 
invitation  for  fear  it  might  create  "jealousy  and  ill  will"  on  the  part  of 
monarchical  governments  in  Europe.  It  would  be  difficult-  to  devise  a 
more  effective  way  for  the  United  States  to  lose  the  friendship  of  its  Amer 
ican  neighbors,  and  it  would  certainly  not  add  to  our  -prestige  in  tin;  Euro 
pean  world.  Nor  can  I  see,  Mr.  President,  how  European  Governments 
should  feel  "jealousy  and  ill  will"  toward  the  United  States  because  of  an 
effort  on  its  part  to  assure  lasting  peace  between  the  nations  of  America, 
unless  indeed  it  be  the  interest  of  the  European  Powers  that  the  American 
Nations  should  at  intervals  fall  into  war,  and  bring  reproach  on  Republican 
institutions.  But  from  that  very  circumstance  I  see  an  additional  and  pow 
erful  motive  for  American  governments  to  be  at  peace  among  themselves. 
.  .  .  To  revoke  that  invitation  for  any  cause  would  be  embarrassing;  to 
revoke  it  for  avowed  fear  of  "  jealousy  and  ill  will  "  on  the  part  of  Euro 
pean  Powers  would  appeal  as  little  to  American  pride  as  to  American  hos 
pitality.  Those  you  have  invited  may  decline,  and,  having  now  cause  to 
doubt  their  welcome,  will  perhaps  do  so.  This  would  break  up  the  Con 
gress,  but  it  would  not  touch  our  dignity. 


He  asked,  perhaps  it  might  be  truer  to  say,  he  extorted,  permis 
sion  to  publish  his  State  papers  for  the  judgment  of  men.  He 
reviewed  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Garfield  administration  and 
accentuated  its  two  primal  points,  —  first,  to  bring  about  peace, 
and  prevent  future  wars  in  North  and  South  America  ;  second, 
to  cultivate  such  friendly  relations  of  reciprocity  with  all  Amer 
ican  countries  as  would  lead  to  a  large  increase  in  the  export 
trade  of  the  United  States,  by  supplying  those  fabrics  in  which 
we  are  abundantly  able  to  compete  with  the  manufacturing 
nations  of  Europe.  He  protested  against  a  policy  which  would 
destroy  American  commerce  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  build  up 
English  interests  on  its  ruins.  He  dismissed  the  war  cry  as 
nonsense,  showed  that  we  were  in  line  with  the  safest  prece 
dents,  and  that  the  steady  moral  pressure  of  the  United  States 
was  needed  to  offset  the  heavy  hand  of  England  which  Peru 
felt  upon  her  at  every  turn. 

So  vigorous,  aggressive,  and  complete  was  his  defence  that 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    <7.     KLAINti.  523 

the  case  against  him  broke  down,  the  chief  witness  became  en 
tirely  discredited,  five  of  his  own  counsel  testifying  over  their 
signatures   to  his   false  witness,  and  the  result  was  to  fix  Mr. 
Elaine's  policy  more  firmly  in  the  minds,  and  devotion  to  hi™-^ 
self  more  deeply  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people. 

In   this   storm    of   detraction    and   of   misapprehension,   Mr. 
Elaine  was  writing  the  eulogy  of  President  Garfield,  which  he 
had  been  asked  to  pronounce  before  the  two  Houses  of  Congress. 
He  had  at  first  declined,  thinking  his  close  identification  with 
Garfield  during  the  four  active  months  of  his    administration 
must  lend  to  any  eulogy  an  appearance  of  egotism.     He  was 
moreover  contemplating  a  memoir  of  Garfield  in  which  he  could 
speak  without  embarrassment  of  matters  which  could  not  now 
be  discussed,  yet  must  be  mentioned.     He  was  forced,  however, 
to  yield  to  the  urgency  of  Governor  McKinley  and  the  com 
mittee,  representing  not  only  Congress,  but  the  people.     Before 
this  eulogy,  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February 
27,   1882,   to  an  assembly  the  most  distinguished  that  can  be 
gathered,  hostility  itself  was  hushed.     The  lucidity  and  concen 
tration  of  the  narrative,  the  classic  severity  and  beauty  of  the 
language,  the  repressed  feeling,  the  insight  which  lifted  Garfield's 
pedigree  from  the  zone  of   demagogism  to  the  dignity  of  self- 
respecting  independence,  the  courtesy,  the  stately  gravity,  the 
matchless  yet  firm  delicacy  with  which  the  orator  touched  the 
trouble  of  the  time  in  which  the  President  sitting  before  him 
was  so  fatef ully  involved,  —  met,  mastered,  all  the  demands  of 
the  occasion.    Vigor  and  clearness  were  expected.     The  modera 
tion,  tenderness,  and  sweetness  of  the  eulogy  were  beyond  an 
ticipation.     Something  of  surprise  was  expressed  that  Mr.  Blaine 
had  now  showed  himself  capable   of  touching  and  swaying  the 
sensibilities  as  he    had  been   accustomed    to    sway  the   reason 
and  judgments  of  men.     His  allusion  to  Gladstone  called  forth 
the  acknowledgment  of  the  English  minister.     The  New  York 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  and  Art  invited 
him  to  deliver  the  oration  in  the  Academy   of  Music,  but  it 
had  been  written  for  one  occasion  and  was  never  repeated. 


524  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  ex-Postmaster  General  Jewell : 

DETROIT,  June  10,  1880. 

I  am  sad,  glad,  and  mad,  mostly  the  latter.  .  .  .  To  think  that  New 
England  votes  kept  you  out  of  the  reward  you  had  so  well  earned  !  It's  the 
last  chance  New  England  will  have  for  a  long  time  for  a  President.  I 
upbraided  all  iny  friends  in  Connecticut, Vermont,  or  Massachusetts  in  these 
delegations,  and  all  admitted  that 'twas  you  who  had  almost  alone  made  any 
nomination  but  Grant's  possible.  All  admitted  it  and  the  obligation  to 
you.  Most  of  the  Grant  people  now  admit  you  to  be  their  preference,  but  they 
had  promised  to  "stick  to  the  old  man"  and  so  did.  ...  1  have  this 
comfort.  I  have  not  humiliated  myself.  .  .  .  Frye,  Hale,  and  Chand 
ler,  how  they  did  work!  Brilliant,  able  work,  only  it  didn't  win.  After 
you  1  felt  more  regrets  for  them.  Then  for  Governor  Dennison  to  adopt 
the  tail  of  Conkl ing's  machine  and  force  it  on  the  convention,  Frye  should 
have  had  that ;  but  no,  they  must  conciliate  New  York. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Wendell  Phillips  : 

JUNE  22,  1880. 

Thanks  for  all  you  made  time  to  do,  — letters  and  personal  calls  on  the 

Secretary,  —  for1 s.     I  have  been  so  deeply  interested  in  their  lot  that 

lean  hardly  tell  you  how  much  I  feel  their  debt  and  mine  to  you.     I  know 
I  need  not  add  my  deep  sense  of  personal  disappointment. 

.  .  .  Of  course  you  feel  no  special  chagrin  over  Chicago  results. 
Full  of  life,  you  are  sure  your  friends  and  the  State  will  need  you  in  the 
future.  But  7  may  not  live  to  rejoice  in  your  success. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  William  C.  Goodloe  : 

LEXINGTON,  August  6,  1880. 

I  do  not  know  that  my  slight  acquaintance  with  you  would  justify  my 
writing  to  you  on  any  subject,  but  1  was  one  of  those  who  strongly 
favored  your  nomination  at  Chicago  and  confidently  hoped  for  your  suc 
cess.  I  was  innocent  enough  to  suppose  that  a  man  who  was  the  over 
whelming  choice  of  the  delegates  representing  Republican  districts 
throughout  the  Union  would  not  be  opposed  by  those  from  the  Democratic 
districts,  and  that,  too,  in  favor  of  a  man  whose  nomination  would  not 
only  have  violated  a  cherished  national  tradition,  but  would  have  inevi 
tably  led  through  Republican  dissension  to  his  certain  and*  humiliating 
defeat. 

I  was  disappointed  that  you  were  not  nominated,  but  was  not  disappointed 
in  my  oft-repeated  assertion  that  you  were  the  only  man  in  America  who 
was  strong  enough  in  himself,  and  who  had  sufficient  hold  upon  the  people 
to  drive  Grant  from  the  track.  That  you  did  this  no  one  can  deny,  and  in 
doing  so,  that  you  saved  from  utter  disintegration  and  ultimate  disaster  the 
Republican  party,  is  equally  incontrovertible. 

The  nomination  of  General  Garfield  —  the  happiest  possible  issue  out  of 
the  nasty  Grant  mess  —  and  all  the  party  success  we  may  achieve  under 
him,  is  traceable  directly  to  your  influence. 


BTOGEAPITY    OF    .TAMER    C.     ELAINE.  525 

The  country  as  well  as  the  Republican  party  owes  you  a  debt  of  grati 
tude  which  can  never  be  fully  repaid,  but  1  trust  that  so  far  as  it  may  be 
within  the  power  of  those  who  admire  your  course  and  feel  grateful  for  its 
results,  that  the  great  benefits  we  have  derived  from  your  patriotism 
and  statesmanship  may  neither  be  forgotten  nor  in  any  manner  overlooked. 

To  Mr.  Blaiiie,  from  Walker : 

BELFAST,  September  4,  1880. 

.  .  .  —  is  perfectly  willing  to  speak  twice  a  day,  and  is,  I  think, 
capable  of  doing  good.  Should  you  send  him  to  Lincoln,  I  wish  you  would 
have  him  put  into  pretty  decent  towns.  He  has  stood  this  week  very  well, 
and  it  has  been  the  very  hardest  part  of  all  campaigning,  —  poor  food,  dull 
audiences,  and  hard  work.  I  am  glad  you  did  not  send  Allison.  It  would 

have  been  an  insult  to  a  Senator,  and  I  apologize  to for  it.     He  deserves 

the  recompense  now  of  some  decent  meetings.  ...  1  don't  think  we 
can  carry  Waldo  county,  but  with  hard  cash  their  majority  can  be  pulled  so 
low  that  Milliken  will  be  elected.  I  hope  you  will  send  them  all  you  can 
afford  from  State  Committee  funds,  as  the  expenses  of  bringing  voters  to 
polls,  and  getting  men  out,  will  be  very  great. 

Augusta,  September  25.  .  .  .  If  we  have  any  luck  in  Ohio  and  Indi 
ana,  we  can,  in  my  opinion,  carry  Maine  by  making  a  hard  fight  and  close 
organization  and  by  sending  Solon  and  others  into  the  small  towns  where 
they  have  influence  as  individuals.  .  .  .  Emmons  and  I  went  to  the 
State  Fair  at  Lewiston  Thursday  morning.  .  .  .  Saw  a  good  many  of 
our  political  friends  —  all  full  of  pluck  and  ready  to  work  for  November. 

To  Mr.  Blame,  from  Mr.  Robeson  : 

CAMDEN,  October  9,  1880. 

I  hear  you  are  doing  great  work  in  Indiana  and  Ohio.  But  as  every 
State  arid  place  you  go  through  on  your  return  will  be  trying  to  hold  you, 
you  must  not  forget  your  promise  to  New  Jersey  and  that  you  are  an 
nounced  and  placarded  all  over  the  State.  Kilpatrick  is  to  meet  you  Friday. 
He  expects  you  to  speak  at  Deckerton  on  that  day,  and  in  the  evening  go  on 
to  Newton  and  show  yourself  there  ;  from  thence  you  are  to  go  to  Trenton 
(Saturday),  to  speak  to  three  counties.  This  is  the  most  important  thing 
in  the  State,  so  don't  let  Kill  get  you  off  to  do  anything  else.  Saturday 
evening  you  come  to  me  in  Camden  to  spend  a  quiet  Sunday,  and  on  Mon 
day  afternoon  you  go  to  Millville  in  my  district,  and  on  Tuesday  I  turn 
you  ovjer  to  the  rest  of  the  State  —  for  three  other  speeches.  You  will  have 
to  go  to  Kill's  district  again,  but  it  will  be  easily  reached  from  anywhere 
(except  Deckerton),  but  on  no  account  must  you  fail  for  the  two  meetings 
at  Trenton  on  the  16th,  and  18th  at  Millville. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Neal  Dow  : 

PORTLAND,  October  26,  1880. 

Your  note  of  yesterday  is  just  received.  T  was  never  a  more  stalwart 
Republican  than  I  am  now,  and  most  earnestly  wishing  success  to  Mr. 


52fi  BTOffRAnrr  OF  JAMES  G.   ELAINE. 

Garfield,  than  whom  there  is  no  man  in  the  country  I  would  prefer  to  see 
President  except  yourself,  whose  nomination  I  earnestly  desire. 

From  Walker : 

ST.  PAUL,  November,  1880. 

The  first  news  of  yesterday's  great  triumph  received  in  St.  Paul  was 
Mons1  telegraph,  for  which  I  wish  you  would  thank  the  lad.  I  have  been 
for  the  past  week  stumping.  I  spoke  at  Hudson  to  the  largest  meeting 
ever  held  in  the  place.  A  great  procession  of  over  1,000  torches  in  a  little 
town  of  not  more  than  2,000  people —  special  trains  running  in  from  every 
portion  of  the  country.  Thursday  I  went  to  River  Falls  where  I  spoke  to 
another  very  large  meeting,  and  Friday  to  Eau  Claire  where  thev  had  the 
largest  meeting  ever  held  in  the  town.  .  .  .  The  largest  hall  in  the 
place  was  filled,  and  all  the  standing  room  taken,  and  as  I  felt  that  I  made 
very  fair  speeches  and  everybody  else  said  very  good  ones,  I  was  quite 
content.  At  Hudson  the  speaking  was  out  of  doors  and  the  evening  very 
cold.  The  smoke  from  naphtha-burning  torches  poured  down  my  throat  and 
made  me  so  husky  that  I  could  not  speak  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 
but  at  River  Falls  and  Eau  Claire  I  spoke  in  doors  and  about  an  hour  each 
time.  They  made  me  stay  over  until  Saturday  evening  in  Eau  Claire,  and 
go  to  a  neighboring  village  where  there  are  large  lumber  mills,  where  I 
talked  for  an  hour  to  the  lumbermen,  who  seemed  pleased.  Colonel  Spooner, 
of  Hudson,  who  is  the  attorney  for  the  lawyers1  railroad,  spoke  with  me  in 
Hudson,  River  Falls,  and  Eau  Claire,  —  a  very  bright  fellow,  considered  one 
of  the  most  capable  lawyers  in  this  part  of  the  country.  ...  I  saw 
a  great  many  Maine  people  in  Eau  Claire.  Dined  with  a  Mr.  Bullen  who 
came  from  New  Sharon,  and  is  now  a  wealthy  lumberman  ;  and  called  on 
an  old  gentleman  named  Bliss,  who  used  to  live  in  Pittston,  and  was  County 
Commissioner  for  Kennebec  many  years  ago.  They  are  all  great  admirers 
of  father  in  that  part  of  Wisconsin,  and  everybody  desired  to  send  regards 
to  him.  You  may  imagine  that  I  was  pi  eased  with  my  reception  in 
Wisconsin  on  account  of  its  flattery  to  myself  slightly,  but  mostly  as  indic 
ative  of  the  tremendous  strength  that  father  evidently  has  in  the  real 
hearts  of  the  people  in  the  North-west.  Well,  dearest  mother,  the  election 
is  over — lc  roi  est  mort  —  for  which  all  thanks  be  to  kind  Heaven  which 
divides  our  lives  into  years  —  vive  le  roi.  I  am  of  course  intensely  de 
lighted  at  the  grand  way  in  which  Maine  has  been  redeemed,  and  I 
really  can't  help  earnestly  and  solemnly  believing  that  the  election  of 
Hancock  would  have  been  a  calamity.  It  would  have  greatly  unsettled 
everything,  would  have  discouraged  capital  and  put  back  the  development 
of  this  country  immensely.  Patriotically  and  personally  as  living  in  this 
new  land,  and  determined  to  prosper  with  its  prosperity,  I  am  thankful  that 
the  Republican  party  has  triumphed.  .  .  .  Besides  my  political  work 
in  Wisconsin  I  have  done  very  little.  I  have  secured  my  offices.  I  have 
very  charming  rooms,  which  T  am  occupying,  and  which  are  nearly  put  to 
rights.  .  .  .  Expect  to  starve  to  death  in  the  practice  of  the  law 
physically,  but  I  think  with  a  full  mind.  ...  I  feel  now  as  though  I 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMK8    G.     ELAINE.  527 

would  like  to  take  the  train  for  home  to-night  and  have  a  renewal  of  my 
old  Andover  feelings.  I  suppose  it  will  be  the  ultimate  making  of  me, 
but  it  is  going  through  a  valley  of  sorrow  to  reach  the  mountain  of  success. 

To  General  Garfield,  from  Walker  Blaine  • 

ST.  PAUL,  November  4,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL:  Permit  me  to  join  my  poor  note  of  congratulation 
upon  your  magnificent  triumph,  to  the  countless  letters  of  rejoicing 
which  you  are  now  receiving.  It  must  assuredly  be  gratifying  to  you,  as  it 
is  to  all  your  friends,  that  after  such  a  campaign  of  slander,  detraction, 
lying,  and  forgery,  your  countrymen  have  passed  such  a  vote  of  confidence 
in  you,  and  the  principles  you  represent,  as  they  did  on  Tuesday  last.  I 
joined  one  of  the  largest  crowds  ever  assembled  on  such  an  occasion  in 
St.  Paul  on  Tuesday  last,  and  shouted  myself  hoarse  with  the  rest,  as  the 
details  of  our  triumph  came  pouring  in,  and  our  enthusiasm  was  not  caused 
by  the  evanescent  feelings  of  joy  at  partisan  triumph,  but  each  and  all  felt 
deep  gratitude  and  thankfulness  that  what  we  earnestly  and  fully  be 
lieved  to  be  the  right  had  won. 

You  must  know,  and  I  know  that  you  will  feel  pleased,  that  the  intelli 
gent  young  men  of  the  country  took  more  interest  than  ever  before  in 
political  affairs,  and  that  a  vast  majority  of  that  class  favored  your  election. 
May  I  say,  as  one  of  that  number  who  worked  humbly  but  heartily  for 
your  success,  that  we  believe  confidently  that  your  administration  will 
make  republicanism  more  than  ever  respected,  and  worthy  of  respect,  and 
that  the  next  administration  will  be  one  of  strength,  of  intelligence,  and  of 
honor. 

May  I  ask  you  to  present  my  compliments  and  congratulations  to  Mrs. 
Garfield,  and  that  you  will  grant  me  the  honor  of  calling  myself, 

Your  very  sincere  friend  and  supporter. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker : 

ST.  PAUL,  November  7,  1880. 

...  I  have  great  faith  and  hope  and  belief  in  the  State  and  in  the  town. 
It  is  your  State  emphatically.  The  people  are  for  you  now  as  they  always 
have  been,  and  that  is  a  great  capital  in  the  start.  Then  I  know  a  great 
many  people  here,  and  they  are  very  kind  to  me.  The  town  is  growing 
most  rapidly.  It  is  the  legal  centre  of  what  is  destined  to  be  a  great 
empire.  There  is  reputation  to  be  won,  money  to  be  made,  honor  to  be 
gained,  and  the  thing  that  more  will  help  me  to-day  than  anything  else  is 
that  I  am  from  the  East  and  have  position  and  acquaintance  there. 
Socially  I  am  established,  and  I  think  that  a  social  position  every  way  helps 
a  man.  So  I  should  be  a  fool  indeed  if  I  did  not  see  that  this  was  my 
chance. 

One  thino-  more.     The  way  in  which  Maine  has  come  back  for  Garfield 


528  mOGRAPllY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

is  magnificent  for  the  State  and  for  you  personally.  I  did  not  think  this 
year  that  you  would  have  been  elected,  if  nominated.  I  doubt  it  still,  not 
withstanding  Garfield's  victory.  Spurred  by  your  strength  in  the  country, 
the  Democracy  would  have  shown  more  sense  and  fought  a  stronger 
campaign.  But  the  fight  took  such  aspect  in  Chicago  that  it  became  a 
Kilkenny  cat  quarrel.  You  needs  kill  yourself  in  defeating  Grant.  But 
I  trust  to  time  in  all  things.  You  may  never  be  President,  but  I  believe 
that  the  day  has  come  for  greater  statesmanship  in  this  country  than  ever 
before  —  that  graver  questions  are  to  be  brought  forward  for  legislation, 
and  I  know  you  will  not  be  silent  in  your  place.  It  is  my  earnest  convic 
tion  that  though  we  beat  them,  the  last  election  teaches  lessons  of  greater 
danger  to  our  government  than  ever  before.  ...  I  don't  care  a 
rap  personally  about  the  presidency,  but  T  do  count  with  all  my  heart 
upon  seeing  you  lead  in  the  great  crises  of  politics  and  of  legisla 
tion. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Theo.  F.  Randolph : 

MORRISTOWN,  November  18,  1880. 

.  You  will  believe  me,  I  am  sure,  when  I  say  that,  like  many 
Democrats,  my  philosophy  would  have  been  greater  —  very  much  —  hail 
the  presidency  fallen  to  you.  Four  years  of  federal  administration  by  you 
would  have  ended  the  sectional  contests. 


From   Walker: 

ST.  PAUL,  November  30,  1880. 

.  .  .  I  have  started  m}T  office  and  am  feeling  some  encouragement 
about  success.  The  clients  and  the  fees  do  not  pour  in  very  rapidly,  it  is 
true,  but  T  shall  not  be  discouraged,  as  1  have  only  been  in  the  office  two 
days. 

.  .  .  Yesterday  I  went  lo  Minneapolis  to  pay  my  parting  respects  to 
Mrs.  Washburn  who  leaves  to-day  for  Washington.  She  was  very  nice 
and  very  pleasant,  and  I  enjoyed  my  visit  exceedingly.  ...  As  to 
putting  the  mark  high,  f  have  set  up  such  an  ideal  that  to  approximate  it 
I  shall  be  driven  to  spend  all  my  days  in  Minnesota.  I  am  not  in  danger 
of  being  satisfied  with  a  moderate  degree  of  success,  you  may  rest 
assured . 

December  9.  .  .  .  I  have  been  blue  with  cold,  and  I  think  my 
spirits  must  have  congealed  with  my  toes.  Such  a  cold  winter  the  oldest 
inhabitant  is  put  to  his  trumps  to  parallel,  and  I  hope  to  live  to  be  a  very 
old  citizen  and  never  see  another  like  it.  ...  The  papers  here  posi 
tively  announce  that  father  has  been  offered  the  Secretaryship  of  State 
and  has  not  yet  declined  it.  I  wish,  should  he  be  so  inclined — I  won't 
say  foolishly,  for  I  don't  know  the  reason  —  as  to  accept  it,  that  GarficM 


PHY    OF    JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  529 

would  make  me  Private  Secretary  to  the  State  Department.     It  might  be 
ruination,  but  it  would  surely  be  warmth. 

December  24.  .  .  .  I  sent  a  little  box  of  things  home.  They  will  at 
least  serve  to  remind  you  all  on  Xmas  day  of  my  existence,  and  of  the 
longing  which  I  have  and  shall  ever  have  to  be  with  you ;  and  if  you 
would  only  make  up  your  mind  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  and  to  make  me 
Private  Secretary  to  that  official,  I  should  be  content,  though  my  ambition 
might  not  be  realized. 

To  V.: 

AUGUSTA,  December  3,  1880. 

.  I  am  left  absolutely  alone  with  my  servants,  every  want  antici 
pated,  not  a  room  in  the  house  not  at  summer  heat,  sunshine  and  open  tires 
vicing  with  each  other.  .  .  .  Four  horses  and  pony  in  the  stable,  sleighs 
and  robes  in  abundance  and  the  beautiful  snow ;  every  longing  satisfied, 
with  full  salvation  blessed  —  what  can  I  need?  My  sins  —  that  is,  my 
sinners.  First  of  all,  I  miss  Mr.  Blaine.  I  cannot  bear  the  orderly  array 
of  my  life.  I  miss  the  envelopes  in  the  gravy,  the  bespattered  table  linen, 
the  uncertainty  of  the  meals,  for  you  kno\v  he  always  starts  out  on  his  con 
stitutional  when  he  hears  them  taking  in  dinner.  I  miss  his  unvarying 
attention,  and  as  constant  neglect.  When  alone  with  him  I  am  not  my 
own  —  when  others  are  in,  go  as  you  please  is  the  rule,  and  the  alternation 
suits  me  exactly.  Then  the  boys  —  oh,  how  I  miss  them.  They  know  all 
I  ever  knew  —  and  I  have  forgotten  much  —  they  are  fresh  and  untiring  as 
the  sun  which  never  sets  —  they  are  loving  and  want  sympathy  —  old 
enough  to  be  companions,  too  young  to  assert  their  rights,  taking  every 
thing  as  of  grace,  and  of  their  fulness  I  am  a  partaker.  Blessed  relation 
ship  —  the  man  child  to  his  mother. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker : 

ST.  PAUL,  January  3,  1881. 

Mother  wrote  me  some  time  since,  under  the  strictest  seal  of  confidence, 
that  vou  were  seriously  entertaining  (ieneral  Garfield's  proposition  of  ac 
cepting  the  State  Department.  I  have  been  thinking  it  over,  and  I  talked 
it  over  with  Mons  in  Chicago.  I  see  very  well  at  the  outset  some  of  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  that  lie  in  the  way.  You  have  been  eighteen  years 
in  the  legislative  department  of  the  government,  and  your  whole  career 
has  been  spent  in  debate  and  legislation.  It  is  then  rather  a  grave  change 
to  leave  the  Senate  and  take  charge  of  an  administrative  department.  The 
ne\v  work  you  may  possibly  not  like,  but  there  will  be  the  compen 
sation  of  greater  leisure  and  a  less  wearing  life.  .  .  .  This  is  a  con 
sideration  of  considerable  importance  to  you  and  to  us  all.  But  this  is 
not  the  greatest  reason  why  I  desire  this  thing.  .  .  .  You  have  made 
a  great  reputation  in  debate  —  never  having  been  unhorsed  or  overthrown  ; 
you  have  made  a  great  reputation  as  a  political  leader  and  chieftain.  I 
do  not  think  you  can  greatly  enhance  it  in  either  direction.  Did  your 


530  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAM  EX    G.    ELAINE. 

going  into  the  State  Department  simply  mean  that  you  were  to  be  Secretary 
of  State,  I  do  not  think  any  of  your  friends  would  greatly  desire  it.  But 
your  taking  that  position  will  mean— and  the  country  will  so  understand  it  — 
that  you  are  the  head  of  the  administration  under  the  President,  and  the 
chief  counsellor  of  its  policy.  The  struggle  which  I  thought  inevitable  in 
legislation  between  protection  and  free  trade  is  postponed.  The  great 
question  for  our  party  is  that  of  administration.  One  bad  administration, 
one  weak  administration,  has  nearly  bankrupted  the  Republican  party,  and 
if  stupidity  were  not  the  leading  coefficient  in  our  Democratic  friends1 
make-up,  they  might  have  beaten  us  in  this  election.  If  we  can  have  a 
strong,  a  pure,  and  an  intelligent  administration  in  this  country  for  four 
years,  the  Republican  party  will  gain  a  long  lease  of  power,  and  the  country 
great  prosperity.  I  think  that  the  attitude  of  the  administration  towards 
the  South,  if  wisely  taken,  will  build  up  a  strong  Republican  party  in  that 
section,  and  the  executive  branch  of  the  government  is  the  one  in  which 
reputation  is  to  be  earned.  All  these  things,  the  added  ease  of  life,  the 
escape  from  disagreeable  friction  in  the  Senate,  the  field  which  is  new  and 
for  the  present  wider,  make  me  take  this  stand.  I  want  you  to  make  sure 
that  there  is  a  strong  Cabinet,  and  that  abroad  we  are  represented  as  a 
great  nation  should  be.  I  don't  want  above  all  tilings  any  jobbery  in  any 

department,   and  the  items  which  I  see  in  our  papers  that is  to  be 

Secretary  of  the  Interior,  though  I  believe  them  not,  do  not  please  me.  I 
have  written  you  freely,  perhaps  foolishly.  Whatever  you  may  do,  I  of 
course  shall  believe  is  done  for  the  best,  but  my  inclinations  you  now  see. 
You  will  judge  for  the  best  in  all  tilings.  I  hope  that  1881  will  be  a  year 
of  unmixed  pleasure  and  happiness  to  all,  and  that  you  will  believe  me  ever 

Your  most  loving  son. 

From  Emmons : 

CHICAGO,  January  12,  1881. 

.  .  .  I  am  delighted  to  think  we  are  going  to  build,  but  I  am 
awfully  afraid  that  father  will  build  a  cheap  house.  I  hope  he  will 
not.  I  don't  want  him  to  ruin  himself  on  such  an  investment,  but  cheap 
houses  are  not  going  to  pay  in  Washington,  and  it  will  not  pay  him.  I 
hope  he  will  get  a  good  architect  and  take  advice  in  his  plans.  I  don't 
think  his  own  record  as  a  builder  is  free  from  criticism,  and  this  will  be  a 
thing  that  he  can't  revise  or  refix.  But  whatever  it  is,  don't  let  it  be  a 
cheap,  money-saving  house.  You  never  can  sell  one,  and  you  never  will 
like  one  if  1  know  anything. 

The  Cabinet  begins  to  grow  on  me  more  and  more,  and  I  am  quite  a 
diplomat  already.  .  .  .  My  first  month  has  gone  by  and  I  have  not 
yet  seen  the  color  of  the  company's  money,  so  I  must  again  come  to  the 
family  exchequer.  I  don't  want  the  money  this  week,  but  some  time  in  the 
course  of  a  fortnight,  if  the  genial  Thomas  can  elicit  a  cheek  for  about 
$125,  I  should  send  it  back  with  the  warmest  kind  of  an  endorsement. 
As  you  said  to  Jacky  apropos  of  Christmas,  —  "  Think  on  these  things." 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 


531 


To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Mr.  Emery  A.  Storrs : 

CHICAGO,  January  17,  1881. 

There  was  something  so  princely  and  broad-gauged  in  your  allusions  to 
General  Grant  as  recently  published  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  saying  to 
you,  how  gratifying  your  course  in  that  particular  is  to  all  fair-minded  men. 
Of  course  the  spectacle  of  so  great  and  commanding  a  figure  in  our  his 
tory  as  General  Grant,  compelled  to  come  down  to  a  hand-to-hand  struggle 
for  a  livelihood,  is  much  more  humiliating  to  us  as  a  people  than  the  neces 
sity  can  be  to  General  Grant  himself,  and  the  spectacle  of  his  great  com 
petitor,  so  generously  declaring  his  own  position,  must  be  most  gratifying 
to  every  man  who  is  proud  of  our  great  public  men. 

To  Walker: 

WASHINGTON,  January  19,  1881. 

Dinner  is  over,  and  Alice,  your  father,  Q.,  and  C.  A.,  after  all 
sorts  of  contretemps,  are  off  to  hear  McCullough  in  ••  Virginias."  After  they 
were  in  the  hall,  Alice  had  to  go  upstairs  and  change  her  dress,  the  dearest 
pater  in  the  world  objecting  to  a  white  dress  and  black  cloak  and  red  bon 
net.  I  think  his  pipes  were  just  the  least  little  bit  in  the  world  previously 
put  out  by  my  not  cordially  cooperating  in  the  lot  on  16th  street. 

From  Walker : 

ST.  PAUL,  January  19,  1881. 

I  am  immensely  happy,  asMons  is  in  town,  having  arrived  this  morning, 
and  though  he  has  been  at  work,  and  I  have  been  busy  .luring  most  of  the  day, 
still  1  have  greatly  enjoyed  what  little  I  have  seen  of  him.  ...  He 
looks  as  well  and  "as  handsome  as  ever,  and  that's  saying  enough.  . 
Ts  father  really  going  to  build?  I  read  a  long  description  of  the  new 
house  one  day /and  a  denial  upon  authority  in  the  next  morning's  paper. 
Hope  that  father  will  not  so  frame  his  action  as  to  let  Governor  P.  put 
anybody  in  the  Senate  for  even  an  hour,  though  of  course  it  is  absurd  to  even 
hint  by  inference  that  he  would  do  so. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Walker : 

ST.  PAUL,  January  27,  1881. 

From  what  I  can  gleam  from  the  papers  Mr.  Conkling  intends 
to  pronounce  and  announce  himself  in  hostility  to  Garfield's  administra 
tion  and  to  endeavor  to  build  up  a  division  in  the  party  which  will  either 
bring  Grant  or  himself  forward  in  four  years.  This  will  of  course  be  some 
what3  difficult  for  him  to  do,  but  as  in  Mr.  Conkling's  mind  Republicanism 
and  Conklingism  are  and  must  be  synonymous,  I  think  he  will  make  the 
effort.  It  will  add  somewhat  to  Garfield's  complications,  and  really  seems 
to  me  the  only  cloud  that  can  be  seen  upon  the  sky  of  the  Republican 
partv's  future.  I  would  venture  two  suggestions  for  what  they  are  worth. 


532  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

1.  That  you  have  as  good  a  Cabinet  as  can  possibly  be  made,  and  that  no 
man  be  put  in  any  position  who  will  endeavor  to  use  the  patronage  of  a 
department  for  any  personal  ends,  or  the  ends  of  any  faction.  The  party's 
and  the  country's  good  ought  to  be  clearly  announced  as  above  any  personal 
considerations,  and  nobody  should  be  put  into  a  Cabinet  position  who  will 
attempt  to  pull  down  Garfield,  or  build  up  anybody.  Mr.  Garfield  is  Pres 
ident,  and  his  Cabinet  should  be  composed  of  men  loyal  to  the  party,  and 
to  him.  2.  It  seems  to  me  very  important  that  somebody  should  be  picked 
out  for  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who  will  commend  himself  to  the  earnest 
confidence  of  all  the  business  men,  for,  if  the  bubble  keeps  expanding, 
there  will  be  a  financial  burst  within  two  or  three  years,  and  panics  are 
always  detrimental  to  the  party  in  power.  The  party  certainly  deserves 
success,  and  ought  to,  and  can  have  a  long  lease  of  power,  but  it  will  de 
mand  good  legislation  and  good  administration  to  prevent  overthrow,  if  the 
panic  which  seems  imminent  should  occur.  3.  I  want  you  to  arrange  so  as 
not  to  give  P.  the  opportunity  to  appoint  a  Senator  for  even  a  single  day, 
but  so  that  the  Legislature  may  elect  at  once. 

January  31.  The  day  reminds  me  that  you  have  reached  your  fifty-first 
birthday,  and  I  am  now  more  than  half  as  old  as  you,  though  still  lacking 
greatly  of  attaining  one-half  your  worth  in  goodness  or  in  wisdom.  I  see 
by  the  newspapers  that  you  are  still  as  eloquent,  as  strong,  and  as  con 
vincing  as  ever  in  the  Senate,  though  the  "  Scribbler  "  adds  that  your  beard 
and  hair  are  a  little  whiter  than  last  year,  but  if  on  my  fifty-first  birthday 
you  can  only  say  one  tithe  of  half  the  things  that  I  feel,  but  cannot  express 
to  you,  I  shall  be  content  to  be  as  bald  as  the  country's  eagle,  and  shall  re 
gard  my  uncrowned  poll  as  fit  emblem  of  my  pride. 

That  you  may  live  to  reap  yet  more  and  more  honors  which  you  deserve, 
and  as  the  greatest  pride  and  joy  to  all  your  children,  is  the  sincere  prayer  of 

Your  most  affectionate  son. 

From  Emmons : 

CHICAGO,  February  3,  1881. 

.  .  .  I  am  sorry  Dr.  Barker  is  coming  on,  for  T  can  already  see  father 
furtively  putting  new  prescriptions  in  his  pocket  and  preparing  himself  for 
another  conflict  with  modern  drugs.  Don't  let  them  be  alone  together  for 
a  moment.  .  .  .  Business  is  dull  to-day.  Not  a  soul  has  been  near 
me  except  my  fellow-clerks,  who  wander  in  now  and  then  and  indulge  in  a 
companionable  yawn.  ...  I  wish  you  could  understand  the  agony  of 
having  nothing  to  do  and  yet  not  being  able  to  go  out  and  look  for  anything 
to  amuse  one's  self  with.  .  .  .  Tell  father  I  shall  send  him  some  stock 
points  this  spring.  He  won't  follow  my  advice,  but  I  shall  have  the  satis 
faction  of  saying,  "  I  told  you  so." 

To  Emmons : 

WASHINGTON,  February  17,  1881. 

.     Your  father  gets  up  every  day  and  goes  downstairs  about  noon, 
cheerful,  gay  even,  entertaining  as  no  other  111:1:1  knows  how  to  be. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  533 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax : 

SOUTH  BEND,  March  5,  1881. 

After  your  stormy  years  of  public  life  in  our  stormy  era,  with 
"lance11  always  in  readiness,  I  think  you  will  enjoy  the  calm  and  dignified 
and  elevated  career  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  And  if  the  new  administra 
tion  can  successfully  grapple  with  and  settle  the  questions  grouped  to 
gether  in  the  President's  remarkably  successful  Inaugural,  the  whole 
Republican  party,  as  well  as  history,  will  give  you  all  honor  as  enduring 
as  the  nation  itself. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard : 

WEST  POINT,  March  8,  1881. 

I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  properly  a  subject  of  congratulation  that  you 
have  been  appointed  Secretary  of  State.  ...  But  your  friends  rejoice 
at  your  appointment  for  the  strength  it  promises  to  the  government  in  H 
present  administration.  May  the  same  kind  Father  watch  over  you  and 
enlarge  your  vision  — as  you  shall  now  more  and  more  take  in  the  whole 
world*—  as  he  has  in  past  emergencies  ! 


To  Emmons : 

WASHINGTON. 

March  11.  .  .  .  Everything  in  the  new  situation  continues  to  give 
satisfaction.  The  head  of  the  department  is  in  gay  spirits,  his  secretary 
rapidly  developing  into  an  industrious  and  attentive  officer. 

March  14.  Imagine  what  a  family  matter  that  assassination  must  have 
seemed  when  Alice  came  running  to  the  door  yesterday  as  I  came  from 
church  to  tell  me  of  it,  and  when  I  saw  Bartolomei  himself  sitting  in  my 
own  parlor,  and  crossing  and  recrossing  himself  while  he  prayed  devoutly 
before  readino-  the  despatches;  for  all  the  news  there  was  for  hours  was 
contained  in  the  telegrams  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  Poor  emperor - 
doomed  to  his  death  at  last.  I  think  ho  must  be  enrolled  among  the 

OO 

martyrs. 

March  18.     Tuesday  your  father  and  I  assisted  at  the  requiem  mas 
the  czar.     I  had  never  anticipated  going  into  black  for  any  of  the  European 
sovereigns,  but  with  Mrs.  Kale's  assistance  I  did  !     She  was  here  when  1 
was  dressing,  and  pinned  my  old  black  lace  cape  on  to  my  old  black  chip, 
so  that  I  went  en  regie. 

March  24.     The  secretaryship  grows  more  and  more  agreeable.     .     .     . 
We  have  the  plans  for  the  house,  and  they  are  so  huge  and  so  expensive, 
that  we  are  now  engaged  in  striking  out  every  pretty  thing,  to  reduce 
expenditure  to  the  limits  of  your  father's  purse. 


534  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

From  President  Garfield : 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  March  27,  1881. 
Just  as  we  are  starting  for  church,  your  note  comes.  It  is  like  the  cur 
rent  of  the  Gulf  Stream  conquering  the  Arctic  Sea  —  and  I  thank  you  for 
it.  Above  all  the  worriments  and  contradictions  of  politics,  arises  my 
anxiety  for  Elaine's  health.  I  cannot  do  good  work  with  "  the  half  of  my 
surviving  soul"  prostrate  and  in  pain. 

I  will  try  to  see  him  a  moment  on  the  way  from  church. 
Your  last  paragraph  comes  like  a  benediction,   for  which  I  give  you 
thanks. 

To  Emmons : 

WASHINGTON,  March  28,  1881. 

I  am  writing  in  my  room ;  present,  your  father,  Alice,  Walker,  Tom 
Sherman,  and  a  messenger  from  the  State  Department;  subject,  shall  we 
send  message,  recognizing  Charles  as  King  of  Roumania?  .  .  .  There 
are  lots  of  things  which  hitch  in  our  new  position  which  make  the  situation 
interesting.  Flowers  have  just  come  from  Mrs.  Garfield,  and  yesterday 
she  and  the  President  were  both  here.  They  hate  the  situation,  but  this  is 
not  to  be  spoken  of,  and  I  never  want  to  be  nearer  the  White  House  than  I 
now  am. 

From  M.  A.  Dodge : 

WASHINGTON,  April  15,  1881. 

.  .  .  Wednesday  I  went  out  to  dinner  with  Postmaster-General  James, 
but  sat  between  Secretary  Windom  and  the  President,  who  said  it  was  his 
first  meal  outside  the  White  House.  In  the  course  of  the  evening  I  asked 
him  if  there  was  any  foundation  on  which  the  Conkling  men  could  build 
their  assertion  that  he  had  promised  not  to  appoint  a  New  York  collector 
until  he  had  consulted  Conkling.  He  said,  none  whatever  —  that  Conkling 
was  there  two  hours  and  he  trying  to  consult  Conkling's  wishes  all  he  could, 
relinquishing  men  who  were  personally  objectionable  to  Conkling;  and 
Conkling  in  a  most  offensive  way  told  Garfield  that  if  the  anti-Conklirig 
men  must  be  recognized  they  should  be  sent  out  of  the  country,  and  he 
would  hold  his  nose  and  go  into  the  cloak-room  when  their  names  came 
up.  After  the  two  hours  were  over  and  Conkling  rose  to  go,  C.  said, 
with  a  wave  of  his  hand,  "  By  the  way,  when  are  you  going  to  clean  out 
the  Custom  House?'1 — "  Oh,  we  won't  talk  about  that  yet,"  said  Garfield. 
He  says  that  "yet"  is  the  only  sign  of  a  promise  —  all  they  have  to  build 
on,  and  if  any  Senator  raises  a  question  of  veracity  between  himself  and 
that  man,  lie  will  never  forgive  him.  He  spoke  with  great  earnestness 
and  feeling.  .  .  . 

April  25.  .  .  .  The  President  not  only  has  not  one  spark  of  jealousy 
himself,  but  seems  not  to  have  any  "  realizing  sense  "  that  any  one  else  can 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 


535 


have.  At  supper  last  night  at  the  White.  House  he  spoke  out  as  innocently 
as  possible  across  the  table  to  Mr.  Blaine,  "  Do  hurry  back  from  New 
York.  I  shall  be  awfully  lonesome  without  you.11  After  supper  a  good 
many  people  called,  but  we  came  away  early  as  Mr.  Blaine  took  the  10  P.M . 
train.  I  went  up  to  say  good-night  to  the  President,  who  was  talking  with 
General  Sherman  on  a  sofa,  but  the  P.  took  me  off  by  myself  and  made  me 
sit  down  again,  and  when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blaine  came  up  — which  I  fancy 
was  the  raison  d'etre  o1  the  manoeuvre  —  we  had  an  interesting  quadrilateral. 
It  amuses  me  when  there  to  see  the  President  constantly,  and  I  think  un 
consciously,  trying  to  get  off  somewhere  with  Mr.  Blaine. 

April  26.  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  to  the  President  to-day  from  New  York  that 
the  feeling  there  towards  the  administration  is  very  warm,  strong,  and 
cordial  —  full  of  hope  and  conlidcnce. 

From  Mr.  W.  \V.  L'helps  : 

Didn't  Mr.  Blaine  save  me  from  folly,  with  his  peremptory 
"Decidedly  no11?  How  nice  it  is,  when  a  man  knows  his  own  mind — 
even  for  his  friends. 

I  can  believe  the  Dispatch  dinner  was  dull.  Did  Mr.  Blaine  put 
on  the  look  of  Far-away  Moses  and  refuse  to  look  at  the  present  and  to 
talk  of  anything?  We  have  seen  him  so  before. 


To  M. : 

May  17.  Your  father  has  lost  one  pair  of  glasses  and  I  have  stepped 
on  the  spectacles.  1  need  not  say  who  enjoys  those  still  extant,  so  I  write 
blindly,  unable  to  discern  one  letter.  .  .  .  We  had  yesterday,  with  the 
rest  of  the  world,  the  sensational  resignations.  They  produce  no  excitement 
here,  and  I  have  yet  to  hear  one  criticism  complimentary  of  Conkling,  though 
I  have  seen  all  sorts  of  people  and  of  every  shade  of  cowardice.  Mrs.  Gar- 
field  is  better,  and  if  the  doctors  are  not  too  much  for  her,  she  will  get  well. 
Just  before  dinner  I  walked  out  with  your  father  to  the  "  lot." 
They  commenced  grading  yesterday,  and  we  are  to  have  it  in  December. 

May  22.  After  church  I  walked  around  to  the  White  House,  where  I 
had  the  privilege  of  seeing  the  President.  • .  .  .  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
I  have  grave  fears  about  Mrs.  Garfield. 

After  hearing  exactly  how  she  is,  I  confess  I  am  very  uneasy.  Still  the 
doctors  say  she  will  get  well,  and  if  she  does,  I  shall  not  be  surprised  if  she 
comes  to  Maine  and  stays  awhile  with  me.  She  has  to  go  where  she  can  be 
perfectly  quiet,  and  you  know,  to  use  your  own  tongue,  for  that,  Augusta 
takes  the  cake.  Your  father  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morton  this  morn 
ing,  asking  if  he  should  engage  passage  for  you,  with  them,  on  the  "  Ame- 
rique.11  Yrou  ought  to  have  heard  T.'s  howl,  "  It  has  just  spoiled  my  Sunday 
and  I  have  been  looking  forward  to  it  all  the  week/'  This  brought  your 


536  BIOGEAPHY    OF    JAMES    r;.     ELAINE. 

father  to  terms,  and  he  was  very  soon  able  to  remember  that  General  Hurl- 
but  would  be  going  over  later  and  could  take  charge  of  your  inconvenient 
self.  .  .  .  When  this  role  is  filled,  we  shall  be  ready  to  leave,  though  1 
have  many  misgivings  as  to  the  boy  I  leave  behind  me,  or  asGarfield  would 
say,  the  dear  one.  I  do  not  mean  Walker,  but  your  father.  .  .  .  Stocks 
have  gone  up  tremendously,  so  we  shall  put  the  last  inch  into  the  house. 
You  cannot  think  how  much  praise  has  been  showered  on  Walker  for  his 
urbanity  and  efficiency  these  last  days.  Mr.  Lamar  says,  no  such  young 
man  has  been  in  Washington. 

May  17.  Your  father  eating  his  breakfast  this  moment,  and  Walker 
talking  to  him  on  the  new,  original  and  striking  topic  of  procuring  places 
for  female  applicants.  "  Miss  C.,  "  Walker  says,  "  is  as  nice  a  little  girl  as 
I  ever  saw,  and  writes  a  beautiful  hand ;  we  must  provide  for  her ;  "  and 
your  father  answers,  "But  I  must  first  look  out  for  Mrs.  B.  Get  her  a 
place,  then  the  decks  will  be  cleared  for  Miss  C.,"  and  to  this  enters  a  card 
from  Mrs.  Chandler,  with  of  course  a  woman  attached  whom  I  am  to  see 
and  help.  I  have  had  this  morning  a  long  and  delightful  letter  from  Mr. 
Phelps,  sent  from  Queenstown,  with  agreeable  mention  of  you,  and  we 
are  this  moment  anxiously  awaiting  a  cablegram  from  him,  on  the  sub 
ject  of  house  lots,  for  do  you  know  your  father,  with  that  independence 
of  criticism  which  makes  him.  so  delightful  and  surprising  a  comrade,  has 
conceived  a  sort  of  disgust  with  the  16th-street  place,  on  account  of  the 
vicinage  of  stables,  and  although  he  has  had  that  immense  tract  graded,  is 
not  going  to  build  on  it,  and  fastening  his  affections  on  a  lot  on  Massachu 
setts  avenue,  P,  and  20th  streets,  comes  upon  the  surprising  fact  that  Mr. 
Phelps  is  the  owner  thereof;  hence  a  cablegram  and  the  waited-for  reply. 
In  my  letter  Mr.  Phelps  says,  "  While  I  was  struggling  with  the  hasp  of  my 
trunk,  I  told  Hopkins,  who  was  in  the  room,  to  buy  that  other  piece  of  land 
forme.  "...  His  father  said  to  me  only  yesterday,  "  I  am  just  like 
Jamie — when  I  want  a  thing,  I  want  it  dreadfully.'1  They  are  a  pair 
of  Jamies  .  .  .  after  which  Augusta,  and  summer  and  freedom  and  out 
of  doors. 

From  Mr.  Blainc : 

WASHINGTON,  May  26,  1881. 

In  your  contest  at  Albany  I  beg  you  in  no  event  to  think  of  uniting  with 
the  Democrats.  The  other  side  may  and  probably  will  do  that,  but  if 
Conkling  should  be  elected  in  that  way  his  worst  enemy  would  pity  him.  If 
we  should  defeat  him  in  that  way  he  would  at  once  regain  power  with  and 
over  the  Republican  masses  of  New  York  and  the  country. 

I  beg  you  not  to  entertain  a  coalition  with  the  Democrats  so  as  to  give 
them  one  Senator,  in  any  conceivable  event.  Republican  candidates 
anxious  to  be  elected  may  counsel  differently,  but  I  beg  of  you  to  take  my 
advice  in  this  matter. 

As  this  is  the  only  letter  I  have  written  you  touching  this  whole  contro 
versy,  I  beg  you  to  give  it  weight  accordingly. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  537 

To  G.  : 

MAY  29,  1881. 

I  am  writing  fast  and  far,  and  I  understand  that  there  is  a  letter 
from  you  to  me  at  the  State  Department,  which  Mr.  Blaine  and  Walker 

have  both  read,  and  which  they  assure  me  has  nothing  in  it 

May  31.  We  are  not  to  build  on  16th  street.  Mr.  Pendleton  takes  our 
rejected  lot,  and  he  and  Mr.  Robeson  divide  the  residuum.  Now  we  go  out  to 
Massachusetts  avenue  beyond  the  Stewart  House.  That  dear  Mr.  Phelps 
had  bought  this  land,  though  he  didn't  know  it,  and  has  cabled  us  that  we 
may  have  as  much  of  the  land  as  we  want,  if  we  will  make  the  dining-room 
larger.  Isn't  that  just  like  him  ?  A  wonderful  situation. 

To  M.: 


June  6.  Your  father  is  downstairs  and  has  been  out  driving,  need  I 
say  in  the  direction  of  the  lots,  old  and  new.  First  we  go  to  16th 
street  to  look  it  over  and  say  how  little  we  like  it,  then  to  20th  street 
to  admire.  On  the  latter  site  they  are  grading  to-day.  With  your  father, 
Walker  is  now  discussing  the  Fortune  Bay  award,  which  he  has  watched 
very  carefully  and  been  much  interested  in.  I  judge  that  he  makes  a  great 
impression  and  your  father  is  exceedingly  pleased  with  him. 

June  15.  It  is  the  day  and  hour  when  I  expected  to  be  in  Boston,  at  this 
precise  moment  buying  a  Chuddah  shawl,  and  here  I  am,  for  your  father 
has  taken  it  into  his  head  to  get  well,  and  when  an  idea  gets  lodgment  in 
that  capacious  brain,  you  know,  it  becomes  a  power  and  drives  the  weak 
body ;  so  now  we  are  on  the  high  road  to  health,  and  all  clumsy  vehicles 
of  notions,  like  going  home  to  get  rest,  malaria  in  Washington,  Bright's 
disease,  etc.,  etc.,  must  clear  the  track  or  be  ridden  down.  If  it  were  not 
for  T.  and  Q.  I  should  be  content  to  stay  on  and  on,  but  I  deeply  sympa 
thize  with  those  waifs.  "Poor  little  children,"  Walker  said,  "  I  would 
give  twenty  dollars  to  console  T.  this  minute.'1 

June  22.  Your  father  is  perfectly  well,  but  is  unwilling  to  have  us 
leave  him  or  to  leave  with  us.  The  President  is  away  and  the  new 
house  is  starting.  He  likes  to  watch  every  spadeful  of  earth  which  he  can 
snatch  time  to  see  thrown  out.  Meantime  Emmons,  who  is  with  us,  makes 
the  delay  bearable.  Poor  fellow,  he  came  Saturday  evening  expecting  to 
transact  business  for  his  R.R.  and  go  Monday,  and  he  found  himself  on 
Wednesday  held  back  at  arm's  length  by  the  red  tape  of  the  circumlocution 
office,  with  no  immediate  prospect  of  any  capitulation.  He  has  a  great  deal 
of  pride,  I  think,  in  carrying  to  a  successful  conclusion  this  first  busi 
ness  intrusted  to  him,  and  there  is  every  prospect  of  his  failing,  so  of 
course  he  feels  a  little  blue.  He  has  grown  very  manly  during  his  stay  in 
Chicago  —  the  boy  has  gone  —  and  he  seems  to  be  quite  interested  in  his 
business. 


538  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

From  Mr.  Blaine,  to  Mr.  T.  B.  Searight: 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  June  28,  1881. 
MY  DEAR  FRIEND:  The  "maple  molasses11  came  to  hand  and  revived 
memories  of  boyhood  days  —  and  recalled  many  most  pleasant  associations 
with  you.  The  flavor  recalled  the  Fulton  House  and  '*  Joe"  and  George 
Driver  and  the  "Squires11  most  vividly.  Every  time  1  get  a  line  from 
you  I  am  quickened  in  my  desire  to  visit  the  familiar  scenes  long  gone  by. 
You  can  have  no  idea  how  dreamy  and  delicious  the  pleasures  and  pastimes 
of  that  ancient  era  seem  to  me.  They  sometimes  rise  to  my  mental  vision 
as  a  mirayc  on  the  sea  will  to  the  eye,  excluding  all  things  else  for  the 
time  from  the  memory,  the  imagination,  and  the  desires.  You  have  passed 
your  life  near  the  old  haunts,  and  have  lived  along  witli  the  changes  and 
seen  the  ancient  lines  gradually  effaced.  But  to  me  the  country  is  still  the 
land  of  forty  years  ago.  with  stage-coaches  and  wayside  inns,  and  the 
"  Louis  McLane"  and  "  Consul,11  and  the  college  full  of  good  fellows,  and 
the  seminary  crowded  with  pretty,  good  girls,  and  the  dances  at  CaldwelFs 
tavern,  and  the  sleigh-rides  with  John  Steep  for  driver,  and  the  sweet 
hearts  that  we  loved  so  freshly  and  so  gushingly  —  and  who  are  now 
mothers  and  some  of  them,  alas,  grandmothers,  while  you  and  1,  separated 
by  chains  of  mountain  and  a  generation  of  years,  still  have  hearts  that  beat 
warmly  for  each  other. 

To  M. : 

WASHINGTON,  June  28,  1881. 

I  think  that  Walker,  Emmons,  and  your  father  will  leave  with  the 
caravan  on  Thursday. 

July  3.  Your  father  got  up  quite  early  yesterday  morning,  in  order  to 
drive  the  President  to  the  station,  and  at  9. 30  Tom,  the  boys,  Alice,  and  I 
had  breakfast.  In  the  midst  of  it,  the  door-bell  rang  and  Tom  was  called 
out.  Then  he  called  Walker;  but  as  the  house  is  besieged  all  the  time, 
we,  who  were  so  fortunate  as  to  remain  unsent  for,  paid  no  attention  to 
the  prolonged  absence  of  the  absentees ;  but  shall  I  ever  forget  the 
moment  when  Maggie,  nurse,  came  running  into  the  room  crying,  "  They 
have  telephoned  over  to  you,  Mrs.  Blaine,  that  the  President  is  assassi 
nated.11  Emmons  flew,  for  we  all  remembered,  with  one  accord,  that  his 
father  was  with  him.  By  the  time  I  had  reached  the  door,  I  saw  that  it 
must  be  true  —  everybody  on  the  street,  and  wild.  Mrs.  Sherman  got  a 
carriage  and  drove  over  to  the  White  House.  Found  the  streets  in  front 
jammed  and  the  doors  closed,  but  they  let  us  through  and  in.  The 
President  still  at  the  station,  so  drove  thitherward.  Met  the  mounted  police 
clearing  the  avenue,  then  the  ambulance,  turned  and  followed  into  that 
very  gateway  where,  on  the  4th  of  March,  we  had  watched  him  enter. 
I  stood  with  Mrs.  MacVeagh  in  the  hall,  when  a  dozen  men  bore  him 
above  their  heads,  stretched  on  a  mattress,  and  as  he  saw  us  and  held  us 
with  his  eye,  he  kissed  his  hand  to  us  —  1  thought  I  should  die ;  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  539 

when  they  brought  him  into  his  chamber  ami  had  laid  him  on  the  bed, 
he  turned  his  eyes  to  me,  beckoned,  and  when  I  went  to  him,  pulled  me 
down,  kissed  me  again  and  again  and  said,  "  Whatever  happens,  I  want 
you  to  promise  to  look  out  for  Crete,1'  —  the  name  he  always  gives  his 
wife.  .  .  .  "  Don t  leave  me  until  Crete  comes."  I  took  my  old  bonnet 
off  and  just  stayed.  I  never  left  him  a  moment.  Whatever  hap 
pened  in  the  room,  I  never  blenched,  and  the  day  will  never  pass  from 
my  memory.  At  six,  or  thereabouts,  Mrs.  Gartield  came,  frail,  fatigued, 
desperate,  but  linn  and  quiet  and  full  of  purpose  to  save,  and  I  think 
now  there  is  a  possibility  of  succeeding.  ...  I  came  from  the  White 
House  at  two  this  morning  and  have  been  there  all  day,  but  not  in  the 
room.  Emmons  is  here. 

July  6.  I  must  send  you  a  line,  if  only  to  let  you  know  that  in  these 
times,  which  are  history,  you  are  remembered  and  sympathized  with. 
.  .  .  After  breakfast  I  went  with  your  father  to  the  White  House,  and 
finding  that  their  arrangements  for  nursing  were  all  made  for  the  day,  I 
came  immediately  away.  It  looks  as  though  Mr.  Garh'eld  would  live.  He  is 
now,  six  o'clock,  still  comfortable  and  has  asked  for  beefsteak.  They  will 
not*  of  course,  let  him  have  it.  Mrs.  Sherman  and  Tom  were  there,  who 
came  to  let  the  President  and  Mrs.  Garfield  know  that  yesterday  the 
men  of  his  order  made  their  communion  an  offering  for  the  President's 
recovery.  Your  father  has  stayed  in  and  read  and  signed  despatches  and 
received  callers,  and  now  W.  and  your  father  have  gone  to  the  White 
House  to  make  inquiries  and  thence  to  pay  their  daily  visit  to  V.P. 
Arthur,  who  is  on  Capitol  Hill.  .  .  .  When  I  was  with  the  President 
yesterdav,  as  I  was  all  the  forenoon,  he  looked  up  at  me  and  said,  "  When 
I  am  ready  to  eat,  I  am  going  to  break  into  Mrs.  Elaine's  larder." 

July  8.  Everything  seems  to  be  going  as  well  with  the  President  as  the 
most  loving  heart  can  wish.  All  peoples  and  tongues  vie  with  each  other 
to  do  him  honor.  No  danger  now,  no  anxiety  about  paralysis,  or  bullet 
iti  the  liver,  and  every  prospect  of  a  speedy  recovery  in  all  his  parts. 
Arthur  can  go  back  to  New  York,  and  we  soon  to  Augusta,  and  all  the 
pain  and  love  and  anticipated  peril  will  not  be  lost  on  the  country. 
I  have  been  to  the  White  House  this  morning,  but  saw  none  but  officials. 
Left  your  father  there  in  consultation  with  the  doctors.  Emmons  opened 
the  door  to  me  when  I  finally  came  home.  His  case  is  still  undecided, 
and  I  think  his  hopes  are  low.  Your  father  holds  up  wonderfully. 
Jacky  keeps  on  the  even  tenor  of  his  way ;  all  days  at  the  State  Depart 
ment,  all  evenings  at  the  White  House.  ...  I  suppose  you  have 
noticed  that  the  President  came  here  Friday  afternoon.  He  sat  with  me 
an  hour,  waiting  for  your  father,  gave  me  his  inaugural  nicely  bound  with 
his  autograph  in  it.  Wanted  to  go  to  Augusta,  but  hated  the  long  tail  to 
his  kite,  on  this  trip.  Finally  your  father  came  and  they  walked  away 
together.  Now  it  seems  this  Guiteau  followed  him  to  this  house,  waited 
to  shoot  him  on  his  return,  but  not  wanting  to  hurt  Secretary  Blaine,  had 
to  give  it  up  that  time. 

July  15.     This  date  reminds  me   that  I   have  only  once  before   stayed 


540  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

as  late  as  this  in  Washington.  In  1870,  on  this  very  day,  I  saw  Congress 
adjourn  in  palm-leaf  fans  and  linen  dusters,  only  your  father,  the  Speaker, 
had  on  an  alpaca.  He  sits  here  this  blessed  moment  in  another,  and 
with  him  Emmons,  in  shirt-sleeves,  lamenting  the  Solicitor's  decision, 
which  is  against  him.  Tom  is  at  the  door,  warding  off  one  of  your  fath 
er's  countrywomen.  .  .  .  Just  at  nine  last  night  we  received  Walker's 
telegram  from  Augusta.  Swing  low,  sweet  chariot,  and  take  me  in  next 
week,  for  all  the  doctors,  male  and  female,  cannot  long  keep  the 
President  on  his  back,  and  when  he  is  pronounced  out  of  danger,  we  expect 
to  leave.  I  spent  yesterday  in  reading  "  Don  John  "  —  found  it  very  interest 
ing;  but  think  the  author  should  have  kept  the  clue  for  identification,  for 
the  satisfaction  of  the  reader.  She  has  no  right  to  assume  the  prerogative 
of  Providence.  You  should  hear  your  father,  to  whom  1  have  told  the 
story,  scold  about  it.  I  have  not  been  at  the  White  House  for  two  days, 
but  Emmons  and  your  father  were  over  last  night.  Found  everything 
monotonously  comfortable. 

July  19.  To-night  I  shall  probably  call  at  the  White  House  — the 
least  pleasing  hour  of  the  twenty-four,  as  1  am  obliged  to  content  myself 
with  a  mere  formality,  when  1  long  to  be  of  real  service. 

From  Walker  to  M. : 

July  19.  I  was  met  at  the  station  here  by  Mons,  who  goes  to  Chicago 
to-morrow  morning,  and  goes,  I  fear,  with  a  rather  heavy  heart.  Father, 
mother,  Mons,  and  I  took  a  long  and  very  pleasant  drive,  inspecting  the 
house,  which  is  coming  on  apace,  on  our  way.  I  hope  that  we  may  all  get 
away  very  soon  and  once  more  join  you  at  Augusta. 

From  Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler: 

CONCORD,  N.H.,  July  18,  1881. 

I  hope  the  official  family  are  all  happy  and  harmonious.  Before  the 
blow  at  the  President  furnished  news  from  Washington  which  excluded 

all  else,  it  had  become  a  little  monotonous  to  read  only  of  what and 

were  doing.  But  it  always  is  so ;  the  pretenders  make  the  most  noise.  It 
was  very  kind  in  them,  however,  to  relieve  Mr.  Blaine  from  all  complicity 
with  the  star  route  frauds. 

The  beloved  wrote  me  a  sweet  and  evasive  letter  in  which  he  intimated 
that  I  went  away  from  Washington  out  of  temper,  and  that  he  had 
delayed  writing  me  because  he  wished  me  to  recover.  He  was  mis 
taken.  I  have  been  entirely  amiable  and  calm.  That  he  knows  how 
constant  my  affection  is  for  himself  and  you  and  your  family,  and  takes 
advantage  of  it  sometimes,  does  not  destroy  the  sentiment  on  my 
part.  Intellectually  I  perceive  what  sentimentally  affects  me  not. 
.  I  am  thankful  to  be  allowed  to  believe  that  the  President  will 
recover.  I  have  not  been  hopeful  even ;  now  I  am  very  fearful.  But 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JANES    G.    ELAINE.  541 

the  indications  continue  so  good  that  I  ought  to  be  more  confident  than  I 
am.  The  whole  country  has  been  agonized  about  the  President,  and  is 
almost  deifying  him  already.  This  worship  will  make  him  all-powerful 
if  he  lives.  ...  It  touches  the  country  to  hear  that  the  President 
asked  whether  it  is  worth  while  to  struggle  so  hard  for  such  a  little  span 
of  life.  .  .  .  Please  stop  all  these  telegrams  about  the  assassin's 
movements  and  conversations.  As  little  allusion  as  possible  should  be 
made  to  him.  ...  He  has  actually  been  allowed  to  give  his  views  as 
to  Arthur's  Cabinet,  to  name  his  men  and  have  them  printed  by  leave  of 
the  Department  of  Justice.  Cannot  you  stop  this  ? 

From  Mr.  Blame  : 

WASHINGTON,  July  14. 

.  Garfield,  T  think,  is  surely  destined  to  be  much  more  speedily 
well  and  out  than  is  generally  thought.  I  differ  from  the  doctors  about  the 
direction  of  the  ball  —  have  never  believed  that  the  liver  was  pierced  at  all 
—  and  think  the  event  will  prove  that  I  am  right. 

To  M. : 

July  22.  Your  father  saw  the  President  for  six  minutes  yesterday 
morning,  the  first  time  since  that  fateful  Saturday.  They  had  put  him 
(the  Prex)  off  day  after  day,  till  he  would  be  denied  no  longer.  He  looked 
better  than  your  father  expected  to  see  him,  though  his  voice  was  weak. 
Mrs.  Garfield  told  me  yesterday,  she  considered  him  out  of  danger.  Isn't 
it  wonderfully  good  ?  Every  night  we  drive  out  to  the  new  house,  which 
interests  us  immensely. 

July  23.  I  do  not  know  when  we  can  come  home.  Your  father  does 
not  feel  justified  in  leaving,  and  he  is  not  willing  for  me  to  leave  him. 
How  sorry  I  am,  and  what  a  summer  this  is  !  But  petty  disappointments 
must  not  be  remembered.  I  am  just  home  from  the  White  House  where  I 
have  been  sitting  for  two  hours.  Saw  Drs.  Agnew  and  Hamilton,  the 
Cabinet,  Mrs.  Garfield,  and  Molly.  Every  one  looking  very  anxious  and 
sober.  Mrs.  Garfield  said  the  President  did  not  mind  much  who  was  in 
the  room  with  him  to-day. 


From  Emmons : 

Chicago,  July  26.  You  can't  conceive  the  uncertainty,  doubt,  and 
anxiety  that  have  taken  possession  of  me  since  the  President's  relapse. 
People  out  here  seem  quite  hopeless.  I  do  hope  father  is  keeping  up  well 
under  this  strain  and  heat.  It  worries  me  dreadfully  to  have  him  stay,  but 
every  one  else  would  worry  to  have  him  leave.  An  endless  number  of 
people  have  spoken  to  me  of  his  bearing  under  the  excitement,  and  the 
immensely  good  effect  it  had  here  on  people. 


542  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

To  M.  : 

July  28.  You  can  tell  Mr.  Iloman  that  we  are  more  confident  of  the 
President's  recovery  this  morning  than  we  have  ever  been.  When  we  shall 
get  away,  I  have  no  chance  of  knowing.  Your  fathers  stay  here  gives  con 
fidence  to  every  friend,  and  while  he  stays,  I  must.  I  do  not  feel  that  this 
is  necessary ;  but  he  does,  and  I  cannot  unlearn  the  old  habit  of  regarding 
his  word  as  law.  Walker,  as  you  may  suppose,  is  more  than  satisfied,  and 
Alice  will  not  listen  to  the  proposition  of  going  to  Augusta,  though  I  really 
think  she  needs  the  change.  We  are  all  bright  again  about  the  President, 
and  I  now  feel  a  certain  assurance  as  to  his  being  carefully  looked  after, 
which  I  have  not  hitherto  had.  Drs.  Agnew  and  Hamilton  will  keep  a 
closer  watch  than  before  this  fright. 


To  Mr.  Blaine : 

HAMILTON,  July  28,  1881. 

Is  there  any  such  book  as  Debates  on  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  ? 
A  man  walked  away  up  two  miles  last  night,  and  I  had  it  not.  He  is  very 
intelligent,  wants  to  get  at  what  was  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  ;  heard  Weaver  speak  in  Danvers,  and  thinks  he  was  wrong 
as  to  his  facts,  —  thinks  Jackson  was  a  hard-money  man,  etc.  Is  there  any 
life  of  Hamilton  or  of  Jackson  that  would  help  him?  I  can't  see  that 
Adams'  Gallatin  throws  any  light  on  any  part  of  the  subject. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  July  29,  1881. 

Madison's  reports  of  debates  in  the  Convention  that  formed  the  Federal 
Constitution  give  the  only  authentic  rescript  of  what  was  said  there.  These 
volumes,  octavo,  commonly  called  the  Madison  papers,  were  purchased  from 
the  ex-President  by  Congress  at  an  incredibly  large  price,  to  help  him  out 
of  the  poverty  in  which  he  was  thrown  in  his  old  days,  partly  by  paying  the 
gambling  debts  of  a  worthless  son-in-law  who  ought  rather  to  have  had  his 
neck  wrung.  The  Madison  papers  are  valuable,  but  like  Macaulay's 
History  of  England,  they  require  a  g6od  deal  of  antecedent  knowledge  to 
make  them  profitable  or  even  intelligible  reading.  The  debates  that  were 
held  in  the  various  State  conventions  to  which  the  Constitution  was  sub 
mitted  for  adoption  were  very  enlightening.  None  better  than  those  in 
the  Massachusetts  convention,  reported  by  Elliott,  to  be  had  in  any  public 
library  in  Boston.  Jackson's  opinions  can  be  had  at  length  in  Parton's 
life,  as  well  as  in  his  messages  to  Congress ;  Hamilton's  in  full  in  his 
famous  reports  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  especially  that  of  1789  and  of 
December,  1792,  so  that  is  all  you  need  for  your  friend. 

All  well  at  the  White  House  and  this  house. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLA1NE.  543 

To  M.: 

WASHINGTON,  August  19. 

.  .  .  Visited  the  house  twice,  where  your  father's  activity  caused  me 
great  anxiety,  as  he  now  mounts  the  ladders  and  overlooks  the  second - 
story  floor.  Was  at  the  White  House  twice,  and  took  quite  a  drive.  Poor 
John !  [the  coachman  of  the  State  Department  carriage]  the  clouds  have 
returned  after  much  rain,  and  neither  the  morning  nor  the  evening  is  his 
day. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Clay: 

LEXINGTON,  August  15,  1881. 

I  send  to-day  by  Adams'  Express  a  picture  of  my  grandfather,  Henry 
Clay.  The  picture  is  a  copy  of  a  photograph  taken  in  Philadelphia  in  the 
early  stage  of  photography.  The  artist  gave  it  a  number  of  years  after 
ward  to  Mr.  Rufus  King,  of  Cincinnati,  and  he  and  Judge  Nicolas  Long- 
worth  were  so  impressed  with  the  likeness  that  Mr.  King,  after  sending  me 
a  copy  made  by  Judge  Long  worth,  sent  me  the  original  to  be  copied  here. 
It  was  much  faded,  and  the  outlines  of  the  copy  were  retouched  with  India 
ink.  The  picture  is  not  as  perfect  a  likeness  as  I  had  hoped  for,  when  I 
referred  to  it  in  Washington  ;  yet,  except  for  a  certain  immobility  of  the 
features,  1  prefer  it  to  any  picture  of  him  I  have  ever  seen.  The  full-face 
pictures  of  him  are  very  few. 

The  frame  about  it  is  made  of  ash  flooring-plank  from  the  old  house  at 
Ashland.  It  was  in  those  days  dressed  on  one  side  only  with  the  plane, 
and  left  hewed  upon  the  other  side,  as  you  will  observe  by  noticing  the 
under  side  of  the  frame.  The  nails  on  the  side  near  each  corner  are 
wrought,  and  were  nailed  in  the  plank  when  it  was  first  laid  at  Ashland. 

I  send  in  the  box,  with  the  picture,  my  grandfather's  manuscript  of 
"Notes  of  conversations  with  the  British  Plenipos,"  made  on  May  llth 
and  16th,  and  June  7th  and  9th,  1815,  in  London.  These  conversations 
were  held  by  Henry  Clay  and  Albert  Gallatin  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  and  Messrs.  Robinson,  Goulburn,  and  Dr.  Adams,  representing  the 
British  Government.  I  regret  the  lack  of  my  grandfather's  signature,  but 
for  one  who  is  as  familiar  as  you  probably  are  with  his  handwriting,  it  is 
not  necessary.  I  send  you  these  things  because  of  my  appreciation  of  the 
character  of  your  public  services,  and  because  of  your  able  defence  of  those 
principles  (especially  that  of  protective  tariff)  which  Henry  Clay  thought 
so  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  our  country. 

To  M. : 

AUGUST  23. 

I  was  at  the  White  House  last  night.  Miss  Edson  abandoned  hope. 
Why,  indeed,  should  that  angel  tarry  longer  by  that  bed  when  the  poor 
sufferer  has  lost  his  own  identity,  praying  to  have  that  other  man  taken 
from  him  away,  and  to  be  relieved  from  that  other  man's  face  which 


544  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

cleaves  to  and  drags  upon  his?  About  ten,  or  perhaps  later,  we  came 
home,  when  your  father  penned  his  bulletin  to  Lowell.  We  were  just  in 
the  seclusion  of  our  own  room  when  a  carriage  drove  up.  Of  course  we 
think  everything  unusual  means  the  White  House,  but  this  was  R.,  who  had 
come,  as  it  were,  to  have  his  doom  from  our  lips.  Your  father  went  down 
and  let  him  in,  but,  alas  !  could  give  him  no  comfort. 

August  25.  .  .  .  I  suppose  you  can  see  as  well  as  another  that  hope 
is  over.  Every  night  I  try  to  brace  for  that  telephone  which  T  am  sure 
before  morning  will  send  its  shrill  summons.  The  morning  is  a  little 
reassuring,  for  light  of  itself  gives  courage.  Your  father  I  follow  upstairs 
and  down  like  a  dog. 

From  Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler : 

WARNER,  N.H.,  August  29,  1881. 

Of  course  I  have  no  patience  with  the  fault-finders,  and  I  think 
Dr.—  —ought  to  be  suppressed;  but  I  wish  the  doctors  had  found  out 
before  six  weeks  had  passed  where  the  ball  went,  and  had  kept  opium  out 
of  him,  which,  combined  with  the  extreme  heat  of  Washington,  is  likely  to 
prevent  his  recovery  just  as  it  seems  evident  that  he  might  recover  from 
the  direct  influence  of  the  ball.  ...  I  do  not  feel  as  if  I  ever  wanted 
to  set  foot  in  its  streets  again.  I  expect  to  see  its  effect  in  the  changed 
looks  and  gray  hairs  of  my  friends  who  have  been  there  during  these 
anxious  weeks.  It  is  pleasant  to  notice  the  universal  commendation  which 
Mr.  Blaine  is  receiving,  both  from  the  Democratic  and  the  Republican 
newspapers. 

From  Mr.  Blaine : 

WASHINGTON,  September  G. 

President  left  this  morning  at  6  o'clock.  We  follow  in  an  hour.  I  trem 
ble  for  the  experiment  and  its  success,  but  it  was  fatal  to  stay  here.  .  .  . 

LONG  BRANCH.  The  President  holds  his  own.  I  wish  I  could  say  a  great 
deal  more,  but  I  cannot,  and  I  am  overcome  with  dread  of  the  final  result. 
He  is  so  greatly  reduced  ;  still,  he  has  lived  out  seventy-one  days,  and  that 
is  a  great  thing.  Was  there  ever  a  life  so  desired  and  so  prayed  for! 
May  God  look  down  in  mercy  ! 

From  Mrs.  Garneld : 

MENTOR,  O.,  October  3,  1881. 

.  .  .  Say  to  Walker  for  me  that  his  tribute  to  the  President  is  most 
beautiful,  and  I  prize  it,  not  only  for  the  sentiment  of  loving-kindness 
shown,  but  for  that  which  would  have  given  the  general  so  much  delight,  — 
the  ability  to  speak  so  well.  The  general  was  very  fond  of  both  Walker 
and  Emmons,  as  indeed  of  all  your  children,  and  my  own  admiration  and 
love  for  them  is  made  precious  by  this  knowledge. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  545 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  October  3,  1881. 

Reached  here  safely  at  6.30  this  morning.  I  found  Mr.  Trescott 
here  at  the  department,  full  of  sorrow.  He  says  that  there  never  has 
been  since  the  country  began  any  administration  of  the  Department  of 
State  which  in  nine  months  could  compare  with  this ;  that  the  last  thirty 
years  put  together  can't  show  as  much,  and  that  if  you  stay  until  the 
report  on  foreign  affairs  is  made,  no  President  could  possibly  make  the 
change. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

Walker  went  to  New  York  last  night  to  superintend  the  reception  of 
the  Germans.  He  is  doing  his  work  wonderfully  well. 

To  M.,  in  Europe  : 

WASHINGTON,  November  6,  1881. 

.  .  .  I  reached  Philadelphia  in  time  to  lunch  with  your  father,  prepara 
tory  to  his  leaving  for  New  York  on  the  limited.  I  looked  so  good  to  him 
that  he  determined  to  go  back  to  Washington  with  us,  but  Jackey's  en 
treaties  prevailed  and  the  original  plan  was  carried  out.  [Entertainment  of 
the  nation's  guests.]  Before  your  father  left  Philadelphia,  he  sent  telegrams 
saying  that  you  had  sailed.  Of  course  he  took  to  himself  all  the  credit  for 
the  final  perseverance  of  St.  Margaret —  dear  soul  —  who  finds  fault? 

.  .  .  Our  early  breakfast  was  for  Emmons'  benefit,  who  wants  to  get 
off  to  New  York  at  10.30  to  attend  the  ball  this  evening,  for  which  your 
father  has  telegraphed  him. 

From  Mr.  Blaine : 

.  .  .  This  eve  I  dine  with  the  Germans.  Everything  passes  off 
delightfully  —  thanks  to  Walker,  who  has  executive  talent,  a  great  deal. 

To  M.: 

WASHINGTON,  November  9,  1881. 

.  .  .  Your  father  and  Jackey  are  still  in  New  York,  though  I  think  it 
would  be  more  sensible  if  Walker  would  come  home,  for  Emmons  says  he 
is  dead  tired.  They  could  not  wake  him  up  to  go  to  the  ball.  .  .  . 
Your  father  stays  now  to  oblige  Arthur,  who  wants  him  to  come  over  with 
him. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

WASHINGTON. 

I  am  sitting  in  prim  waiting  for  the  foreign  guests,  who  will  be  here  at 
one  o'clock,  and  I  am  having  a  thousand  and  one  things  going  on  all 
around  me.  Walker  did  splendidly  in  New  York;  made  a  most  telling 
speech  at  the  dinner. 


546  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

To   M.  : 

November  25.  .  .  .  Walker  leaves  next  week.  Mr.  Trescott  with  him. 
They  will  be  away  the  entire  winter.  Walker  is  both  pleased  and  sorry. 
It  looks  good  to  him  to  stay  here  through  the  winter —  at  the  same  time,  he 
will  be  glad  to  add  to  his  travels  and  experiences,  and  perhaps  reputa 
tion.  .  .  .  The  dinner  at  Mrs.  Hunt's  was  exceptionally  interesting. 
Arthur  is  so  social  and  fond  of  being  away  from  his  lonely  habitation  on 
Capitol  Hill,  and  etiquette  requiring  every  one  to  stay  till  he  leaves,  it 
becomes  an  interesting  problem  how  to  end  a  dinner  before  twelve  o'clock 
—  but  we  did  get  home  from  the  Hunts  a  little  before  that  hour. 

November  30.  .  .  .  Your  father,  Mr.  Ilitt,  Trescott,  Walker,  and  Tom 
at  the  dining-room  table  —  gas  lighted  —  all  diligently  working  on  state 
papers.  .  .  .  Walker  is  to  go  Friday.  What  do  you  suppose  I  can 
do  without  him?  But  the  embarrassments  of  the  change  of  the  adminis 
tration  he  will  be  spared ;  also  a  society  winter  in  Washington,  which  1 
consider  no  loss  for  him ;  also  the  risk  of  the  loss  of  some  of  his  pleas- 
antest  intimacies.  .  .'  .  Your  father  gains  constantly.  He  is  now 
regaining  his  flesh,  which  does  not  give  him  apparently  th*e  satisfaction  it 
ought. 

December?.  .  .  .  Will  you  please  cultivate  a  plain  hand  ?  This  morn 
ing's  mail,  coming  before  T  was  up,  brought  two  welcome  letters  from  you. 
.  .  .  Your  father,  seizing  them  and  my  glasses,  commenced  reading 
with  impetuosity,  but  at  the  first  line  he  balked.  F  came  to  the  rescue,  and, 
by  omitting  all  proper  names,  managed  to  get  through  them.  .  .  . 
Alice  is  just  starting  for  the  trial ;  your  father  and  Mr.  Chandler  are  talking 
some  Mexican  matters,  apparently  of  interest,  as  the  former  is  fast  lashing 
himself  into  a  fury.  .  .  .  Congress  is  in  session,  so  we  are  daily  ex 
pecting  your  father's  head  to  roll  in  the  basket.  I  cannot  but  feel  a 
little  blue,  though  the  person  chiefly  interested  was  never  gayer  or  in 
better  health. 

From  Walker,  to  Mr.  Blaine  : 

ON  BOARD  REVENUE  CUTTER,  December  3,  1881. 
Good-by,  dear  father.     I  shall  do  my  best  to  reflect  credit  upon 
you  and  to  in  all  ways  act  as  you  would  have  me. 
Affectionately  and  with  great  love  to  all  the  family. 

From  Mr.  Blaine,  to  Hon.  F.  T.  Frelinghuysen  : 

WASHINGTON,  December  10,  1881. 

The  President  will,  I  presume,  nominate  you  on  Monday,  and  you  will  of 
course  be  confirmed  without  reference. 

If  you  have  any  special  desire  as  to  the  day  on  which  you  will    take 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    (!.     HLAINK.  547 

possession  of  the  office,  1  will  of  course  adjust  my  concluding  matters  to 
your  convenience.  It'  you  have  no  choice.  1  would  be  glad  to  have  several 
days  to  get  everything  squared  and  leave  no  ravellings  wherewith  to 
trouble  you. 

If  it  be  agreeable  to  you  and  Mrs.  Frelinghuysen,  it  is  the  desire  of  Mrs. 
Blaine  and  myself  to  have  a  reception  in  your  honor  on  the  evening  of  the 
day  on  which  you  are  installed,  for  the  special  purpose  of  presenting  to 
you  the  members  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps'  with  their  families. 

Would  Thursday,  the  twenty-second,  prove  agreeable  to  you.  If  you 
desire  an  earlier  day,  I  pray  you  to  frankly  name  it. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Frelinghuysen : 

NEWARK,  N.J.,  December  12,  1881. 

The  proposal  of  Mrs.  Blaine  and  yourself  to  present  Mrs.  F.  and  me  to 
the  Diplomatic  Corps  and  their  families  is  too  kind  and  acceptable  to  be 
declined.  The  time  will  of  course  be  fixed  to  suit  your  convenience, 
whether  on  the  day  of  my  installation  or  otherwise. 

How  long  I  should  like  it  to  be  before  you  give  possession  and  devolve 
the  responsibilities  of  your  office  on  me,  it  would  not  be  wise  forme  to  say. 
As  to  what  time,  under  the  circumstances,  this  better  be  done  I  will  see 
you.  Mrs.  F.  and  I,  before  the  receipt  of  your  letter,  had  decided  to  visit 
Washington,  for  a  few  days,  to  see  to  our  house,  which  we  are  overhaul 
ing,  and  I  may  see  you  on  Wednesday. 

ToM.: 

WASHINGTON,  December  13,  1881. 

Frelinghuysen's  name  was  sent  in  yesterday,  and  yesterday  con 
firmed,  and  in  a  few  days  he  will  take  the  oath  of  office,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  twenty-three  years  your  father  finds  himself  out  of  public  life,  he 
entering  the  Legislature  in  '58.  Of  course  he  is  extremely  busy,  getting 
ready  to  welcome  his  successor,  so  I  cannot  yet  judge  how  the  absolute 
freedom  will  afi'ect  him,  but  I  have  few  misgivings.  .  .  .  Your  father 
and  I  dined  with  the  Hales  Sunday  evening,  the  first  persons  to  eat  at  their 
board  since  they  went  into  the  Morton  house.  I  think  the  house  they  are 
in  charming,  and  we  had  a  nice  visit,  your  father  being  in  one  of  his  irre 
sistible  moods,  when  no  man,  I  care  not  who  he  may  be,  can  surpass  him. 
Then,  as  Mr.  Chandler  says,  I  would  rather  hear  him  than  eat.  .  .  . 
I  am  so  glad  Walker  is  away  through  all  these  changes,  as  I  find  it  easier 
to  preserve  my  own  equanimity,  with  no  one  in  whom  to  confide  my  little 
asperities. 

December  11.  .  .  .  I  have  been  again  to-day  to  the  trial,  the  most 
interesting  place,  by  all  odds,  in  Washington  ;  and  after  enduring  the  bad 
air  and  stifling  companionship  of  the  crowded  court-room  for  three  hours, 
and  after  gaping  with  the  rest  of  the  crowd  at  the  van  till  Guiteau  sprang 


548  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    SLAIN  E. 

into  it  like  a  rabbit,  I  drove  home  to  find  your  father  still  at  the  department. 
It  is  right  and  natural,  and  for  the  highest  good  of  those  most  nearly  con 
cerned,  that  my  three  children  should  be  away,  but  it  is  not  a  costless  sacri 
fice.  I  pay  dearly  for  Emmons'  business,  for  Walker's  opportunities,  and 
for  your  French.  .  .  .  Last  night  we  dined  at  the  British  Legaticn. 
Twenty-four  at  the  table,  representing  thirteen  nationalities  —  ourselves  the 
only  Americans.  It  was  a  pleasant  dinner.  The  President  has  to-day 
telegraphed  Walker  to  be  charge  d'affaires  at  Chile,  till  Kilpatrick's  suc 
cessor  is  appointed.  Did  you  ever  know  such  luck  as  he  has  ? 
The  President  went  into  the  White  House  Wednesday.  .  .  . 

To  Walker: 

WASHINGTON,  December  13,  1881. 

The  bell  is  being  pulled  every  moment,  and  at  each  tinkle  I  look  up, 
hoping  to  see  a  telegram  which  shall  prove  to  be  from  the  isthmus. 
Clarence  Hale  is  here,  trying  to  get  an  answer  from  your  father  for  Mr. 
Rollins,  from  whose  house  he  has  just  arrived,  as  to  whether  he  will  speak 
at  the  New  England  dinner,  and  Mr.  Frye  is  here  and  Robeson  and  Gibson 
and  Mr.  West  —  these  are  all  in,  and  there  is  a  circle  kept  outside  larger 
than  this  privileged  one.  Mr.  Frelinglnrysen's  name  yesterday  sent  in  and 
at  once  confirmed.  I  cannot  help  feeling  a  little  blue.  Do  you  suppose  a 
prime  minister  ever  went  out  without  a  secret  feeling  that  he  was  deprived 
of  a  right?  Every  day  I  see  the  wisdom  of  your  timely  absence.  For 
instance,  at \s,  it  taxed  all  my  equanimity  to  hear  them  calmly  discuss 
ing  your  father's  removal,  without  remembering  to  regret  it,  even  to  me. 
Not  the  shadow  of  a  shade  of  complimentary  allusion  passed  the  lips  of 
one.  Everything  that  was  kind  was  said  of  you,  and  with  an  air  of  pro 
prietorship  which,  had  they  been  nice  in  other  directions,  would  have 
warmed  my  heart ;  but  what  care  you,  my  dearest  boy,  what  care  I,  for 
any  other  name  than  your  father's?  He  himself  says  that  you  have  more 
of  a  reputation  than  he  had  at  your  age,  but  you  must  remember  that  he 
was  without  advantage,  while  you  are  free  born.  .  .  .  The  first  privi 
lege  we  shall  enjoy  is  the  giving  a  party  to  the  Frelinghuysens  to  meet 
the  Diplomatic  Corps,  and  I  anticipate  the  luxury  of  choice  in  my  guests. 
I  miss  fearfully  the  courtesy  and  consideration  of  my  dear  boy,  though  the 
darlings,  T.  and  Q.,  devote  themselves  to  my  happiness.  You  ought  to  see 
your  little  sister  eulogizing  Jack.  "He  is  pious  —  yes,  Q.  —  he  never 
upset  a  praying-stool  in  church,  and  laid  it  to  his  long  knees.1' 

From  Walker: 

ON  BOARD  "  LACKAWANNA," 

PANAMA,  December  13,  1881. 

On  Sunday  morning  as  I  wras  returning  to  the  ship  from  the 
railway  company's  office  in  Aspinwall,  a  man  came  up  to  me  and  intro 
duced  himself  as  Mr.  Snow,  a  native  of  Maine,  who  had  been  for  six 
years  resident  on  the  isthmus,  and  fifteen  years  residing  in  tropical  climes, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMKS    (1.     KLAINE.  549 

returning  every  summer  or  two  to  Bangor.  Maine  is  a  very  good  state 
to  hail  from.  You  are  .sure  to  meet  some  man  from  that  part  of  the  world 
whereever  you  may  be.  ... 

.  .  .  Poor  Kilpatrick,  how  short  his  enjoyment !  I  recall  his  extrav 
agant  joy  when  he  received  the  place  last  May,  and  no\v  he's  gone,  leaving 
the  little  wife  and  the  two  children  in  Chile.  ...  I  am  extremely  com 
plimented  by  the  high  honor  which  the  President  has  paid  in  making  me 
charge.  Mr.  Trescott  was,  I  think,  extremely  gratified,  as  it  removes  any 
embarrassment  that  might  attend  the  success  of  the  mission  by  a  new  man 
being  sent.  I  hope,  however,  that  some  new  minister  may  be  sent  pretty 
quickly,  so  that  after  we  have  ended  our  Avork,  I  may  not  be  compelled  to 
remain  there  very  long.  I  wish  if  you  see  the  President  you  would  say 
to  him  how  highly  I  appreciate  the  honor  which  he  has  paid.  I  have 
been  gleaning  what  gossip  I  could  about  the  Panama  canal  since  coming 
here,  and  as  I  am  just  going  on  shore  for  the  last  time,  will  pick  up  some 
more.  I  send  you  a  copy  of  to-day's  paper.  If  we  don't  do  anything  in 
South  America,  you  can  at  least  hear  that,  like  Napoleon  in  Europe,  we  are 

cutting  up  a of  a  swell  down  here.     Of  one  thing  you  may  be  quite 

sure,  that  this  canal  is  going  to  be  an  extremely  expensive  thing  for  the 
French,  and  that  it  will  be  many,  many  years  before  they  complete  it, 
if  they  ever  do. 

To  M.,  in  Europe  : 

DECEMBER  14,  1881. 

.  .  .  Everything  connected  with  the  State  Department  is  all  right; 
most  of  all,  the  retiring  Secretary,  who  went  with  me  last  night  to  an 
auction  of  water-colors,  and  amused  himself  by  buying  many  pictures. 
.  .  .  Do  not  feel  uneasy  about  anything  you  may  hear,  politically.  The 
Chile  and  Peru  business  should  not  give  you  the  slightest  concern.  It  is  a 
decided  policy,  instead  of  drifting,  as  cowardly  Americans  only  desire  to 
do.  Your  father  has  asserted  the  rights  of  this  country,  as  was  his  bounden 
duty. 

To  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  December  1C,  1881. 

.  .  .  The  outgoing  Secretary  is  still  in  gay  spirits,  and  I  think  the 
best  of  health.  .  .  .  Everything  is  going  Stalwart  way.  D.  came 
into  the  parlor  to  see  me  during  my  call  last  night,  and  butter  would 
not  melt  in  his  mouth.  He  has  all  the  generosity  of  the  victor  towards 
the  dying  —  but  their  great  trump  is  Guiteau.  Day  before  yesterday  he 
made,  in  court,  an  appeal  to  those  who  had  **  come  into  fat  office  through 
him,  to  send  in  contributions.  If  they  are  afraid  to  do  it  over  their  own 
names,  let  them  do  it  on  the  sly ;  but  do  it  they  must,  or  I  will  call  names.'11 

Mr.  Frelinghuysen  has  expressed  to  your  father  his  hopes  that  you  will 
remain  in  the  department.  He  desires  it  on  your  father's  account,  and  for 
his  own,  everything  he  hears  of  you  making  him  anxious  to  have  you  near 


550  KioGRAnir  OF  JAMES  a.   KLAINE. 


him.  .  .  .  Mr.  Christiancy  having  been  interviewed  by  the  "  Herald,"  and 
stating  that  the  first  sentence  or  paragraph  of  your  father's  S.  A.  despatch 
to  him,  as  now  published,  had  not  been  on  the  original  paper,  your  father 
wrote  him,  when  he  came  down  handsomely.  His  note  will  be  given  to 
the  press  to-day.  .  .  .  Emmons  has  had  another  II.  II.  offer  of  an 
$1,800  place.  lie  decides  to  stay  in  Chicago. 

December  16.  .  .  .  Your  father  has  just  looked  up  through  his  glasses 
to  say  that  he  has  bought  Hitt's  horse  for  $180.  I  hail  this  as  the  begin 
ning  of  a  stable.  It  does  seem  absurd  to  have  four  horses  and  a  pony  in 
Augusta,  and  hiring  a  carriage  here.  .  .  .  -  have  been  in  from  the 
Guiteau  trial,  Avhich  they  found  extremely  interesting,  full  of  devotion  to 
the  family,  and  anxious  to  see  their  way  to  the  advent  of  Senator  Blaine. 
Needless  to  say  that  their  would-be  Senator  takes  no  part  in  any  plans  of 
this  kind.  I  had  a  lovely  letter  from  Mrs.  Garfield  this  morning  ;  very 
simple,  very  effective,  and  affecting.  .  .  .  All  the  Stalwarts  are  going 
in,  and  though  the  mills  of  Arthur  may  seem  to  grind  slow,  they  grind  exceed 
ing  line  ;  but  whatever  you  may  read  or  hear,  always  remember  that  your 
father  is  a  very  careful  as  well  as  able  man,  and  that  because  the  press  criti 
cise  you  need  feel  no  apprehension  ;  there  often  is  advantage  in  the  very 
criticism.  .  .  . 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  John  T.  Morgan: 

WASHINGTON,  December  16,  1881. 

I  suppose  that  it  will  gratify  you  to  know  that  the  sentiments  of  the 
Southern  people  are  very  kindly  towards  you,  and  that  they  take  a  broader 
view  of  men  and  policies  than  they  generally  have  credit  for.  The  en 
closed  article  from  the  "  Selma  Times"  gives  a  fair  view  of  the  opinions 
of  the  people  of  Alabama  in  respect  of  your  political  course.  You  well 
know  that  you  have  not  nattered  them  into  such  expressions  ;  and  they 
understand  as  well  that  they  have  not  been  coerced  into  an  uncandid  pro 
fession  of  great  respect  for  you.  Allow  me,  personally,  to  express  my 
deep  regret  that  the  country  is,  for  the  time,  to  lose  the  advantages  of  your 
abilities  and  experience  in  its  administrative  councils,  and  that  vour  friends 
will  lose  the  great  and  valued  opportunity  of  discussing  with  you,  as  is 
your  habit,  in  a  frank  and  free  manner,  all  public  questions  that  relate  to 
the  honor  and  welfare  of  our  country.  Wishing  you  happiness  in  your 
retirement  from  the  cares  of  public  service. 

To  M.  : 

WASHINGTON,  December  19,  1881. 

I  am  in  the  midst  of  punch-making,  and  Lewis  has  judiciously  allowed  a 
stick  of  wood  to  fall  on  his  side,  and  your  father  surrenders  the  portfolio 
to-day  to  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  and  has  now  gone  to  the  department  with 
Secretary  Hunt,  and  C.  comes  this  afternoon,  and  to-night  we  give  a  re 
ception  to  the  Corps  Diplomatique  to  welcome  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frelinghuysen 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  551 

or  vice  versa,  and  Congress  has  unanimously  asked  your  father  to  deliver 
the  oration  at  the  congressional  memorial  exercises  on  the  death  of  Gar- 
Held,  and  I  am  against  his  accepting  as  he  is  himself,  though  almost  every 
friend  he  has  insists  that  he  shall  do  it,  and  how  it  will  end  I  know  not. 
One  insuperable  objection,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  emotion  your  father  will 
feel,  embarrassing  him  to  an  uncontrollable  extent,  I  am  sure.  And  the 
man  is  here  about  the  flowers,  and  altogether  it  is  a  representative  day  in 
the  Blaine  family  as  it  has  hitherto  nourished,  though  very  likely  this  is 
the  last  of  them.  Well,  to  a  good  deal  of  this  I  can  cheerfully  say  good- 
by.  Welcome  to  go  is  the  punch  and  all  that  part  of  it,  and  if  your 
father  does  not  miss  these  carking  cares,  as  the  starved  Irishman  misses 
the  heart  of  the  potato,  1  am  ready  to  lighten  the  ship  by  throwing  over 
board  all  this  old  load.  He  says  he  does  not,  shall  not,  that  he  is  not 
thinking  of  it  at  all,  but  that  all  his  trouble  comes  from  his  business  opera 
tions,  of  the  neglect  of  which  he  is  deeply  ashamed. 

From  Walker  : 

NEAR  CALLAO,  December  21,  1881. 

We  hope  to  be  in  Callao  at  9  or  10  o'clock  to-morrow  morning,  after  the 
smoothest  and  most  charming  voyage  that  you  can  imagine.  There  has 
not  been  enough  roll  on  the  Pacific  lo  require  guards  or  ledges  on  the 
table  at  any  time  since  we  left  Panama.  ...  I  have  read  a  novel  and  a 
history,  studied  a  little  Spanish,  talked  a  great  deal  with  Trescott,  from 
whom  I  daily  learn  something,  and  for  whom  my  respect  and  admiration 
daily  augments. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker  : 

U.S.  CONSULATE  AT  CALLAO,  Christmas  Day. 
.  Before  we  went  we  Avere  offered  a  house  in  Lima,  which  we 
were  obliged  to  decline,  but  on  going  to  thank  the  owner,  who  is  said  to  be 
the  wealthiest  man  in  Peru,  we  found  quite  a  company  of  Peruvians 
assembled,  and  were  forced  to  sit  down  about  four  or  five  to  a  most  sump 
tuous  lunch,  and  after  that  they  insisted  upon  our  coming  back  to  dine,  a 
most  elaborate  dinner  being  served  at  eight  o'clock.  While  in  Lima  we  had 
three  carriages  with  drivers  in  livery,  the  best  carriages  in  Lima,  con 
stantly  at  our  disposition,  and  we  had  so  many  visitors  that  it  was  impossi 
ble  to  see  anything  of  the  town.  I  have  just  sent  my  books  that  were 
given  me,  referring  to  the  situation,  to  the  boat.  Three  sailors  carrying 
them,  and  two  others  carrying  boxes  of  wine  which  we  were  fairly  com 
pelled  to  take.  I  think  if  we  had  given  a  hint  they  would  have  presented 
us  with  fortunes.  It  was  really  embarrassing  to  avoid  the  attentions.  I 
really  think  that  they  look  upon  us  as  a  sort  of  saviors,  and  Trescott  says 
it  will  be  necessary  to  send  a  fleet  to  rescue  us  at  the  end  of  the  mission,  so 
little  will  the  performance  that  we  hope  to  succeed  in  correspond  with 


552  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

Peruvian  expectation.  I  can  assure  you,  however,  that  it  made  me  proud 
to  hear  how,  with  Spanish  extravagance,  they  spoke  of  you,  and  it  is  per 
haps  some  source  of  food  to  one's  vanity  to  be  regarded  as  a  great  man  by 
a  whole  city  for  even  two  days,  as  I  found  Trescott  and  I  were.  I  played 
prince  royal  at  the  party  last  night. 

I  am  of  opinion  that  it  was  advantageous  to  go  to  Lima.  For  myself  I 
think  I  understand  things  much  better.  J  flatter  myself  and  do  justice  to 
Trescott  in  saying  that  I  think  we  made  good  impressions  on  both  Chilians 
and  Peruvians.  .  .  .  One  thing  perhaps  I  ought  to  say,  that  is,  that  in 
all  this  we  acted  quite  unofficially,  saying  nothing  and  hearing  everything. 

To  M.: 

NEW  YORK,  December  29,  1881. 

.  .  .  My  dearer  self —  and  certainly  he  might  apply  the  title  with 
another  significance  to  me  —  is  looking  up  his  sadly  neglected  stocks. 
The  only  question  now  is,  are  they  worth  taking  any  notice  of.  All  that 
line  Fortunatus'  purse  Avhich  we  held  the  strings  of,  and  in  which  we  had 
only  to  insert  the  finger  to  pay  therewith  for  the  house,  has  melted  from 
the  grasp  which  too  carelessly  held  it,  and  we  must  look  about  for  new 
investments,  the  comfort  of  which  I  find  in  the  inference  that  there  is  still 
enough  left  to  spare  for  investments.  .  .  .  Alice  is  always  scrupulous 
in  unexpected  places,  thereby  atoning  for  the  monstrous  liberty  your  father 
takes  with  my  correspondence  —  not  only  opening  and  reading  my  letters, 
but  forgetting  to  mention  that  they  have  ever  been;  and  often,  weeks 
after,  I  find  the  poor  ill-used  things  in  his  pocket.  He  says  he  is  not  even 
thinking  of  public  affairs,  while  every  issue  of  the  press  contains  at  least 
one  resume  of  his  intentions  and  ambitions,  the  upshot  of  all  being  the 
presidency  in  '84.  1  am  'fast  becoming  content  with  the  situation.  As  soon 
as  people  cease  asking  me  if  I  am  going  to  leave  Washington,  I  shall  be 
entirely  so. 

From  Walker  : 

SANTIAGO,  January  10,  1882. 

.  .  .  Chile  has  not  overflowed  with  enthusiasm  to  quite  so  great  an 
extent  as  Peru,  but  our  reception  has  been  most  marked.  ...  I 
forgot  to  mention  that  when  the  President  had  finished  his  speech  the  crowd 
cheered  him,  then  Trescott,  and  when  we  were  coming  out,  myself,  which 
was  rather  pleasant,  as  showing  a  better  state  of  feeling. 

There  is  a  great  deal  more  excitement  in  Chile  than  I  had  supposed  before 
coming.  It  seems  to  be  the  sole  topic  of  talk  here.  It  certainly  is 
the  one  thing  mentioned  in  the  newspapers,  and  the  reporters  chronicle 
every  little  movement  of  ours  with  a  persistency  that  is  rather  irritating. 
On  Monday  Mr.  Trescott  has  his  first  interview  with  Balmaceda.  I  shall 
accompany  him  in  all  the  interviews,  and  he  has  been  most  delightfully  kind 
to  me  in  every  way  in  admitting  me  to  full  confidence  in  all  his  views  and 
in  taking  me  into  advice  and  conference,  so  that  I  am  really  learning  a 
little  about  diplomacy  under  the  best  master  of  the  art  in  America. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  553 

SANTIAGO  DE  CHILE,  January  20,  1882. 

.  .  .  Mr.  Trescott  has  had  three  interviews  with  Balmaceda.  .  .  . 
The  position  of  affairs  is  about  this.  Nobody  in  Peru  will,  I  think,  sign  a 
treaty  of  peace  with  cession  of  territory.  Nobody  here,  without. 

January  28.  ...  Of  course  I  am  very  sorry  to  see  father  say  good- 
by  for  a  time  to  official  life,  but  I  had  fully  appreciated  it  before  leaving 
Washington,  and  had  to  some  extent  discounted  any  feeling  which  the 
change  might  cause.  ...  I  wrote  a  little  note  to  father  last  night,  but 
forgot  to  say  anything  about  his  birthday.  I  would  telegraph  my  con 
gratulations,  but  it  would  still  further  bankrupt  the  family. 

It  would  really  not  do  for  me  to  say  how  great  lions  the  members  of  the 
commission  arc.  Peru  was  almost  at  our  feet,  and  every  one  in  Chile  is 
devotion  itself.  If  we  come  out  successfully  I  expect  to  have  a  statue 
erected  both  in  Lima  and  in  Santiago  at  public  expense.  .  .  .  We  are 
standing  on  our  dignity.  You  have  no  idea  how  well  known  father  is  down 
here,  —  better  than  anybody,  I  think  ;  nor  have  you  any  idea  how  they  hate 
Hurl  but,  but  they  say  that  they  gave  Kilpatrick  the  grandest  funeral  ever 
seen  in  Chile,  government  paying  every  bill,  at  a  cost  of  more  than  $10,000. 

To  M. : 

JANUARY  28,  1882. 

I  do  not  know  with  what  particularity  the  text  of  the  Chile-Peruvian 
papers  may  be  cabled  to  Europe,  but  as  there  is  a  great  deal  of  talk  on  this 
side  concerning  them,  I  hasten  to  say,  "Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled, 
neither  let  it  be  afraid."  Only  on  the  publication  of  these  State  papers 
yesterday  morning,  in  the  daily  newspapers,  did  your  father  know  that  his 
instructions  had  been  altered  and  revoked,  —  and  when  I  say  his  instruc 
tions,  you  must  remember  that  they  are  officially  the  President's  acts,  he 
alone  being  responsible  for  them,  —  and  it  is  he  who  has  gone  back  on  him 
self,  for  his  friends  must  either  admit  that  he  does  not  know  to  what  he 
signs  his  name,  or  that  he  is  vacillating  and  doubtful  to  the  last  degree. 
In  point  of  fact,  the  papers  were  all  read  to  him,  and  he  approved  them, 
understanding  distinctly  that  they  committed  his  government  to  a  positive 
policy.  I  suspect  that has  kept  from the  successive  steps  of  altera 
tion  and  recantation,  and  that  the  President  himself  is  not  intelligent  on  the 
matter.  At  any  rate,  he  seemed  completely  unprepared  for  the  charge  of 

fickleness  yesterday  morning.    You  remember,  don't  you,  that told  us 

about  Arthur's  two  passions,  as  he  heard  him  discussed  at  Sam  AVard's 
dinner  in  New  Y ork  —  new  coats  being  one,  he  having  then  already  ordered 
twenty-five  from  his  tailor  since  the  new  year  came  in  ;  the  other  seeming 
to  do  things,  while  never  putting  his  mind  or  his  hands  near  them  ?  Y.  our 
father  saw  the  President  yesterday  morning  and  had  a  courteous  interview 
with  him.  What  he,  the  pater,  may  do  hereafter  I  do  not  know,  but  at 
present  he  has  decided  on  the  dignity  of  perfect  silence ;  but  he  says  he 
never  wrote  papers  of  which  a  man  or  his  children  ought  to  be  more 
proud,  and  that  there  is  not  a  single  word  in  them  he  would  have  changed. 
.  Your  father  is  well,  and  bright  and  busy,  but  feels  that  he  has 


554  BionnArjrv  OF  JAMES  G.    KLAINE. 


been  treated  with  indignity,  and  tliat  the  whole  thing  is  simply  a  deter 
mination  to  break  him  down. 

February  2  .....  Jacky  was  very  wise  when  lie  foresaw  that  this 
dynasty  might  not  settle  itself  into  the  saddle  without  an  impulse  to  ride 
down  your  father.  When  you  wrote  advising  a  conflict  with  Arthur  from 
the  beginning,  I  thought  you  insane;  but  time,  as  usual,  inclines  me  to  an 
admiration  of  your  judgment.  Undoubtedly,  the  State  Department  intended 
the  life  of  your  father,  which  they  expected  to  take  with  all  due  regard  to 
the  convenances,  and  with  so  much  dignity  on  their  own  part,  that  nobody 
would  know  that  any  one  was  hurt,  only  by  and  by  it  would  strike  people 
that  our  dearest  dear  was  forever  silenced.  .  .  .  They  revoked  his  in 
structions,  —  though  they  were  Arthur's  as  well  ;  they  kept  back  his  papers  ; 
they  sent  to  Congress  garbled  despatches  of  Trescott's  ;  they  published 
private  letters  of  Christiancy  to  be  sent  to  Congress.  .  .  .  What  does 
it  all  amount  to?  Your  father  will  be  vindicated  in  every  particular.  His 
policy  is  a  patriotic  one,  and  the  people  are  going  to  recognize  it.  Not  a 
selfish  thought  is  in  it,  but  it  is,  in  all  its  ramifications,  American.  .  .  . 
Your  father  is  going  this  afternoon  to  Baltimore  to  dine  with  Mr.  Garrett. 
Last  night  we  were  at  Mrs.  Bancroft's.  The  President  came  up  and  asked 
me  to  do  him  the  honor  of  walking  through  the  rooms  with  him.  Of  course 
it  was  intentional.  I  complied,  and  we  made  a  slow  progress. 
This  attack  has  stimulated  father,  and  he  is  as  well  as  he  ever  was  in.  his 
life. 


From  Walker : 

FEBRUARY  4,  1882. 

.  .  .  We  are  awaiting  a  telegram  from  the  Department  of  State  which 
will  decide  a  great  many  things,  and  our  position  here  is  at  the  present 
moment  most  cruelly  awkward.  I  expect  nothing  now  but  mortification 
to  the  country,  and  to  all  of  us  personally  as  citizens  of  the  country;  but, 
Heaven  be  thanked!  the  responsibility  will  not  rest  upon  anyone  of  us. 
Had  they  left  us  free  I  really  think  we  could  have  done  something  here; 
as  it  is  now,  1  look  forward  to  nothing.  I  don't  believe  that  in  my  time 
the  United  States  will  ever  get  back  influence  worth  considering  with  any 
one  of  these  South  American  countries,  and  if  the  department  had  stood 
firm,  we  could,  1  honestly  believe,  have  settled  the  question  to  the  satisfac 
tion  of  all  and  to  our  own  (the  country's)  advancement.  Of  course  I  am 
writing  you  confidentially.  As  an  officer  of  the  department,  I  have  no 
opinions;  individually  I  may  have,  but  ifs  best  not  to  express  them.  You 
may  judge  how  awkward  the  attitude  is  when  I  tell  you  that  a  telegram 
sent  a  week  ago  last  Monday  (January  23d),  which  it  was  imperative  to 
have  answered  at  once,  has  as  yet  received  no  reply,  and  when  I  assure 
you  that  at  the  last  interview  with  the  Chilian  Secretary,  when  I  was  about 
to  present  the  peace  invitation  he  smiled  blandly,  and  said  perhaps  I  had 
better  not  present  it,  as  he  had  received  a  telegram  stating  that  the  United 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  555 

States  had  abandoned  the  proposed  congress,  and  then  went  on  to  inform 
Mr.  Trescott  that  the  instructions  given  him  by  father  had  been  published 
at  home,  and  new  ones  issued  modifying  them  seriously,  and  that  the  last 
had  been  published  too.  Of  course  we  can't  move  a  foot  just  now,  and  of 
course  we  feel  cruelly  our  awkward  position.  This  is  all  very  confidential, 
but  perhaps  it  will  interest  you  a  little.  Anyway  it  is  the  thing  which, 
just  now,  most  interests  me.  ...  I  should  awfully  like  to  have  a 
congressional  nomination  and  election,  with  just  one  chance  to  take  a  fling 
at  this  new  (or  old,  which  is  it?)  foreign  policy  of  ours. 

Tu  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hun.  John  Jay : 

NEW  YORK,  Februrary  6,  1882. 

Your  suggestion  about  our  government  asking  permission  of  the 
governments  of  Europe  to  deal  as  we  like  with  American  questions 
recalls  the  fact  that  President  Grant,  in  November,  1875,  did  ask,  if  not 
their  permission,  at  least  their  "  moral  support,"  for  some  plan  of  joint 
action  for  restoring  peace  on  the  Island  of  Cuba. 

I  made  some  comments  on  this  strange  appeal  to  European  powers  to 
interest  themselves  in  an  American  question  and  to  assist  in  deciding  the 
destiny  of  a  Spanish  colony  in  the  New  World,  in  a  paper  on  "The 
American  Foreign  Service/1  published  in  the  "International  Review,"  for 
May  and  June,  1877,  pages  6,  7,  and  8,  at  which  I  hope  you  may  look.  A 
part  of  the  correspondence  was  submitted  to  Congress  on  the  21st 
January,  1876,  including  the  letter  to  Mr.  Gushing,  number  266,  November 
o,  1875,  suggesting  that  it  may  become  the  duty  of  other  governments  to 
interfere ;  but  the  correspondence  on  this  subject  with  our  minister  at 
Paris,  Berlin,  St.  Petersburg,  Vienna,  and  Rome  was  not  given.  My 
impression  is,  from  the  tone  of  some  of  the  European  papers,  that  our 
government  was  quietly  snubbed  by  several,  if  not  by  all,  of  their  powers, 
and  that  that  was  all  it  gained  by  soliciting  the  advice  and  support  of 
Europe  rather  than  the  advice  of  the  American  people. 

If  the  Senate  or  House  would  call  for  the  whole  of  that  correspondence, 
and  any  other  with  a  foreign  power  involving  the  propriety  of  foreign 
intervention  in  American  questions,  light  might  be  thrown  on  the  extent 
to  which  we  have  been  drifting  from  the  spirit  and  true  meaning  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine. 

To  Walker:  * 

FEBRUARY  8,  1882. 

.  .  .  You  would  be  delighted  could  you  see  how  well  and 
bright  and  happy  your  father  is,  dressed  immaculately  in  one  of  his  new 
Baltimore  suits,  —  carefully  trimmed,  quoad  hair  and  beard,  and  in  the 
full  exercise  of  a  mental  activity  which  makes  —  —  cry  for  the  little  dog 
at  home,  to  know  whether  they  be  they.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me 
to  post  you  as  to  the  situation,  which  is  so  interesting,  that  I  am  half  the 


558  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    C.    RLAINE. 

time  breathless  with  excitement.  Still  I  congratulate  you  that  you  are  not 
here.  Your  position  would  be  embarrassing,  and  if  the  State  Department 
did  not  drop  you,  you  would  feel  obliged  to  drop  it.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  however,  that  a  strong  feeling  is  growing  for  your  father's  policy. 
It  appeals  to  the  American  sentiment,  and  the  friends  of  the  administra 
tion  have  done  the  President  incalculable  harm  by  rushing  to  his  defence 
with  all  sorts  of  wild  assertions  .  .  .  which,  proved  to  be  true,  would 
condemn  Arthur  out  and  out.  ...  I  must  not  forget  to  chronicle  an 

adroit  little  trick  of  Mrs. 's.   We  were  all  at  a  lovely  party  at  her  house 

last  Wednesday  evening,  and  it  was  not  till  Saturday  that  I  discovered  that 
all  the  other  invitations,  save  ours,  read,  **  To  meet  Secretary  and  Mrs.  Frc- 
linghuysen."  Accordingly  I  asked  your  father  if  he  would  go  to  the  B's  to 
a  party  given  to  the  Fs.  "  Most  decidedly  not,"  Jie  said.  So  I  looked  up  our 
invitation  and  found,  to  my  great  satisfaction,  there  was  no  mention  of  the 
Frelinghuysens  in  our  notes.  Now  it  turns  out  that  all  the  other  invitations 
mentioned  the  Frelinghuysens.  .  .  .  So  Monday  afternoon,  when  I  was 

making  my  party  call  on  Mrs. ,  I  asked  her  about  it.     Why,  the  Fre- 

linghuysen  name  was  so  long,  that  after  writing  out  a  good  many  invitations 
she  concluded  to  drop  it,  and  our  cards  came  among  the  abbreviated  ones ! 
I  assured  her  that  her  explanation  was  entirely  satisfactory  to  me,  but  I 
asked  as  a  special  favor  that  she  make  the  same  explanation  to  Mrs. 
Frelinghuysen,  at  the  same  time  telling  her  that  our  cards  did  not  con 
tain  their  honored  name.  This  she  solemnly  promised  to  perform.  But 
she  looked  at  me  scrutinizingly  as  she  promised,  no  doubt  deciding 
whether  it  would  be  safe  to  remember  to  forget.  .  .  .  But  do  not 
worry  about  anything.  I  am  sure  time  will  vindicate  your  father,  and 
he  will  be  everywhere  recognized  as  a  minister  who  had  the  interests 
of  his  own  country  in  perpetual  remembrance.  Emmons  is  coming  this 
noon.  He  will  be  a  great  moral  resource  to  me.  ...  He  says  he  is 
going  to  Topeka,  Kansas,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  his  destiny  so  to  do  — 
as,  so  often  as  he  ends  the  negotiations,  blind  fate  reopens  them,  and  we 
know  that  what  is  writ  is  writ.  He  is  a  dear,  delightful  son.  Business 
tells  on  him,  and  he  begins  to  look  careworn  and  more  man  than  boy.  Of 
course  he  lost  no  time  in  tasting  the  sweets  of  Washington  Society. 


From  A. : 

1882. 

.  .  .  I  don't  think  Sec.  F.  has  the  least  hostile  wish  or  purpose 
against  Mr.  Blaine.  Nor  has  Arthur.  Both  wish  to  be  good  friends.  Mr. 
Blame  walking,  met  the  President  driving,  and  said  the  President's  hat 
went  up  high-  "No  higher  than  yours,  I  hope?"  I  said  severely,  and  he 
said,  "  No,  indeed/'  I  don't  believe  A.  or  F.  to  this  day  know  exactly  what 
all  this  row  is  about,  but  there  is  somebody  behind  them  who  does  know, 
and  who  is  greatly  surprised  to  find  that  Blaine  does  not  lie  still  after  the 
vigorous  down-pushing  that  they  gave  him. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  557 

From   Walker : 

FEBRUARY  10,  1882. 

.  .  .  I  have  nothing  to  write  about  unless  I  go  into  a  full  explana 
tion  of  the  position  in  which  we  find  ourselves  here,  and  I  am  so  angry 
and  disgusted  that  I  don't  like  to  write  about  it.  ... 

To  M.: 

FEBRUARY  13,  1882. 

.  .  .  Since  I  wrote,  Emmons  has  come  and  gone,  and  we  miss  him 
fearfully,  as  he  fills  a  relation  to  his  parents  which  none  of  the  younger 
ones  touch.  ...  I  am  as  usual  writing  in  my  room,  which  has  now, 
as  I  have  often  told  you,  been  converted  into  a  sanctum  sacred  to 
Garfield,  and  here  your  father,  who  cannot  bear  to  be  alone,  though  he 
prohibits  talking,  is  devoting  himself  to  the  most  difficult  portion  of  his 
eulogy  —  the  long  sickness  with  its  fatal  termination.  For  the  second 
time  this  morning  I  see  him  taking  from  the  drawer  a  fresh  pocket- 
handkerchief  with  which  he  vainly  tries  to  hide  his  tears,  and  this  time, 
wholly  overcome,  he  has  beaten  a  retreat  to  the  blue  room.  Oh, 
M.,  there  indeed  is  a  Douglass  tender  and  true;  but  if  the  writing  so 
moves  him,  how,  with  a  great  audience  before  him,  is  he  ever  to  control 
his  emotion  ?  Two  weeks  from  this  very  hour,  unless  the  unforeseen  pre 
vents,  he  will  be  in  the  thick  of  it.  Emmons  comes  back  to  hear  it.  It  will 
not  be  eloquent,  but  it  will  be  faithful.  .  .  .  Poor  father!  I  wish  he 
could  come  downstairs.  .  .  . 

February  18.  .  .  .  The  eulogy  is  going  to  be  good.  Carefully 
discriminating,  it  is  an  authoritative  utterance  of  the  ability  and  work  of 
Garfield,  which,  while  it  carefully  ignores  the  author,  shrinks  from  no 
issue  which  the  administration  of  Garfield  involved.  .  .  .  Speaking  of 
foreign  potentates  reminds  me  that  you  are  not  to  give  yourself  the  slight 
est  anxiety  concerning  your  father's  position,  past  or  present.  Whoever 
has  explanations  or  back-downs  to  make,  it  is  certainly  not  he.  Serene  in 
the  consciousness  of  a  policy,  or  policies,  which  looked  out  for  the  interests 
of  America,  and  which  time  is  as  sure  to  justify  as  it  is  to  come,  he  may 
well  wait  undisturbed.  ...  I  can  imagine  your  amusement  at  the 
large  place  the  eulogy  occupies  in  my  letters  nowadays.  When  Q.  was 
snubbed  by  his  father  the  other  day,  he  exclaimed,  '*  Crushed  by  a  eulo 
gist/'  All  the  time  I  am  writing,  imagine  the  careful  criticism  of  language 
going  on  —  "  the  true  prerogatives  of  his  high  office,"  reads  your  father. 
*'  Is  that  any  better,"  says  C.,  "than  the  true  prerogatives  of  the  presi 
dency  ?  "  I  join  in  the  ensuing  debate,  and  by  and  by  we  lay  over  that  line 
for  to-morrow's  fresh  reading,  and  by  and  by  I  begin  to  listen  again  — 
'*  He  followed  with  quickening  steps." 

February  22.  .  .  .  This  important  document  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
Tom,  who  is  transcribing  it.  ...  Nothing  can  equal  the  interest 
taken  in  the  day ;  the  pressure  for  seats  and  tickets  is  enormous.  I  am 
quite  sure  you  will  be  satis'fied.  C.  has  gone  over  and  over  it,  winnowing 


558  BIOGRAPffY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

out  the  chaff,  criticising  the  construction  and  language  and  grammar,  and 
your  father  has  given  to  it  all  his  best  attention,  and  a  careful  selection  of 
facts,  for  of  course  he  teems  with  knowledge  sufficient  for  half  a  dozen 
obituaries.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  feeling,  national  and  personal,  your 
father  is  stemming  the  tide  of  misconstruction  and  false  statement,  emanating 

from  the  administration,  its  friends,  and  its  newspapers.    .     .     .     says 

the  State  Department  is  coming  around  entirely  to  all  your  father's  policies. 
The  whole  back-down  has  been  a  "  put-up  job"  to  take  the  credit  away 
from  him,  condemn  apparently,  then  bring  forward  the  same  policy  as  a 

new  measure  by  this  administration.     The  plan,  he  says,  is  wholly 's. 

It  is  a  deliberate  purpose,  now  partially  executed.  Really,  and  au  fond, 
there  is  no  change.  They  expect  to  dupe  the  people  by  high-sounding 
papers,  but  I  doubt  their  success. 

To  Walker : 

FEBRUARY  22. 

Last  night  we  all  went  to  the  Art  Club's  reception  of  Mr. 
Corcoran.  Your  father  gave  the  welcoming  address,  which  was  a  perfect 
gem,  and  given  in  a  manner  which  made  moist  eyes.  I  felt  it  deeply  my 
self,  but  when  Mrs.  Story  said  to  me  that  she  felt  like  crying  whenever  she 
thought  of  it,  I  knew  he  had  played  on  the  harp  of  a  thousand  strings.  It 
was  a  complete  surprise  to  me,  who  had  not  before  heard  one  word  of  it. 
Mr.  Corcoran  took  me  out  to  supper,  and  in  every  way  in  his  power  testi 
fied  to  his  delight.  Walker,  you  would  have  felt  proud  and  tender,  could 
you  have  seen  the  dear  pater  giving,  in  a  voice  which  was  a  caress  and 
a  benediction  in  itself,  the  little  address  I  enclose,  —  then  see  him  step  one 
side,  and  with  a  simple  dignity  defer  to  Mr.  Corcoran  —  nothing  better  was 
ever  done  or  said.  Your  dear  little  sister  is  reading  out  to  Tom  the  eulogy, 
while  he  copies.  She  told  me  just  now,  after  two  steady  hours  of  appli 
cation,  that  she  was  extremely  interested,  that  she  had  just  come  to  the 
assassination.  ...  I  am  afraid,  dear  Walker,  that  if  you  have  depended 
on  me  as  to  the  situation  here,  personal  and  more  general,  you  have  leaned  on 
a  broken  reed.  This  morning  I  notice  among  the  telegrams  that  you  have 
resigned,  because  of  the  strictures  upon  your  father  on  his  South  American 
course.  I  do  not  suppose  you  have  done  so,  though  your  father  for  the 
first  time  seems  aware  of  the  importance  of  keeping  you  posted  as  to  the 
public  sentiment  here.  I  am  constantly  writing  family  letters  which  I  sup 
pose  have  the  happy  faculty  of  touching  on  things  of  the  least  importance. 
1  am  truly  disgusted  with  myself  as  the  universal  correspondent  anyway, 
and  I  feel  as  though  my  children  must  long  for  the  sight  of  another  hand 
writing  ;  but  to  repair  past  neglects,  I  send  you  a  budget  cut  indiscrim 
inately  from  the  newspapers  this  morning.  Do  not  for  one  moment  imagine 
that  your  father  is  going  down  under  this  preconcerted  attack  on  the  part 
of  the  State  Department  and  its  friends.  I  imagine  him  very  strong,  and 
that  the  administration  has  lost  its  grip  upon  this  policy,  which  is  so  Ameri 
can  that  it  is  forced  to  be  the  popular  will.  In  short,  dear  Walker,  use 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 


559 


your  own  good  sense,  and  ask  yourself  if  it  accords  with  your  fathers  past, 
that  this  attack  does  him  anything  but  good. 

From  Mrs.  Garfiekl : 

CLEVELAND,  O.,  February  28,  1882. 

Mr.  Elaine's  advance  sheets  of  his  address  reached  us  yesterday  morning. 

Thronging  emotions  and  memories  made  my  heart  stand  still.  It  was 
the  anniversary  of  the  last  day  the  general  passed  in  our  Mentor  home. 
The  paper  I  held  in  my  hand  was  the  tribute  of  a  grand,  loving  friend  to 
his  memory.  In  one  short  year,  hopes,  ambitions,  aspirations  pure  and 
high,  and  almost  assured,  all  swept  away  — nothing  left  but  tears  and 
loyal,  loving  words  to  tell  the  story.  I  have  tried  to  collect  my  thoughts 
and  my  gratitude  into  some  fit  expression  to  tell  Mr.  Elaine  how  satisfied  I 
am  with  all  he  has  said.  It  was  such  a  true,  unvarnished  tale  of  his  life. 
His  summing  up  of  the  influences  —  those  coming  through  the  blood  of 
ancestors,  and  those  of  circumstance  which  so  richly  dowered  and  so 
rounded  out  his  character  — was  so  just;  and  the  final  tribute  to  his  work 
and  worth  so  magnanimous.  My  dear  friend,  if  the  spirit  of  General 
Garfield  is  in  the  great  universe,  he  must  have  been  in  that  old  hall,  smiling 
upon  his  old  friend  a  grateful  recognition.  Pray  say  to  Mr.  Elaine  that  the 
dear  general's  mother  joins  me  in  most  sincere  and  heartfelt  thanks  to  him  ; 
and  in  love  to  you  all  we  all  join. 

These  anniversary  days  are  full  of  heartbreaks.  One  year  ago  this  hour 
the  fateful  journey  to  Washington  had  begun  which  ended  at  Lake  View 
Cemetery.  How  vividly  the  last  hours  at  the  home  come  back  to  me.  After 
the  final  preparations  for  departure  were  all  made,  and  the  last  friend  had 
driven  away,  came  the  aimless  wandering  through  the  vacant  rooms. 
Ey  accident  the  general  and  I  met  in  the  little  library,  where  he  had  sat 
through  the  long  campaign  and  the  busy  winter.  We  looked  through  tears 
into  each  other's  eyes.  Choking  them  back,  the  general  said,  "Darling, 
shall  we  come  back  here  again  ?  "  I  remember  the  startled  feeling  it  gave 
me,  but  I  answered  out  of  my  hope,  and  we  said  good-by  to  the  little 

room. 

Pardon  me  for  wandering  back  into  memories;  as  dear-     -says,   " 
have  lost  my  life,"  and  while  I   wait,  my  thoughts  will  go  back  to  the  life 
that  was  with  me  once.11     .     .     . 

What  of  M.p  Is  she  happy  and  contented  so  far  from  you  ?  With  your 
children  so  scattered,  your  heart  cannot  be  wholly  free  from  pain. 

To  Mr.  Blame,  from  Hon.  Beverley  Tucker: 

WASHINGTON,  February  28,  1882. 

"  Once  upon  a  time  "  my  uncle,  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  after  sitting 
for  hours,  listening  attentively,  and  as  he  always  did,  critically,  to  Littleton 
Waller  FazewelTs  greatest  effort  at  the  bar,  rose  at  its  conclusion,  and 
grasping  the  hand  of  his  great  contemporary  said,  with  his  peculiar,  shrill 


560  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    RLA1NE. 

voice,  "  Fazewell,  I  thought  I  had  heard  something  perfect  at  last,  sir;  but 
what  did  you  say  horizon  for?  "  (instead  of  horizon). 

Had  the  great  orator  and  statesman  been  an  auditor  of  yours  yesterday, 
your  exquisite  address  would  have  extorted  a  like  compliment,  without  the 
handicap  of  even  so  trivial  a  criticism.  Can  /  say  more 

To  Alice,  at  Fort  Leavenworth  : 

WASHINGTON,  March  1,  1882. 

Now  that  the  eulogy  is  over  and  all  the  books  sent  back  to  their  several 
libraries,  and  all  the  black-edged  paper  banished,  and  this  formerly 
heavily  freighted  table  cleared  up,  you  cannot  think  how  bare  and  empty 
the  room  seems.  All  the  world  may  come  into  it  now  and  find  nothing 
out  of  order,  and  I  miss  the  dear  figure  that  for  so  many  weeks  has  made 
it  his  studio.  He  is  downstairs,  however,  for  he  cannot  make  up  his  mind 
to  separate  himself  from  his  family,  and  I  have  this  moment  left  him  after 
a  whole  morning's  talk  with  Mr.  Elkins  and  Emmons  on  R.  ITs  and  coal. 
Well,  Alice,  the  eulogy  has  been  made,  fine  and  tender  and  concise,  and  has 
been  followed  by  an  almost  unbroken  stream  of  congratulation.  When  I 
say  that  I  could  ask  nothing  more  for  it,  both  as  to  audience,  subject- 
matter,  time  and  place,  delivery  and  reception,  you  will  see  that  it  equalled 
the  unequalled  occasion,  for  probably  your  father  had  not  in  that  vast 
assembly  a  more  exacting  critic  than  myself.  He  has  had  the  most  de 
lightful  and  warm  assuranc.es  from  his  friends  both  by  letters  and  word  of 
mouth.  The  former  I  shall  keep  for  a  special  scrap-book,  and  the  latter  I 
shall  cherish  in  my  heart  of  hearts.  .  .  .  From  the  first  word  I  knew 
that  your  father  had  the  ear  of  the  audience.  The  attention  was  profound, 
and  the  interest  untiring.  Probably  you  will  miss  nothing  to  compare  with 
it  while  away  from  us,  and  I  am  truly  sorry  that  only  Q.  and  Emmons,  of 
all  the  children,  heard  it. 

To  M. : 

MARCH  2,  1882. 

.  .  .  Our  matutinal  reunion  was  made  delightful  by  a  great  number 
of  congratulatory  letters.  A  very  feeling  one  from  Uncle  Roman,  to  whom 
your  father  had  considerately  sent  an  advanced  copy  of  his  eulogy,  which 
he  read,  he  said,  to  the  neighbors  and  friends,  at  the  same  hour  that  it  was 
delivered  to  the  larger  and  more  distinguished,  but  not  more  sympathetic 
and  appreciative  and  affectionate  audience.  One  from  Mrs.  (Jarlield  which 
I  shall  hereafter  send  you,  a  truly  beautiful  letter,  pathetic  in  its  perfect 
simplicity.  ...  I  hope  you  will  not  tire  of  this  theme,  for  really  your 
father  made  a  great  vault.  Now  I  hope  to  have  your  approval,  for  the 
orator  has  a  high  opinion  of  M.'s  perception.  ...  1  do  not  think  we 
are  on  good  terms  with  the  President,  though  all  the  onus  of  the  unpleas 
antness,  if  such  there  be,  rests  on  him.  I  saw  him  at  the  Corcoran  recep 
tion,  but  he  was  embarrassed.  Your  father  did  not  even  know  he  was 
there. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     JtLAlNE.  561 

From  Walker: 

U.S.  CONSULATE,  VALPARAISO,  March  4,  1882. 
I  have  received  all  the  papers  from  New  York  containing  the 
full  publications  of  the  instructions  and  Mr.  Trescott's  confidential  telegram. 
To  our  request  sent  a  week  ago  asking  for  immediate  instructions,  we 
yesterday  received  a  reply,  stating  that  the  President  desired  for  the 
present  that  Mr.  Trescott  and  I  should  remain  here  to  report  upon  the  situ 
ation  and  urge  his  views.  The  only  views  we  have  to  urge  are  G. 
Washington's  final  address.  ...  I  cannot  tell  you  how  sick  at  heart 
and  how  disgusted  I  am.  We  have  made  ourselves  absolutely  contempti 
ble.  Nothing  more  humiliating  than  our  attitude  can  be  conceived,  and  I 
cannot  but  think  that  in  the  end  the  policy  now  adopted  must  be  con 
demned.  I  hope  father  will  let  it  go  just  as  it  will.  His  interview  has 
been  republished  here  in  every  paper,  and  the  things  that  are  said  in  the 
press  are  a  little  hard  to  me ;  but  I  can  stand  that.  What  I  can't  stand  is  to 
represent  the  government  of  the  United  States  which  has  published  to  the 
world  the  confidential  communications  of  its  minister  and  thus  put  an  end 
forever  to  diplomacy.  There  is  one  thing  further,  of  which  you  must 
judge  better  than  I.  I  shall  stay  down  here  until  they  order  me  home, 
doing  the  work  that  there  is  and  holding  my  peace ;  but  when  I  get  back  it 
may  very  well  happen  that  it  will  be  quite  impossible  for  me  to  remain  in 
the  department.  ...  I  also  think  that  they  might  make  me  M.  ('. 
from  Maine,  but  I  don't  suppose  they  will  so  regard  it,  and  in  fact  I  shall  be 
in  such  a  meek  and  lowly  frame  of  mind  that  I  shall  be  content  to  break 
stone  on  the  highway.  .  .  .  Balmaceda  gave  me  a  long  talk  this  morn 
ing.  .  .  .  This  action  of  the  administration,  which  has  been  published 
and  taken,  as  it  seems  to  me,  simply  to  break  down  father  at  home,  has 
disgraced  (I  fear  irremediably)  the  government  of  the  United  States 
abroad.  It  has  made  me  sick  at  heart  and  ashamed,  and  I  want  to  get  away. 
But  I  think  we  might  as  well  throwr  away  scabbards.  ...  I  hope  father 
will  hold  no  more  interviews.  Wait  until  the  whole  matter  comes  out,  if 
you  wait  a  year. 

March  18.  .  .  .  To-morrow  I  go  to  Vina  del  Mar  to  call  upon  Kal- 
maceda.  I  ought  to  be  in  Lima  during  the  first  week  in  April,  and  am  in 
hopes  that  the  last  of  May  will  see  me  restored  to  my  bereaved  family. 
.  Of  course  I  am  wild  to  get  home,  crazy  for  a  talk  with  you  all. 
I  see  that  the  attack  on  father  is  bitter  and  violent,  but  he  has  beaten  them 
masterfully  at  every  point.  The  letter  was  superb  (the  one  to  Arthur  on 
the  Peace  Congress),  but  why  somebody  doesn't  take  up  that  clause  in  Fre- 
linghuysen's  despatch  in  which  he  says  that  to  have  a  foreign  policy  implies 
an  army  and  navy,  and  that  is  to  tax  our  people  for  the  benefit  of 
foreigners,  I  know  not. 

To  M. : 

MARCH  24,  1882. 

.     .     .     Your  father  talking  in  the  far  corner  of  the  dining-room  in  the 
window,  with  Mr.  Parsons,  on  business  plans.     .     .     .     Here  enters  Fagiu 


562  It  LOG  R  A  PHY    OF    JAMES     G.     BLAINE. 

with  the  morning  "  Tribune,"  and  Mr.  Parsons  at  once  loses  all  that  was 

left  of  his  listener.    1  have  been  answering  notes,  one  to  Mrs.  ,  who  has 

invited  your  father  to  dine  to-morrow  with  two  charming  ladies  who  wish 
to  meet  Mr.  Blaine.  Alas,  I  had  peremptory  orders  from  headquarters  to 
decline,  which  I  have  done  in  honeyed  accents,  very  different  from  those  in 

which  the  lion  refused  to  be  bored  ;   anil  one  to ,  who  has  asked  us  to 

dinner   to  meet .     There,  too,  I  have  sent  diplomatic   regrets,  which 

should  read  in  plain  English,  "I  don't  want  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
that  gang.11  ...  I  hope  you  will  read  and  digest  the  interview  of  the 
pater  yesterday.  We  all  deprecate  the  necessity  of  coming  before  the 
public,  but  it  is  a  question  of  self-preservation. 

.  .  .  Walker  has  left  for  Bolivia.  Yes,  dear,  the  administration  may 
hope  to  snuff  out  Mr.  Blaine,  but  to-day,  with  all  their  official  power,  as  a 
Southern  paper  says,  whenever  Mr.  Blaine  pipes,  they  dance ! 

From  Walker- 

LIMA,  April  9,  1882. 

I  read  in  the  paper  yesterday  that  new  instructions  had  been 
forwarded  to  Mr.  Trescott  in  which  the  United  States  consent  to  territorial 
cession  ;  but  we  have  received  nothing.  We  have,  however,  become  ac 
customed  to  seeing  instructions  published  before  we  received  them,  and 
are  therefore  not  much  surprised.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  disgusted,  morti- 
lied,  and  humiliated  I  feel  by  the  action  of  our  government  in  Washington. 
It  is  disgraceful  to  our  nation  that  men  should  be  trusted  with  great  offices 
who  will  so  misuse  the  power  thus  given  them.  .  .  .  For  the  love  of 
Heaven  and  my  own  self-respect,  get  me  ordered  home  and  let  me  resign. 
There  is  one  great  satisfaction  to  me,  and  that  is  father's  eulogy  on  Gar- 
lield,  which  I  would  rather  have  written  than  to  have  been  President  or 
Secretary  of  State,  or  any  other  thing  possible.  That  did  make  me  prouder 
than  ever,  I  assure  you.  ...  I  heard  of  poor  Hurlbut's  death  when  at 
Puno  on  my  way  back  from  La  Paz.  He  died  very  suddenly,  of  angina 
pectoris.  The  demonstration  here  at  the  funeral  is  said  to  have  been  very 
grand  and  impressive.  He  was  greatly  liked  and  beloved  by  the  Peruvians. 
It's  very  strange,  and  makes  me  feel  almost  superstitious  to  think  of  both 
Hurl  but  and  Kilpatrick. 

To  M. : 

WASHINGTON,  April  12,  1882. 

.  .  .  We  had  a  tea  company  of  eight  gentlemen  whom  your  father, 
unmindful  of  our  limited  help,  and  that  the  market  was  not  open  on  Sun 
day,  and  that  Lewis  and  Caroline  were  unwarned,  invited  in  a  batch  at 
Mr.  Sawyer's  dinner-party  which  he  attended  after  our  arrival  on  Saturday 
evening.  Everything  went  off,  however,  well  and  handsomely,  the  com 
pany  proving  distinguished,  the  supper  bountiful  and  choice,  and  the  host 
unequalled.  .  .  .  Breakfast  is  over,  and  your  father,  downstairs,  is 
reading  an  old  State  paper  of  his  on  Guatemala  to  Emmons,  in  whose  judg 
ment  he  seems  to  have  great  confidence. 


niOGRAPHY    Or    JAMES    G.     HLA1NE.  563 

April  20.  Emmons  left  for  Chicago,  with  reluctance,  Monday  morn 
ing.  Each  visit  home  only  seems  to  tighten  the  tie  that  binds  this 
beloved  son  to  his  mother.  .  .  .  The  chief  of  his  clan  is  more  and 
more  devoting  himself  to  business,  till  it  is  really  assuring  to  note  how 
little  he  cares  for  the  Senate,  the  Cabinet,  or  any  other  elevation.  I  am 
delighted,  because  I  have  always  regarded  the  hanging  on  to  place  as 
one  of  the  melancholy  inevitables  of  political  life;  so  if  now  in  the  very 
zenith  of  his  reputation  your  father  can  seek  other  skies  in  which  to  shine, 
is  it  not  wiser  for  him,  and  better  for  us  all  ?  He  has  been  able 

through  it  [a  Congressional  Committee  of  investigation],  in  Ihe  most  not 
able  manner  to  get  his  S.  A.  policy  before  the  world,  and  at  last  I  believe 
it  will  be  known  and  read  of  all  men.  You  cannot  imagine  how  grand 
he  seems  to  me,  —  perfectly  simple  and  natural,  sleeping  well  and  eating, 
and  without  one  particle  of  pettiness  or  vanity  in  his  whole  composition. 

From  G.  : 

Observe  that  it  is  not  Mr.  Blaine  who  is  running  around  trying  to  settle 
matters.  Mr.  Blaine  is  this  minute  sitting  at  his  desk  writing  a  letter  to 
the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee,  protesting  against  their  stopping  the  in 
vestigation  here,  when  they  had  Shiphard  up  for  weeks  when  there  was 
any  slander  to  be  uttered  against  the  State  Department,  but  now  that  a 
great  policy  is  concerned,  they  stop  it  in  three  days. 

Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  AVm.  Pinkney  Whyte : 

BALTIMORE,  April  24,  1882. 

.  .  .  I  enjoyed  this  P.M.  reading  your  evidence,  or  such  scraps  as  the 
evening  paper  gave,  and  saw  that  you  had  not  lost  a  tittle  of  your  snap  and 
vitality. 

Of  course,  old  Mulberry  Shiphard's  story  only  amused  thoughtful  people. 

To  M. : 

WASHINGTON,  May  1,  1892. 

.  .  .  I  hope  you  will  feel  no  less  indignant  than  Emmons  when 
you  are  in  full  possession  of  the  reports  of  the  examinations;  but  do 
not  you  regret  them  ?  There  was  nothing  our  beloved  wanted  so  much 
as  to  get  his  S.  A.  policy  before  the  world,  and  a  great  deal  of  it  is  certainly 
now  where  every  one  can  read  it.  Moreover,  all  the  diplomats  evidently 
regard  the  late  Secretary  of  State  as  the  one  formidable  American,  and  the 
attention  I  receive  when  I  go  anywhere  is  very  noticeable.  In  Europe,  of 
course,  your  father's  policy,  which  is  decidedly  American,  you  will  see  very 
much  criticised,  and  you  must  remember  that  this  is  really  greatly  to  his 
credit.  A  policy  which  P^uropean  countries  would  applaud  could  not  be 
very  American. 

May  8.  ...  Your  father  returned  from  New  York  Saturday  after 
noon.  He  telegraphed  me  to  meet  him  at  the  station,  and  from  there  we 


564  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

drove  to  the  new  house,  where  we  found  everything  progressing  favora 
bly ;  then  to  the  Broadhead  house,  where  was  a  kettledrum,  the  house 
cold,  and  I  could  not  get  "  the  beloved"  soon  enough  away.  By  dint  of 
pacing  all  the  rooms  to  convince  me  how  superior  my  own  were,  he  man 
aged  to  take  exercise  enough  to  keep  himself  warm.  .  .  . 

Mr.  E.  has  been  in  and  stayed  an  hour  with  me,  and  he  and  I  agree  that 
although  Mr.  Blaine  professes  himself  wearied  with  the  hollowness  of  New 
York  society,  he  disports  himself  pretty  actively  in  the  hollow.  But  does 
not  the  publisher  promise  handsomely  ? 

.  .  .  The  Maine  Republicans  are  circulating  a  petition  to  your  father 
to  represent  the  State  as  Congressman  at  Large.  Nothing  would  as  yet 
induce  him  to  go  back  to  public  life.  To  put  the  energy  and  time  and 
temper  into  the  House  which  it  would  require  to  secure  and  hold  its  con 
trol,  he  told  me  this  morning  would  lose  him  a  million  dollars,  which  the 
same  effort  otherwise  applied  would  make  for  him.  "Oh,  mother,  mother 
Blaine ! "  he  said,  "  I  have  so  much  to  do,  I  know  not  which  way  to  turn.'' 
—  «•  Good  !  "  said  I.  —  "  Yes/1  said  he,  "  isn't  it  perfectly  splendid  ?  " 

From  G.  : 

WASHINGTON,  May  9,  1882. 

Sunday  we  three  met  the  President  on  the  street  walking.  None 
of  us  saw  him  till  he  had  nearly  passed  us.  Then  we  bowed  and  saluted, 
and  Mr.  Blaine  coming  out  of  his  brown  study  went  up  to  him  as  smiling 
and  cordial  as  could  be,  and  he  had  to  stop  and  turn  back,  and  I  will  do 
him  the  justice  to  say  he  was  embarrassed,  and  Mr.  Blaine  advised  him  to 
take  long  walks,  etc.,  and  look  out  for  his  health ! 

I  have  had  a  long  talk  with  him,  finding  him  very  cheery  and  cheerful. 
lie  says  there  is  only  one  position  which  he  covets  in  the  future.  The 
presidency  may  go,  but  he  would  like  to  carry  out  his  views  of  Statecraft, 
in  1885,  as  Secretary  of  State. 

To  M. : 

May  28.  .  .  .  Your  father  has  now  reached  home,  having  left  Cin 
cinnati  last  night.  His  spirits  are  good  as  can  be,  so  is  his  health,  but 
you  cannot  interest  him  in  politics.  In  business,  he  is  immersed. 
Emmons  leaves  Chicago  in  two  weeks,  and  goes  to  Cincinnati  as  Treasurer 
of  a  R.R.  He  also  has  a  position  on  a  second  road,  the  two  together 
giving  him  a  salary  of  three  thousand.  I  am  so  pleased  for  him.  .  .  . 
Jacky  we  look  for  on  Thursday.  He  will  resign,  I  suppose,  when  he  has 
straightened  out  his  State  Department  business. 

May  31.  I  came  into  the  house  Saturday  afternoon.  ...  I  found 
Mr.  Blaine  still  away.  .  .  .  While  we  were  at  lunch  Sunday,  came  the 
well-known  ring  and  tat-a-tap,  followed,  as  soon  as  three  could  get  the  door 
open,  by  the  beloved  traveller  himself,  very  dirty,  but  every  cinder  alive 
with  affection  and  good  spirits.  He  regards  his  trip  as  a  most  successful 
one. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    KLA1NE.  565 

June  4.  ...  Your  father  comes  forward  "  to  my  sincerest  and 
best  critic,11  — yes,  I  say,  the  best  left,  "the  best  always,  you  are 
much  more  difficult  to  satisfy  than  A."  —  with  his  letter  declining  to  run  as 
Congressman  at  Large,  to  his  petitioners  in  Maine,  and  I  listen  and 
approve  heartily,  but  object  to  his  "  hence,"  which  I  consider  an 
earmark;  at  which  he  laughs  and  says,  "As  I  am  putting  my  name  to  it 
in  full —  they  will  not  have  to  look  for  the  earmark,  eh,  Tom  ?  " 
And  Mr.  Trescott,  in  a  suit  of  light  gray,  which  he  says  he  has  worn  all 
through  Peru  and  Chile,  but  which  is  as  fresh  as  though  it  had  just  seen 
the  light,  comes  in  to  turn  over  the  ever-vexed  question  of  South  American 
affairs,  and  Walker,  who  has  been  telephoned  for  from  the  State  Depart 
ment  to  see  Mr.  Elkins,  comes  rubbing  his  hands  with  delight,  saying,  "  The 
whole  round  trip  through  Peru,  Chile,  and  Bolivia  did  not  afford  me  as 
much  pleasure  as  I  have  had  to-day.11  .  .  He  is  looking  very  well, 
and  I  am  lost  in  wonder,  love,  and  praise  at  having  such  a  boy.  For  he 
has  the  whole  South  American  business  in  his  head,  and  he  is  a  most 
devoted  brother  to  T.,  and  to  his  father  an  anxious  and  attentive  son,  and 
to  you,  M.,  all  that  even  your  exacting  heart  can  ask.  Your  father  came 
last  night,  and  only  when  Walker  opened  the  door  to  him  did  he  know  that 
he  was  here. 

June  12.  ...  Your  father  making  his  breakfast  this  hot,  hot 
morning  off  baked  beans ;  and  Walker,  in  that  summer  suit  of  those 
summers  gone,  explaining  the  coffee  and  the  coffee-making  of  South 
America.  .  .  .  Here  comes  your  dear  Walker  announcing,  with  that 
irresistible  lisp  of  his,  "This  is  my  last  final  appearance."  He  means 
that  he  is  now  going  to  tear  himself  away  from  his  family  for  the  State 
Department.  He  has  in  his  hand  his  summer  hat,  and  under  his  arm  an 
immense  envelope  of  despatches.  .  The  last  Clayton-Bulwer  paper 

is   Mr.    's,  and   he  is  very  proud   of  it,  while  your  father  thinks  it 

an  utterly  untenable  ground  which  he  has  taken.  ...  I  doubt  if  I 
have  given  the  technical  language,  but  I  would  give  more  for  what  lies 
within  the  frosty  brow  of  my  John  Anderson  than  for  all  the  brains  of 
all  the 's. 

June  19.  .  .  .  Walker  is  awfully  interesting  —  and  of  Emmons  too 
much  cannot  be  said,  but  I  spare  you  the  impossible. 

Augusta,  June  29.  ...  1  am  at  home —  and  so  busy,  —  for  your 
father  came  with  me  to  New  York  only,  and  he  has  promised  to  stay  away 
till  Monday,  so  that  these  intervening  days  are  all  that  I  shall  have  for 
preparing  for  the  summer,  now  almost  a  month  old. 

Emmons  met  us  at  Boston,  and  with  prompt  energy  hurried  us  across 
the  city,  possessed  himself  of  my  twoscore  of  checks,  and  before  I  knew 
it,  I  was  on  board  the  train.  .  .  .  The  solemn  stillness  which  all  the 
air  holds  suggests  forcibly  the  loneliness  you  must  have  felt  last  summer 
when  you  came  home.  ...  1  miss  the  good  society  of  my  Blaine 
men  —  an(j  then  to-day  has  been  so  suggestive  of  a  year  ago ;  when  Q. 
came  home  at  a  quarter  past  twelve  and  said  that  Guiteau  would  be 
hun°-  in  fifteen  minutes  it  seemed  to  me  there  was  a  visible  hush  through 


566  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

all  nature,  and  by  and  by  the  old  telephone  sounded,  and  this  was  said 
into  my  waiting  ear,  —  "  He  was  hung  at  twelve  thirty-five;  he  died  in 
stantly.  His  neck  was  broken.11  Every  servant  stopped  his  work  to  say, 
"  I'm  glad  he's  gone  ; "  and  even  Mr.  Homan  could  almost  desire  to  give  up 
his  anti-capital  punishment  principle  in  favor  of  Guiteau.  Oh,  if  he  only 
could  have  died  one  little  year  earlier,  the  difference  to  me  !  Your  father 
said  the  other  day,  as  he  drove  by  the  State  Department,  "  Here  I  fully 
expected  to  raise  my  Ebenezer  for  eight  years.11  But  you  must  not 
imagine  that  he  suffers  from  one  regret  for  public  life ;  quite  the  contrary, 
you  could  not  at  present  drive  him  back.  The  love  will  revive,  I  doubt 
not,  but  now  he  is  bound  to  try  other  paths. 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  Walker : 

HOME,  Sunday. 

The  Creswell  offer  looks  tempting,  but  it  is  a  needless  sacrifice  to 
disfranchise  one's  self,  and  give  up  the  honors  of  public  life;  —  even  if 
your  ambition  should  not  lead  that  way,  and  even  if  opportunity  should  not 
offer,  it  is  still  a  gratification  to  be  gifted  with  the  right  and  power.  For 
that  reason  I  incline  to  Chicago. 

From  Walker : 

JUNE  30,  1882. 

Enclosed  you  will  find  a  letter  so  that  you  will  see  that  I  am  out  of  office 
and  a  private  citizen.  Of  course  one  doesn't  give  up  a  place  so  agreeable 
without  some  regret,  but  I  am  fully  assured  that  it  is  much  better  for  me 
to  be  out  of  office.  ....  A  little  coincidence  that  I  should  have  gone  in 
as  almost  the  last  act  of  Garfield  before  he  was  shot,  and  out  the  day 
Guiteau  was  hanged. 

Enclosure  :  from  Secretary  Frelinghuysen  to  Walker  Blaine  : 

JUNE  30,  1882. 

.  .  .  During  the  short  time  of  my  official  association  with  you,  I  have 
learned,  as  every  one  else  in  the  department  had  learned  already,  to  enter 
tain  a  high  respect  and  regard  for  you.  I  very  much  regret  the  separation 
in  official  matters  which  your  resignation  occasions,  and  I  hope  you  will 
believe  me  when  I  say  that  if  at  any  time  I  can  manifest  the  respect  and 
regard  which  I  have  expressed  by  services  to  you,  I  shall  be  happy  to 
do  so. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker: 

JULY  1,  1882. 

.  .  .  I  thought  it  best  to  part  on  the  best  and  kindest  terms  with 
everybody  in  the  building.  I  don't  think  I  have  left  an  enemy,  or  indeed 
any  but  a  friend,  behind  me.  in  the  lesser  places,  and  they  have  certainly 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAIXE.  567 

ever  since  I  have  been  there  been  most  kind  to  me.  .  .  .  Should  I 
take  any  place  —  even  that  one  —  for  and  by  myself,  would  there  ever  be 
any  force  in  that  against  you  ;  could  it  ever  possibly  embarrass  you  ?  If  it 
could  they  would  use  it,  you  know  that  well  enough.  My  own  cool  view 
is  that  you  should  stand  aloof  every  way  from  this  administration,  saying 
nothing  and  leaving  the  people  to  judge.  Now,  pray  don't  let  anything 
like  this  little  matter  in  any  way  aftect  you.  I  would  rather  scrub  for  my 
living  or  live  on  my  parents  than  do  that. 

July  7,  1882.  Cresswell  was  appointed  counsel  to-day.  Mr.  F.  men 
tioned  Cresswell  as  wishing  it,1  which  to  me  was  very  pleasing. 

From  Mr.   Blaine,  to  M.  : 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  July  22,  1882. 

I  am  anxious  to  have  you  take  the  tour  of  Scotland  with  the  Rollinses. 
When  you  get  back  to  Liverpool  you  must  rely  on  the  aid  of  Consul  Pack 
ard  to  get  you  back  to  Paris.  I  will  write  him  and  see  that  agreeable  ar 
rangements  are  made  to  ensure  your  getting  back  at  the  right  time  and  not 
too  soon.  We  are  glad  that  you  are  so  greatly  enjoying  your  trip.  We 
are  very  quiet  at  home.  Emmons  is  with  us  ;  has  just  started  on  a  yachting 
tour  to  the  York  County  coast  with  the  Richards.  .lackey  is  in  Washington, 
where  he  has  just  been  appointed  assistant  U.S.  Counsel  before  the  Court 
of  Alabama  war  claims. 

I  hope  after  your  return  from  Scotland  you  may  have  some  good  oppor 
tunity  to  visit  Ireland.  By  all  means  you  must  see  Wales  —  especially 
South  Wales  and  Cornwall.  The  most  charming  views  in  the  United 
Kingdom  are  there.  When  you  visit  Burns'  birthplace  —  as  you  will  —  be 
sure  to  sail  from  Ayr  to  Glasgow  by  the  Firth  of  Clyde.  Don't  go  both 
ways  by  rail.  It  is  splendid.  See  all  you  can.  Enjoy  all  you  can. 
Learn  all  you  can. 

With  love  as  deep  as  the  ocean  that  divides  us, 

Mother  and  I  send  much  love  to  the  Rollinses.  Pcre  et  Jils  ct  files  — 
or  Phil. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  July  23,  1882. 

.  .  .  1st.  The  resolution  directing  that  the  investigation  should  be 
closed  was  introduced  on  Friday  last  by  Mr.  Rice  and  adopted  unanimously 
by  the  committee.  Its  object  was  to  end  the  investigation.  ...  I 
don't  think  you  realize  how  dead  this  whole  investigation  is,  and  how  sick 
and  tired  of  it  everybody  is.  It  has  had  its  day  and  is  really  a  corpse. 
.  .  .  So  far  as  matter  of  policy  is  concerned,  that  this  committee  will 
not  touch.  On  that  you  must  take  a  popular  verdict,  and  I  am  sure  that 
the  country  will  sustain  you.  So  far  as  this  investigation  concerns  your 

1  Walker's  appointment  as  Assistant  Counsel  on  the  Geneva  Award  Distribution,  which 
was  made  the  next  month. 


568  KIOGRAPIIY    OF    -/VOftf.S    G.     ELAINE. 

honor,  you  may  be  sure  that  the  report  will  do  you  full  justice. 
Next  week  you  will  have  a  report;  the  week  after,  the  public  will  forget 
the  whole  matter.     Next  year  you  will  get,  so  far  as  policy  is  concerned, 
most  ample  justification. 

July  25.  ...  I  am  greatly  delighted  at  the  unanimous  action  of 
the  committee.  What  I  feared  was  that  the  statement  might  be  admitted 
by  the  vote  of  the  Republican  members,  the  Democrats  on  the  committee 
opposing.  .  .  I  called  yesterday  morning  upon  Barrios,  the  President 
of  Guatemala.  He  is  very  anxious  to  see  you,  saying  many  most  flattering 
things,  among  others  that  he  had  your  picture  in  his  house  in  Guatemala. 
I  told  him  that  you  had  retired  from  public  life,  but  would  be  most  happy 
to  call  upon  him  should  you  be  in  New  York,  where  he  has  gone. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hun.  W.  W.  Rice  : 

WASHINGTON,  July  30,  1882. 

I  have  not  felt  like  writing  you  until  my  work  in  the  investigation  where 
you  have  been  so  prominent  was  ended.  I  want  to  say  to  you  now  that, 
in  my  judgment,  the  more  they  investigate  your  action  as  to  Chile  and 
Peru,  the  better  you  will  stand  with  the  people  of  the  country.  I  have 
learned  more  than  I  ever  knew  before  of  the  utter  unreliability  of  news 
papers.  But  truth  sometimes  prevails,  despite  them. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  report  will  be  modified  any  by  the  full  com 
mittee,  but  as  it  leaves  our  hands  it  is  a  quiet  but  absolute  vindication  of 
you.  I  wish  we  could  have  made  it  more  outspoken,  for  you  deserve  it  in 
this  case,  but  the  terms  of  the  resolutions  were  somewhat  restrictive.  I 
think,  however,  we  have  guarded  all  points  sufficiently.  I  presume  that 
Belmont  and  Blount  will  non-concur. 


To  Mr.  Blame,  from  Hon.  L.  P.  Morton  : 

SAN  MORITZ,  August  11,  1882. 

I  have  awaited  the  report  of  the  committee  on  F.  A.,  wishing  to  leave 
you  in  a  position  where  you  could  say  that  you  had  had  no  communication 
from  or  with  me,  except  the  official  correspondence,  before  expressing  my 
appreciation  of  your  friendly  incidental  reference  to  me  and  to  the  merely 
business  character  of  the  contract  made  by  Morton,  Bliss,  &  Co.  with  the 
Credit  Industriel. 

I  fancy  some  people  thought  at  the  start  of  this  campaign  that  there  had 
been  collusion  and  scheming  between  you  and  me!  I  congratulate  you,  as 
I  do  myself,  upon  the  result  of  this  long,  disagreeable  affair. 


OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  560 


XVII. 

YKAKS    FROM    1882    TO    1888. 

A  FTER  the  summer  rest  and  the  fall  elections,  which 
-^^-  brought  victory  to  Maine,  but  great  overthrow  to  some 
other  Republican  States,  Mr.  Elaine  devoted  his  time  to  writ 
ing.  Over  all  the  ruin  of  his  patriotic  plans  and  his  personal 
expectations,  he  uttered  no  word  of  lament  or  regret,  but  went 
forward  to  the  next  practicable  thing.  He  tried  to  think  that 
money-making  would  gratify  and  satisfy  him.  He  liked  to  exer 
cise  the  foresight  and  devise  the  combinations  which  make  great 
fortunes,  but  he  had  not  patience  to  watch  the  issue.  Business 
opportunities  were  pressed  upon  him  from  coal  mines  and  iron 
mines  in  Pennsylvania,  from  silver  mines  in  Colorado  and  Nevada, 
from  lecture-fields  promising  more  than  gold  or  silver,  from  rail 
roads,  and  from  newspaper  offices  ;  but  literature,  to  which  he 
had  often  looked  forward  as  the  resource  of  his  later  and  leisure 
years,  proved  to  be  the  only  occupation  which  could  engage  his 
permanent  attention.  Ever  after  tracing  Caesar's  journeys  and 
surveying  his  battle-fields  in  Europe,  he  had  confessed  historic 
doubts  regarding  the  Ciesarean  record.  Though  generally  re 
ferred  to  in  jest,  he  hoped  one  day  to  set  forth  these  doubts  in 
earnest.  The  war  of  1812  he  considered  of  more  importance  than 
had  generally  been  attributed  to  it.  He  thought  that  its  con 
sequences  had  never  been  measured,  or  its  motive  and  end  fully 
comprehended  by  the  American  people ;  and  he  cherished  it  as 
one  of  the  studies  of  that  care-free  old  age  which  he  promised 
himself,  —  which,  at  least,  he  liked  to  talk  about;  but  when  at 
length  he  settled  upon  his  theme,  it  was  the  twenty  years  of 
Congress,  from  Lincoln  to  Garfield. 

Meanwhile  the  new  house  which  he  had  begun  in  the  spring 
of  1881  was  completed.  Its  supervision  had  been  a  relaxation 
and  diversion  during  the  heavy  days  of  President  Garfield's 


570  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES     (7.     ELAINE. 

illness.  It  had  been  planned  for  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  was 
too  large  and  too  costly  of  maintenance  for  the  private  citi 
zen.  Mr.  Blaine  furnished  it  and  lived  in  it  through  the  winter 
of  1882-3,  greatly  enjoying  the  work  of  his  hands,  the  wide 
outlook,  the  nearness  to  woods  and  country  walks.  Every  day, 
often  two  or  three  times  a  day,  he  delighted  to  stroll  over  the 
hills  of  Kalorama,  and  in  the  sunny  winter  Aveather,  relieved 
from  heavy  responsibility,  full  of  the  joy  of  life  and  love  and 
congenial  work,  his  rich  imagination,  stimulated  by  contempla 
tion  of  the  past,  looked  into  the  future  far  as  human  eye  could 
see,  and  made  the  capital  city,  already  beautiful  for  situation, 
the  joy  of  the  whole  earth.  With  a  free  hand  lie  would 
stretch  its  parks  among  the  woods,  its  avenues  along  the  river, 
rear  its  architectural  glories,  and  garner  its  intellectual  wealth. 
The  old  idea  of  founding  a  great  university  in  Washington 
had  been  one  of  his  dreams  of  the  presidency.  When  the  new 
library  building  was  decided  on,  he  watched  it  as  one  stone 
was  laid  upon  another,  closely  as  he  had  watched  the  going 
up  of  his  own  house,  and  found  nothing  too  beautiful  or  too 
costly  for  the  adornment  of  the  city,  which  represents  the  loy 
alty  of  the  people  to  the  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  for  the  people. 

Before  he  was  quite  ready  to  give  it  up,  his  house  had  recom 
mended  itself  to  larger  purses  than  his,  and  the  next  winter  he 
rented  the  Marcy  House,  on  Lafayette  square. 

For  the  handling  of  his  theme  —  kt  Twenty  Years  of  Congress  " 
-he  was  so  thoroughly  furnished  that  he  wrote  with  great 
rapidity,  consulting  books  chiefly  for  confirmation,  seldom  for 
information.  In  1876  Mr.  W.  S.  Hartley,  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
had  been  in  college  with  Mr.  Blaine  twenty-eight  years  before, 
and  had  never  seen  him  or  corresponded  with  him  since,  went 
with  Mr.  Montgomery,  of  Oregon,  to  call  upon  Mr.  Blaine. 
On  the  way  Mr.  Hartley  among  other  reminiscences  recalled 
that  "  when  Blaine  left  college  to  go  to  Kentucky,  along  with 
several  others,  I  sat  up  in  his  room  until  the  stage  was  ready  to 
start  on  the  Old  National  Road.  The  negro  porter  who  was  to 
carry  young  Elaine's  carpet-sack  failed  to  come.  Blaine  ex 
pressed  impatience,  and  I  said,  '  Blaine,  I  will  carry  your  carpet- 
sack  if  you  will  give  me  what  you  promised  to  give  the  negro 


KIOGRAPI1Y    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  571 

porter.  What  did  you  promise  him  ?  '  -  *  A  levy,'  said  Blaine  ; 
so  I  carried  the  carpet-sack  and  he  gave  me  the  levy."  In  the 
course  of  the  visit  Mr.  Montgomery  said  seriously,  "Mr. 
Blaine,  a  good  many  years  ago  something  happened  between 
you  and  Mr.  Hartley  that  has  left  a  sting ;  but  I  have  brought 
liini  up  here  to  see  if,  after  mutual  explanations  were  made,  you 
could  not  be  friends  again."  Mr.  Blaine  smiled,  put  up  his 
finger,  and  said,  "  I  know  what  you  refer  to.  You  think  I  ought 
to  have  given  Bill  a  quarter  for  carrying  down  my  carpet-sack 
to  the  stage  office,  instead  of  a  levy ;  but  a  levy  then  was  as 
much  as  a  quarter  is  now,  and  he  was  well  paid  ! 

Referring  to  this  again  in  1885  when  Mr.  Blaine  was  writing 
his  first  volume,  as  an  instance  of  ready  memory,  convenient  if 
not  necessary  in  historical  writing,  Mr.  Blaine  said  to  Mr. 
Montgomery,  "  I  seldom  talk  of  myself,  but  I  will  tell  you  what 
happened  just  a  little  while  ago.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  was  here 
to  be  present  at  the  dedicating  services  of  the  Washington  monu 
ment.  He  was  speaker  of  the  House  when  the  cornerstone 
was  laid,  and  took  part  in  the  ceremony.  I  invited  Hannibal 
Hamlin  and  Mr.  Winthrop  to  come  to  my  home  to  luncheon. 
At  luncheon  the  question  came  up,  Avho  in  that  Congress  49-51 
were  the  Senators  from  the  States  ?  I  repeated  the  names  of 
every  one  without  mistake." 

Delighting  in  his  work,  he  was  so  engaged  and  joyous,  so  in 
tellectually  radiant  and  stimulating,  that  he  was  delightful  to 
work  with,  well-affectioned  toward  the  most  radical  criticism, 
and  always  buoyed  up,  even  in  hours  of  occasional  lassitude,  by 
the  constant  if  underlying  consciousness  that  his  book  would 
aid  in  the  better  understanding  of  popular  government. 

His  first  volume  was  finished,  published,  and  launched  upon 
the  world,  meeting  an  instant  success  both  popular  and  liter 
ary.  The  man  who  does,  outranks  the  man  who  writes  about 
what  is  done;  —  "not  because  written  speech  is  less  of  a  force, 
but  because  the  speculation  and  criticism  of  the  literature 
that  substantially  influences  the  world  make  far  less  demand 
than  the  actual  conduct  of  great  affairs  on  qualities  which 
are  not  rare  in  detail,  but  are  amazingly  rare  in  combina 
tion,  • —  on  temper,  foresight,  solidity,  daring ;  on  strength, 
strength  of  intelligence  and  strength  of  character."  Mr. 


572  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Elaine  met  both  demands.  He  had  conducted  great  affairs, 
and  he  now  placed  them  in  literature,  arranging  and  discussing 
economical,  constitutional,  and  international  questions  in  con 
nection  with  the  exigency  which  caused  them  and  the  forces 
which  controlled  them.  The  people  applauded  with  singular 
unanimity,  hut  the  Republican  party  entered  his  library  and 
made  good  its  claim  upon  him  as  a  candidate  for  the  presidency. 
He  could  not  be  indifferent  to  the  greatness  of  the  tribute, 
coming  as  it  did  after  so  many  and  so  varied  defeats,  but  he  ab 
horred  the  processes  of  the  candidacy.  He  uttered  no  word  of 
assent  and  made  no  movement  of  accord  ;  to  so  much  he  had  a 
right :  but  he  saw  as  well  as  others  that  political  life  was  where 
he  led  ;  otherwise  the  party  was  drifting  Arthur-ward  either  to 
failure,  or  to  a  success  worse  than  failure,  because  it  meant 
inaptitude  and  inaction,  with  responsibility.  Mr.  Blaine's  plans 
had  been  arrested,  assaulted,  apparently  overthrown  ;  his  ideas 
had  been  stayed  for  wider  and  deeper  planting.  Multitudes,  to 
whom  a  systematic  and  organized  peace  with  its  corollary  of 
Reciprocity  instead  of  conquest  made  slight  appeal,  were  cap 
tivated  by  the  idea  that  America  should  be  American.  The 
American  sentiment,  once  aroused,  could  not  again  be  put 
wholly  to  sleep,  and  men  felt  that  movement  was  more  manly 
than  stagnation.  All  this  Americanism  centered  upon  Mr. 
Blaine  and  no  other.  Leaders  who  had  been  his  bitterest 
opponents  in  1876  were  now  among  his  warmest  advocates.  Of 
a  large  majority  in  the  convention  he  was  the  first  choice,  and  of 
nearly  all  he  was  the  second  choice  ;  and  the  nomination,  hardly 
and  vainly  fought  for  by  his  friends  in  two  conventions,  came 
in  1884  not  only  practically  without  dispute,  but  with  an  un 
precedented  acclaim  of  triumphant  affection.  An  eye-witness 
says  that  when  the  States  were  being  called  for  nominations, 
"  State  by  State,"  the  clerk  called  out  "  Maine,"  and  sank  back 
into  his  seat  awaiting  the  response  which  he  knew  would  follow. 
There  was  an  instant,  clear,  loud  shout,  the  cheer  rattling 
through  the  hall  like  a  volley  of  infantry,  then  deepening  as  it 
grew  in  force  like  the  roar  of  a  cannon,  then  swelling  like  the 
crash  of  a  thunderbolt.  With  common  impulse  the  audience, 
delegates  and  spectators,  sprang  to  their  feet.  From  the  stage 
to  the  end  of  the  hall,  a  distance  of  an  eighth  of  a  mile,  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  573 

cheering,  in  dense  waves  of  sound,  hoarse  and  shrill,  sharp 
and  clear,  became  a  wild  tumult  of  applause.  When  Judge 
West,  the  blind  orator  of  Ohio,  was  helped  to  the  platform  by 
two  young  men,  the  applause  rolled  again  through  the  hall, 
and  as  the  orator,  lifting  his  right  hand  above  his  head,  com 
pelled  silence,  ten  minutes  of  uproar  and  storm  was  followed 
by  stillness  in  which  a  whisper  could  be  heard.  The  clean-cut 
sentences,  brilliant  delivery,  and  confident  manner  of  the  speaker 
captivated  the  crowd.  Point  after  point  in  his  speech  was 
greeted  with  echoing  cheers.  At  last  the  supreme  moment 
came  : 

"  In  the  name  of  a  majority  of  the  delegates  from  the  Repub 
lican  States  and  their  constituencies  who  must  fight  this  battle, 
I  nominate  James  G.  Elaine,  of  Maine."  The  magic  word  had 
scarcely  slipped  from  the  orator's  lips  before  audience  and 
convention  caught  it  up.  Applause  rose  and  fell,  subsiding 
only  to  burst  forth  with  increasing  strength.  A  garlanded 
helmet  with  its  snow-white  plume  was  raised  from  the  platform 
upon  the  point  of  a  color  standard.  A  long,  loud  shout  signalled 
its  recognition.  Flag  after  flag  was  stripped  from  the  decora 
tions  of  the  galleries  and  waved  in  the  air.  Men  drew  off 
their  coats  and  waved  them,  and  the  band  essayed  in  vain  to 
drown  the  noise  by  playing  its  most  tumultuous  airs. 

The  nomination  of  the  military  hero,  General  Logan,  for  Vice- 
President,  added  to  the  enthusiasm.  Outside  the  convention, 
"  a  hosanna  went  up  from  ocean  to  ocean,"  says  Senator  Thur- 
ston,  whose  voice  rang  among  the  loudest  in  the  pa3an.  From 
ocean  to  ocean  the  wires  were  burdened  with  "  congratulations," 
"  intense  enthusiasm,"  "  bands  playing  and  guns  booming," 
"  Cumberland  Valley,  the  home  of  your  ancestors,"  pressing 
warmly  to  the  front.  Bangor  jammed  into  her  streets  and  then 
fired  up  a  special  train  and  went  bodily  to  Augusta.  California, 
which  had  brought  her  railway  train  festooned,  and  bannered, 
and  blazoned,  to  Chicago,  resolved  to  extend  the  little  trip  to 
Augusta,  and  the  novel  spectacle  of  a  gala  train  bearing  Cali 
fornia  to  Mr.  Elaine's  house  in  spontaneous  good-will,  added  a 
touch  of  romance  to  the  general  satisfaction. 

Mr.  Elaine  accepted  the  nomination,  and  after  a  very  short 
indulgence  in  the  luxury  of  woe  in  the  privacy  of  home,  arose 


574  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

and  laid  out  the  ground  on  which  the  contest  should  be  con 
ducted,  in  a  letter  of  acceptance  on  July  15,  1884. 

The  gratification  of  the  Republican  masses  seemed  to  them 
to  ensure  the  election.  Leaders  well  knew  that  the  fight  would 
be  close.  The  Republican  party  had  been  twenty-four  years  in 
power,  and  was  bearing  all  the  burdens  which  such  tenancy  ac 
cumulates.  The  old  issues,  though  undecided,  had  lost  their 
novelty.  The  new  issues  with  which  Mr.  Blame's  name  was 
associated  had  been  arrested  by  the  assassin's  bullet,  and  assailed 
by  the  succeeding  administration.  There  had  been  so  little 
time  for  the  development  of  the  Garfield  foreign  policy  that 
many  derived  their  first  knowledge  of  its  existence  from  the 
attacks  made  upon  it.  Business  men,  especially  in  Eastern 
communities,  who  took  their  impressions  from  hostile  distortion 
of  facts,  and  not  from  the  facts  themselves,  had  no  other  idea 
of  this  incorporation  of  peace  as  a  policy  to  be  established  by 
reason,  friendship,  and  self-interest,  than  that  it  meant  jingoism 
and  war,  and  looked  with  timidity,  if  not  witli  fright,  upon 
measures  whose  accomplishment  would  be  the  unlimited  en 
largement  of  business  ;  and  while  they  were  urging  an  assurance 
that  there  should  be  no  war,  the  West  was  clamoring  for  an 
assurance  that  there  should  be  no  back-down  from  a  spirited 
foreign  policy. 

Among  the  Irish  were  distinct  signs  of  cleavage  from  the 
Democratic  party.  Mr.  Blame's  Irish  blood  and  Catholic 
affinities  were  in  themselves  prepossessing  to  the  Irish.  His 
stand  against  arbitrary  arrests  of  Irish-American  citizens  in 
Ireland,  and  his  demand  for  speedy  and  impartial  trials,  had 
fastened  Irish  attention  upon  him.  His  exposure  and  even 
ridicule  of  Irish-American  fealty  to  English  interests  had  borne 
fruit.  Influential  Irishmen  stood  ready  to  seize  the  opportunity. 
A  divided  Irish  vote  was  second  only  in  importance  to  a  divided 
Southern  vote.  These  new  conditions,  the  old  long-contested 
positions  under  new  phases,  and  the  banalities  that  drag  in  the 
train  of  real  issues,  Mr.  Blaine  set  himself  to  meet  in  his  letter 
of  acceptance. 

Perhaps  there  had  never  been  a  time  when  the  American  pro 
tective  system  looked  more  formidable  to  Europe.  Hence,  Mr. 
Blaine's  candidacy  was  received  with  sharp  hostility  abroad. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  575 

London  papers  openly  hailed  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Cleveland 
by  the  Democratic  party  as  a  result  the  most  satisfactory  they 
could  desire.  Mr.  Elaine  did  not  formally  argue  the  question  of 
protection,  but  he  arrayed  a  few  facts  constituting  the  strongest 
argument,  and  he  especially  pointed  out  the  vast  area  of  our 
free  trade  among  the  States,  and  the  enormous  extent  of  our 
internal  commerce  which  protection  reserves  for  the  American 
people,  a  market  far  greater  than  the  foreign  market,  and  one 
which  the  foreigner  —  especially  the  British  foreigner  —  is 
hungry  to  break  into.  He  pointed  out  the  disaster  to  American 
labor  of  such  foreign  incursion,  or  of  any  policy  that  arrays  labor 
and  capital  against  each  other;  denounced  the  subjection  of 
American  labor  to  the  unfair  competition  of  any  cheap  foreign 
contract  labor,  and  declared  for  such  protection  of  labor  and  of 
trade  as  should  enable  a  man  by  his  earnings  "  to  live  in  com 
fort,  educate  his  children,  and  save  a  sufficient  amount  for  the 
necessities  of  age." 

He  expounded  the  peaceful  character  and  emphasized  the 
peaceful  aims  of  Garfield's  foreign  policy,  pronounced  judg 
ment  that  it  should  be  renewed  and  that  it  would  at  no  dis 
tant  day  powerfully  contribute  to  the  universal  acceptance  of 
the  philanthropic  and  Christian  principle  of  arbitration.  He 
enumerated  the  benefits  to  be  expected  from  reciprocity 
between  North  and  South  America.  "  No  field  promises  so 
much.  No  field  lias  been  cultivated  so  little.  Our  foreign 
policy  should  be  an  American  policy  in  its  broadest  and  most 
comprehensive  sense,  —  a  policy  of  peace,  of  friendship,  of 
commercial  enlargement."  That  there  was  still  a  Southern 
question  he  recognized  with  regret,  but  not  without  hope.  He 
believed  that  prejudices  were  yielding  and  that  violence  was  ex 
ceptional.  His  own  personal  relations  with  Southern  men  could 
but  make  him  take  an  optimistic  view,  but  he  left  no  room  for 
doubt  that  any  consolidation  of  Southern  States  on  issues  that 
grow  out  of  the  memories  of  the  war  would  summon  the  North 
ern  States  to  combine  in  the  assertion  of  nationality,  and  he 
deprecated  all  attempts  of  the  Democratic  party  to  urge  such 
consolidation  and  thus  waste  in  hurtful  strife  the  energy  that 
should  be  devoted  to  industrial  development. 

Free-traders  in  the  Republican  party  hesitated  to  join  openly 


576  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.   J!  LA  INK 

in  the  British  campaign  for  Cleveland,  but  preferred  to  oppose 
protection,  under  the  watchword  of  u  spoils,"  in  the  ranks  of 
civil  service  reform.  "  People  of  importance "  in  Boston 
promptly  organized  a  u  bolt "  in  favor  of  "  a  government  free 
from  jobbery,  free  from  jingoism;"  and  while  some  took  the 
more  lenient  view  that  there  Avas  nothing  personal  against  the 
Republican  candidate,  they  complained  that  he  was  "  sur 
rounded  by  all  the  rascality  and  riff-raff  of  the  Republican 
party,"  and  they  desired  "  a  candidate  who  should,  like  Caesar's 
wife,  be  above  suspicion ; "  and  proffered  themselves  to  the 
Democratic  party  in  case  Governor  Cleveland  should  be  its 
nominee.  Mr.  Blaine  retained  the  position  he  had  always 
occupied,  —  that  the  Republican  party  was  itself  the  party  of 
reform,  of  reform  not  only  advocated,  but  in  daily  accomplish 
ment,  and  that  it  should  so  continue.  Corruption  of  the  civil 
service  he  had  always  and  utterly  rejected  as  the  basis  of  reform, 
and  advocated  only  such  constant  re-formation  as  the  constant 
growth  of  public  business  required  and  as  the  prevailing  integ 
rity  and  good  sense  of  the  people  demanded.  In  1882  he  had 
publicly  advocated  definite  terms  of  office  during  which  no 
officer  should  be  removed  except  for  cause,  specified,  proved, 
and  recorded.  These  official  terms  should  "break  joints"  with 
the  Presidential  term,  and  thus  prevent  the  annoyance  and  injury 
caused  to  each  new  administration  by  the  necessity  of  distrib 
uting  offices.  But  he  was  not  in  favor  of  a  life  tenure.  In  the 
critical  position  of  a  national  candidate  he  refused  to  change 
his  ground,  but  in  restating  his  position  paid  at  the  outset  a 
tribute  to  our  much-maligned  civil  service,  and  a  tribute  which 
redounded  to  the  credit  of  his  opponents  as  well  as  of  his  sup 
porters.  He  referred  to  his  own  experience,  and  suggested  some 
changes  which  he  had  indeed  already  referred  to  in  the  Garfield 
eulogy,  and  which,  therefore,  could  not  be  set  aside  as  a  "bid 
for  votes "  even  by  those  to  whom  "  politics  "  means  only  per 
sonal  aggrandizement. 

A  bimetallic  standard  established  by  international  agreement, 
the  multiplication  of  land-owners  against  a  tendency  to  con 
solidate  large  tracts  of  land  in  the  ownership  of  individuals  or  of 
corporations,  and  especially  of  aliens,  encouragement  to  Ameri 
can  navigation,  and,  strongest  of  all,  a  free  and  pure  ballot  as 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  577 

the  foundation  of  government,  were  among  the  points  presented 
for  acceptance. 

This  letter  of  acceptance  met  an  extraordinary  welcome.  Its 
prudence  in  practical  details  gave  a  homely  confidence,  but 
beyond  and  above  this  was  something  new, —  a  larger  aim,  a 
higher  atmosphere.  Of  the  trivial  he  selected  its  best  tendency 
and  dropped  all  else.  In  his  mind  the  politics  of  a  hemisphere 
lay  mapped  out  as  clear  as  the  politics  of  a  province.  The 
shaping  of  a  great  future  he  touched  with  so  easy  and  command 
ing  a  hand,  that  men  gladly  followed  him  away  from  the  idle, 
malicious  tendencies  of  the  hour,  away  even  from  the  iteration 
of  past  successes,  into  the  region  of  hope  and  purpose  and 
imagination  —  which  is  called  creative,  but  which  never  creates, 
only  combines  and  vitalizes. 

The  establishment  of  the  "  solid  South "  had  the  effect  of 
securing  to  the  Democrats,  without  effort,  the  electoral  votes  of 
sixteen  Southern  States,  leaving  all  Democratic  resources  to  be 
concentrated  upon  the  two  or  three  additional  Northern  States 
which  might  be  necessary  to  national  success. 

Lists  of  names  were  constantly  appearing  of  Irishmen  of 
influence  who  had  always  voted  the  Democratic  ticket,  but  had 
now  declared  for  Blame.  Irish  leagues  and  Hibernian  asso 
ciations  east  and  west  came  over  to  him,  Irish-American 
Blaine-Logan  associations  were  formed,  and  publicly  addressed 
him  as  the  "  champion  of  protection  to  the  industries  of  the 
country  and  the  resolute  foe  of  a  policy  which,  if  adopted 
by  our  government,  would  destroy  our  flourishing  manufact 
ures  and  degrade  the  dignity  and  independence  of  American 
labor  to  the  pauper  standard  of  Europe.  .  .  .  We  regard 
you  as  an  advocate  of  the  rights  of  American  citizens  at  home 
and  abroad.  We  watched  your  career  in  public  life,  and  we 
have  seen  it  to  be  guided  by  pure  patriotism  and  honest 
purpose.  We  have  studied  your  record,  and  we  find  it  without 
spot  or  blemish.  As  a  public  man  and  a  private  citizen  you  have 
borne  yourself  among  us  without  just  reproach.  .  .  .  We 
address  you  in  the  ancient  language  of  our  fatherland  because 
we  believe  that  to  you  it  will  be  a  gratifying  incident  of  the 
campaign  to  receive  an  assurance  of  friendship  and  regard  con 
veyed  to  you  in  the  language  of  the  race  from  which  your 


578  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

mother  sprung,  and  which  has  given  to  this  great  republic  many 
of  its  bravest  defenders  and  most  devoted  citizens." 

But  this  threatened  secession  of  the  better  element  induced 
frantic  appeals  to  the  lower  class.  It  was  proclaimed  that 
Mr.  Blaine  had  been  an  apostate,  a  know-nothing,  a  persecutor 
of  Catholics.  He  was  even  included  in  a  rabble  that  had  com 
mitted  an  outrage  upon  Father  Bapst,  in  Ellsworth,  Maine, 
twenty  years  before.  Many  members  of  the  Catholic  church 
contradicted  over  their  own  names  the  absurd  rumor,  but  the 
contradiction  was  no  part  of  Democratic  campaign  literature. 

The  labor  question  was  stirring,  and  though  the  movements 
of  masses  are  often  blind,  a  deep  and  true  instinct  must  be 
recognized  underneath  the  movement.  The  eight-hour  question 
was  in  dispute.  Trades-Unionists  and  Knights  of  Labor  were 
tinted,  if  not  tainted,  with  foreign  politics,  and  where  their 
politics  was  American,  it  was  chiefly  Democratic  ;  but  under  the 
politics  were  human  beings.  A  strike  was  wide-spreading  among 
the  coal-miners  in  Illinois,  another  was  brooding  sullenly  over 
Ohio.  Strife  between  the  Typographical  Union  and  the  Repul>- 
lican  "  New  York  Tribune  "  resisted  all  efforts  at  accommodation. 
Upon  the  crest  of  these  waves  Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler  rode 
Avith  his  wonted  glee  and  with  his  wonted  obliquity,  lurching 
now  towards  one  party,  and  now  towards  the  other,  till  men 
declared  that  he  had  agreed  to  help  Republicans  in  the  East  for 
half  his  campaign  expenses,  and  Democrats  in  the  West  for  the 
other  half.  If  he  meant  to  defeat  Cleveland,  they  asked,  why 
was  he  u  hippodroming  through  the  West  and  smashing  around 
in  Pennsylvania  —  strong  Blaine  sections  ?  "  If  he  meant  to 
defeat  Blaine,  why  was  he  making  away  with  three  hundred 
thousand  Democratic  votes  in  the  Democratic  preserves  of 
Brooklyn  and  New  York,  where  Blaine  would  have  got  only 
one  hundred  thousand? 

After  the  State  election  in  Maine  Mr.  Blaine,  in  response  to 
much  urgency,  made  a  tour  of  six  weeks'  duration.  Confidence 
in  his  wisdom  as  usafe,"  and  in  his  presence  as  irresistible,  had 
become  a  "  cult."  Wherever  he  appeared  the  gatherings  were 
phenomenal.  Special  trains  carried  people  a  night's  journey  to 
hear  him,  and  a  night's  journey  home  again  after  the  hearing 
was  over.  More  than  four  hundred  popular  assemblies  he 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLA1NE.  579 

addressed,  often  connecting  some  local  or  personal  interest  with 
the  national  questions,  thus  giving  individual  application  and 
character  to  eacli  address.  This  tour  was  a  departure  from 
custom,  but  he  said,  "  I  am  not  speaking  for  myself.  No  man 
ever  met  with  a  misfortune  in  being  defeated  for  the  presidency, 
while  men  have  met  great  misfortunes  in  being  elected  to  it. 
.  .  .  .  I  am  pleading  the  cause  of  the  American  people. 
I  am  pleading  the  cause  of  the  American  farmer,  the  Amer 
ican  manufacturer,  the  American  mechanic,  and  the  American 
laborer  against  the  world.  I  am  reproached  by  some  excel 
lent  people  for  appearing  before  these  multitudes  of  my 
countrymen  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  inconsistent  with  the 
dignity  of  the  office  for  which  I  am  named.  I  do  not  feel  it 
to  be  so.  I  know  no  reason  why  I  should  not  face  the  American 
people." 

At  the  Worcester  County  Agricultural  Fair  he  pointed  out 
that,  contrary  to  the  popular  impression,  there  was  not  so 
dense  a  population  in  the  most  crowded  parts  of  Europe  as 
covered  Massachusetts  from  Worcester  to  the  sea,  and  that 
the  county  was  tenth  in  the  Union  in  mechanical  and  manufac 
turing  industries,  fifteenth  in  agricultural  industry  and  product, 
and  among  the  first  in  Avealth  and  contentment. 

To  the  students  of  the  Michigan  University  :  "  During  the 
war  we  used  to  hear  much  about  the  rebel  yell.  It  was  said  to 
imply  great  vigor  and  determination,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  young  men  of  Michigan  University  who  do  me  the  honor  to 
appear  here  to-day  could  have  terrified  the  whole  army  of  Lee. 
.  .  .  I  wish  to  leave  with  these  young  collegians  a  problem  : 
that  is,  to  find  out  why  so  many  college  youths  who  are  Free 
traders  at  twenty  become  Protectionists  at  forty  ?  I  think  the 
answer  will  be  found  in  the  fact  that  at  forty  they  have  taken 
degrees  in  the  university  of  experience,  which,  after  all,  is  much 
wider  than  the  university  of  theory  in  which  our  college  boys 
are  taught.  I  was  myself  taught  when  I  was  in  college  the  doc 
trine  of  free  trade,  but  the  United  States  stands  as  a  perpetual 
and  irrefutable  argument  and  example  of  the  value  of  protection 
to  home  industries  in  a  new  country.  The  responsibilities  of  an 
educated  American  are  higher,  and  deeper,  and  broader  than 
those  of  an  educated  man  in  any  other  land ;  and  in  proportion 


580  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

as  your  opportunities  are  greater  will  you  be  held  to  sterner 
account  in  this  life  and  in  the  life  which  is  to  come." 

The  Southern  question  was  precipitated  into  the  canvass  by 
the  South.  To  the  old  South,  discontented,  sullen,  with  face  set 
to  the  past  and  voice  set  to  discord,  lie  had  only  opposition. 
For  the  new  South,  representing  the  awakened  liberal  and 
national  sentiment,  he  had  only  encouragement.  In  Indiana, 
battleground  between  North  and  South,  he  asked  a  question 
which  was  answered  ten  years  later :  "  The  aim  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  is  to  conjoin  the  electoral  votes  of  New  York  and 
Indiana  with  the  electoral  votes  of  the  sixteen  Southern  States. 
Do  the  citizens  of  those  two  States  fully  comprehend  what  it 
means  to  trust  the  national  credit,  the  national  finances,  the 
national  pensions,  the  Protective  system,  and  all  the  great  in 
terests  which  are  under  the  control  of  the  national  government 
to  the  old  South,  with  its  bitterness,  its  unreconciled  temper,  its 
narrowness  of  vision,  its  hostility  to  all  Northern  interests,  its 
constant  longing  to  revive  an  impossible  past,  its  absolute  inca 
pacity  to  measure  the  sweep  of  the  present  and  the  magnitude 
of  our  future?" 

Attempts  had  been  made  to  organize  an  anti-Blaine  feeling 
among  the  Germans  and  combine  them  against  the  Republicans. 
It  was  quietly  but  emphatically  reported  that  Bismarck  did  not 
want  a  strong  administration  at  Washington,  that  a  vigorous 
foreign  policy,  exercised  by  a  republic  of  unlimited  resources 
and  the  strongest  financial  credit,  was  a  constant  menace  to 
German  absolutism,  and  a  menace  in  particular  to  German  colo 
nial  development  already  fastening  itself  on  South  and  Cen 
tral  America  and  looking  askance  at  Cuba.  German  opposition 
to  sumptuary  legislation  had  been  focussed  upon  the  prohibitory 
laws  of  Maine,  which  they  read  Blaine,  and  the  Know-Nothing 
party  had  been  excavated  for  the  purpose  of  fastening  its  re 
sponsibility  upon  Mr.  Blaine.  German  mass-meeting  delegations 
and  addresses  gave  him  the  opportunity  not  only  to  show  the  folly 
of  such  lines  of  attack,  but  his  familiarity  with  German  history 
and  character  both  here  and  in  the  fatherland.  "My  birth  and 
rearing  in  Pennsylvania,"  he  said  to  a  large  company  gathered 
to  greet  him  in  Chicago,  "made  me  familiar  from  childhood 
with  the  German  character,  with  its  steadiness,  its  industry,  its 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  581 

fidelity,  its  integrity,  its  truth  in  friendship,  its  loyalty  to  gov 
ernment.  Pennsylvania  owes  much  to  her  German  population, 
to  the  Muhlenbergs,  the  Heisters,  the  Wolfs,  the  Snyders,  the 
Markles,  the  Shunks,  who  have  illustrated  her  annals,  and  with 
whom  I  am  connected  by  ties  of  good-will,  of  kindly  associa 
tions  inherited  through  five  generations  of  family  friendships 
that  are  warm  and  cordial  to-day.  " 

In  West  Virginia  he  recalled  his  boyhood  in  the  Monongahela 
Valley  before  he  reminded  his  audience  that  while  they  had 
been  a  slave-holding  State,  they  never  had  a  bank-bill  circulat 
ing  in  West  Virginia  that  would  pass  current  five  hundred  miles 
from  home.  "  You  have  not  to-day  a  single  piece  of  paper 
money  circulating  in  West  Virginia  that  is  not  good  all  around 
the  globe."  Standing  in  the  van  of  the  new  South  he  admon 
ished  them  to  break  the  seemingly  impregnable  barrier  of  the 
solid  South, — "Solid  on  a  prejudice  ;  solid  on  a  tradition;  solid 
upon  doctrines  that  separate  the  different  portions  of  the  Union, 
—  take  your  part  in  the  solution  of  the  industrial  and  financial 
problems  of  the  time,  join  in  a  great  national  movement  which 
shall  in  fact  and  in  feeling,  as  well  as  in  form,  make  us  a  people 
with  one  union,  one  constitution,  one  destiny." 

Mrs.  Ewing  relates  a  characteristic  anecdote  of  his  visit  at 
Lancaster,  Ohio.  At  noon  of  the  second  day,  returning  with 
him  from  a  drive  to  Mr.  Stanbury's  place,  she  saw  a  carriage 
containing  three  men  coming  towards  them.  "  I  suspect,"  said 
she,  "  that  carriage  is  coming  for  you,  Mr.  Elaine."  "  Yes,"  said 
he,  "  but  that  is  not  the  point.  The  point  is  that  there  is  a  man 
on  that  front  seat  whom  I  have  not  seen  for  twenty-seven  years, 
and  I  have  got  just  two  minutes  and  a  half  to  remember  his 
name  in."  Not  another  word  was  said  till  the  carriages  met, 
when  Mrs.  E wing's  anxiety  came  to  an  end  by  his  jumping  from 
the  carriage  with  hand  extended,  and  a  welcome  beginning  with 
the  remembered  name — a  spirit  called  from  the  vasty  deep. 

In  Lancaster,  political  questions  naturally  gave  way  to  recol 
lections.  "  In  1841  I  was  a  schoolboy  in  this  town,  attend 
ing  the  school  of  Mr.  William  Lyons.  ...  He  taught 
the  youth  of  this  vicinity  with  great  success,  with  thorough 
ness,  and  with  refinement.  I  know  not  whether  he  be  living, 
but  if  he  is,  I  beg  to  make  my  acknowledgments  to  him, 


582  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    HLAINE. 

if  these  words  may  reach  him,  for  his  efficiency  and  excellence 
as  an  instructor.  As  I  look  upon  your  faces  I  am  carried  back 
to  those  days,  to  Lancaster  as  it  then  was.  In  that  row  of 
dwellings  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  in  one  of  which  I 
then  lived  and  am  now  a  guest,  resided  at  that  time  the  three 
leading  lawyers  of  Ohio,  —  Thomas  Ewing,  Henry  Stanbury,  and 
Hocking  Hunter." 

We  have  already  had  General  Sherman's  impression  of  "  Jim 
Elaine  and  Tom  Ewing,"  the  two  "  bright  and  handsome 
thorough-bred  colts,"  —  though  General  Sherman  adds  that 
being  himself  a  full-fledged  graduate  of  the  National  Military 
Academy,  and  a  commissioned  officer  in  the  Third  United  States 
Artillery,  with  a  salary  of  sixty-live  dollars  a  month,  all  in  gold, 
he  could  hardly  stoop  to  notice  these  lads. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  that  to  one  of  them  the  great 
general  was  then  only  "  a  tall  and  very  slender  young  man, 
straight  as  an  arrow,  with  a  sharp  face  and  a  full  suit  of  red 
hair,  home  from  West  Point,"  while  his  brother,  the  Senator, 
was  but  "  another  youth  of  this  town  —  slender,  tall,  stately, 
who  had  just  left  school,  when  I  came  here  from  my  home 
across  the  Pennsylvania  line,  and  who  had  begun  as  a  civil 
engineer  on  the  Muskingum-river  improvements." 

On  Mr.  Blame's  return  to  New  York  he  found  a  dinner 
arranged  for  him  at  Delmonico's,  which  he  regretted  as  an  unwise 
political  measure,  but  which  furnished  him  the  occasion  for  a 
wise,  strong  word,  thanking  the  u  merchants,  professional  men, — 
leaders  in  the  great  and  complex  society  of  New  York,  —  for 
receiving  me  as  the  representative  for  the  time  of  the  principles 
which  you  and  I  hold  in  common  touching  those  great  interests 
which  underlie,  as  we  believe,  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,"  and 
reminding  them  that  "  New  York  is  the  largest  manufacturing 
city  in  the  world,  with  perhaps  a  single  exception  ;  that,  of  the 
$6,000,000,000  of  manufactures  annually  produced  in  the  United 
States,  this  Empire  State  furnishes  one-fifth  — 11,200,000,000  ; 
of  which  this  Empire  City  produces  1500,000,000 ;  "  that  impor 
tant  as  the  foreign  trade  is,  representing  the  enormous  sum  of 
11,500,000,000  annually,  "it  sinks  into  insignificance  and  is 
dwarfed  out  of  sight  when  we  think  of  those  vast  domestic 
exchanges  of  which  New  York  is  the  admitted  centre,  and  which 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  583 

annually  exceed  120,000,000,000;"  reminding  them  that  ti 
change  of  government  meant  a  change  of  policies,  which  meant 
disaster  to  this  great  traffic,  and  that  the  South  American  policy 
which  had  been  so  stigmatized  as  war,  was  peace.  "This 
nation  to-day  is  in  profound  peace  with  the  world.  But,  in  my 
judgment,  it  has  before  it  a  great  duty  which  will  not  only 
make  that  profound  peace  permanent,  but  set  such  an  example 
as  will  absolutely  abolish  war  on  this  continent,  and,  by  a  great 
example  and  a  lofty  moral  precedent,  ultimately  abolish  it  in 
other  continents." 

In  Boston,  on  the  3d  of  November  he  spoke  words  better 
understood  to-day  than  when  they  Avere  uttered.  "  I  close  this 
canvass,  Mr.  Chairman,  with  a  profound  conviction  that,  intelli 
gent  as  the  voters  of  the  United  States  are,  accustomed  as  they 
are  to  give  heed  to  the  weight  and  tendency  of  the  questions  to  be 
decided,  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  not  yet  measured, 
nor,  as  I  believe,  yet  fully  comprehended,  what  it  would  mean  to  ' 
transfer  this  government  to  the  absolute  control  of  the  Southern 
States  of  this  Union  ...  I  here  now  repeat,  that  to  transfer 
the  political  power  of  the  country  to  the  Democratic  party  at  this 
time  would  by  no  means  be  one  of  those  ordinary  transfers  of 
the  government  from  one  party  to  another  which  the  gray- 
haired  men  within  my  view  witnessed  more  than  once  in  the 
last  generation.  It  would  not  be  merely  an  instance  of  one 
party  going  out  and  another  coming  in.  It  would  be  rather 
a  reversal  and  overturning  of  the  industrial  systems  of  the 
government,  of  the  financial  systems  of  the  government ;  in 
short,  a  transfer  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  country,  of  far  greater 
consequence  than  the  ordinary  changes  of  dynasty  which  occur 
in  European  governments  of  a  different  form  from  ours." 

Mr.  Blaine  had  been  everywhere  received  with  an  enthusiasm 
inspiring  to  his  own  party,  alarming  to  the  other,  which  evi 
dently  feared  that  a  Republican  victory  under  Blaine  would 
make  the  country  Republican  for  an  indefinite  period.  Ohio, 
with  a  close  contest,  gave  the  October  election  to  the  Repub 
licans  and  made  them  confident  of  carrying  every  Northern 
State  in  November.  After  this  victory,  which  was  largely  attrib 
uted  to  Mr.  Blame's  "  magnificent  audacity  and  genius,"  it  was 
estimated  that  from  fifty  to  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  total  Irish 


584  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

vote  iii  New  York  would  go  to  Mr.  Blame,  and  that  the 
Irish  bolters  from  the  Democratic  party  were  two  to  one  of 
the  bolters  from  the  Republican  party.  This  intensified  the 
struggle. 

The  Irish  defection  to  Blaine  was  based   on  the   increasing 
understanding  of  his  foreign  policy  and  its  interlacement  with 
Protection,  and  it  carried  a  demand  that  the  American  flag  should 
fly  from  State  Department  as  well  as  White  House.     "  Even  in 
New  Jersey"  exclaimed  an  astonished  observer,  "  the  feeling  in 
Mr.  Elaine's  favor  on  account  of  this  policy  finds  daily  fuller 
and  fuller  expression."     It  seemed  Mr.  Blame's  fate  to  be  an 
entering  wedge,  dividing  all  parties.      A  prominent  Kentucky 
Democrat  was  urged  to  go  over  and  speak  against  him  in  Indi 
ana  and  Illinois.     He  replied,  "  I  will  attack  Blame's  politics, 
but  if  you  want  me  to  attack  him  I  won't  do  it.     Slanders  upon 
him  ?     No ;  I  will,  on  the  contrary,  take  every  occasion  to  deny 
•them.     I  have  sat  in  the  House  with  him  for  years,  and  a  loftiei 
man, never  lived."      He  was  not  sent.      Free-trade  Republicans, 
calling  themselves  Independents,  more  bitter  and  unscrupulous 
than  original  partisans,  found  no  arrow  too  envenomed  to  be 
used  against  the  man  whom  they  could  not  use,  and  they  poured 
out,  without  cessation,  a  stream  of  unmixed  scandal  as  foun 
dation  for  their  sole  argument  that  a  man  about  whom  there 
was  so  much  scandal  should  not  be  President ;  while  other  In 
dependents  protested  that  this  perverse  and  unworthy  misrepre 
sentation  .did  more  to  "vulgarize  and  to  demoralize  the  public 
than  all  the  bossism  or  machinery  with  which  we  have  ever  yet 
had  to  contend ; "  that  the  Independents  were  themselves  the 
"  authors  of  nine-tenths  of  all  the  scandals,  and  the  only  believ 
ers  of  the  other  tenth  ;  "  that  the  composition,  proceedings,  and 
general  tone  of  the  convention  which  nominated  Mr.  Blaine  and 
of  the  party  which  it  represented  was  "  better,  purer,  more  amen 
able  to  conscience,  soberer,  and  actuated  by  higher  purposes  " 
than  for  a  dozen  years  preceding  ;  and  that  after  years  of  trouble 
with  the  machine,  "  a  statesman  of  conspicuous  ability  and  the 
highest  general  character,  who  had  been  twice  before  defeated 
by  the  active  opposition  of  the  national   administration,   with 
the  use  of  its  patronage  against  him,  while  he  had  no  machine, 
no  patronage,  both  being  persistently  against  him,  had  at  last 


BIOGKAPRY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  585 

been  enthusiastically  nominated  by  our  best  party  in  the  most 
untrammelled  convention  in  our  recent  history." 

The  carnival  of  slander  became  so  reckless  a  riot,  that  Cath 
olic  and  Protestant  churches  were  equally  riven.  Catholic 
priests  took  occasion  to  say  openly  that  those  of  the  Catholic 
faith  who  made  Mr.  Blaine  out  a  Know-Nothing,  an  apostate, 
and  a  persecutor  of  Catholics  were  the  office-seekers  of  New 
England.  Father  Murphy,  of  Augusta,  proclaimed  that  the 
"  pleasantest  relations  had  existed  between  himself  and  his 
predecessors  and  Mr.  Blaine  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century  ; 
that  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  was  proved  by  the  fact 
that  more  than  half  of  our  people  who  never  before  voted  the 
Republican  ticket  voted  for  his  interests  in  the  late  State  elec 
tion  ;  that  more  than  half  our  priests  in  Maine  would  be  glad  of 
his  election  with  no  object  whatever  but  admiration  of  his  char 
acter  as  being  facile  princeps,  the  best  President,  and  that 
many  of  the  most  trusted  Catholics  in  the  country  think  well 
of  him,  not  because  they  expect  any  favor  of  him,  but  among 
other  reasons  because  they  think  he  will  not  do  them  injustice 
in  an  underhand  way."  Mr.  Blaine  was,  in  ecclesiastical  lan 
guage,  a  member  of  an  Orthodox  church,  in  good  and  regular 
standing,  walking  in  all  the  ordinances  of  the  Lord  blameless  ; 
but  the  three  chief  organs  of  the  Orthodox  churches  in  the 
nation  not  only  opposed  him,  but  opposed  him  with  personal 
slander  so  vile  as  utterly  to  discredit  the  standards  of  Orthodox 
Congregationalism,  —  and  the  clergy  could  not  hold  their  peace. 
Dr.  Webb  stood  up  in  Boston,  whence  sprang  the  cabal  which 
was  characterized  by  the  "  Boston  Advertiser  "  as  "  the  most 
dastardly  group  of  political  assassins  who  ever  disgraced  this  or 
any  other  country,"  and  pronounced  him  "  one  of  the  noblest 
characters  I  have  ever  known.  The  manoeuvres,  bargains, 
crimes,  and  plots  which  have  been  attributed  to  him  within  the 
last  few  months  might  have  been  attributed  to  General  Gordon, 
in  Khartoum,  with  as  much  truth."  Dr.  Ecob,  who  had  gone  from 
Augusta  to  the  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Albany,  recoiled 
as  violently  from  the  slanders,  and  affirmed  in  the  "  Albany 
Evening  Journal "  that  he  had  been  ten  years  "  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Augusta,  of  which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blaine  are  members. 
The  satisfaction  I  take  in  his  nomination  is  based  upon  such  a 


586  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

knowledge  of  him  as  only  a  pastor  can  gain.  ...  I  have  been 
very  near  to  Mr.  Elaine,  not  only  in  the  most  trying  political 
crises,  but  in  the  sharper  trial  of  great  grief  in  the  household, 
and  have  never  yet  detected  a  false  note.  .  .  .  His  word 
has  always  had  back  of  it  a  clear  purpose,  and  that  purpose  has 
always  been  worthy  of  the  highest  manhood.  In  the  church  he 
is  honored  and  beloved.  His  influence,  his  wise  counsels,  his 
purse  are  freely  devoted  to  the  interest  of  the  noble  Old  South 
Church,  of  Augusta.  In  his  house  he  was  always  the  soul  of 
geniality  and  good  heart.  It  was  always  summer  in  that  house 
whatever  the  Maine  winter  might  be  without.  And  not  only 
his  4  rich  neighbors  and  kinsmen '  welcomed  him  home,  but 
a  long  line  of  the  poor  hailed  the  return  of  that  family  as 
a  special  Providence.  .  .  .  Those  who  have  known  him 
best  are  not  surprised  that  his  friends  all  over  the  country 
have  been  determined  that  he  should  secure  the  highest 
honor  within  their  gift.  It  is  because  they  believe  in  him. 
I,  for  one,  shall  put  my  conscience  into  my  vote  next 
November." 

His  own  city  of  Augusta,  shocked,  but  self-possessed,  con 
firmed  the  testimony  of  her  clergy.  "  We  have  known  him  in 
every  relation  of  life,  closely  and  intimately,  and  in  every  rela 
tion  of  life,  we  say  in  the  presence  of  his  daily  associates,  Mr. 
Elaine  has  had  a  spotless  career.  ...  In  personal  morals, 
in  habits  of  temperance  and  uprightness,  in  steadfast  devotion 
to  all  ordinary  as  well  as  extraordinary  duties,  Mr.  Elaine  has 
been  a  pattern  to  our  young  men.  His  word  is  as  good  as 
his  bond.  This  whole  community  will  attest  his  absolute  in 
tegrity  and  liberality.  The  necessities  of  a  political  campaign 
may  tempt  mud-throwers  to  assail  Mr.  Elaine's  character ;  but 
against  all  such  efforts  we  present  a  man  who  has  the  universal 
respect,  confidence,  and  attachment  of  the  neighbors  who  have 
known  him  throughout  his  whole  career,  and  who  know  that  he 
has  been  a  centre  of  good  and  not  of  evil  all  the  days  of  his 
life."  His  old  friend,  Governor  Dingley,  declared  the  personal 
defamation  a  burlesque  to  "those  who  intimately  knew  Mr. 
Elaine,  the  perfect  purity  and  integrity  of  his  private  life,  the 
nobility  of  his  aims  and  purposes,  the  magnanimity  and  kindli 
ness  of  his  nature." 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  587 

Republicans  who  believed  in  the  principle  of  temperance 
advocated  the  candidate,  whose  life,  known  and  read  of  all  men, 
was  a  model  of  temperance,  and  all  whose  influence  had  been  on 
the  side  of  temperance ;  but  those  who  transformed  temperance 
into  a  prohibition  party  platform  chose  a  candidate  of  their 
own  and  threw  all  their  influence  for  the  Democratic  candidate. 
Women  were  so  interested  that  they  held  mass  meetings  for  the 
election  of  Mr.  Elaine.  But  it  is  a  curious  fact  in  political 
aeration  that  the  women  who  made  a  party  platform  of  woman 
hood  went  against  the  man  who  from  youth  upward  had  sancti 
fied  arid  guarded  home  with  his  "perfect  purity,"  measured 
by  womanhood's  standard. 

For  all  this  opposition  there  was  a  common  reason.  Mr. 
Blaine  never  evaded  a  real  issue,  but  he  could  never  be  forced 
into  a  false  issue.  He  believed  in  temperance  as  a  principle  and 
a  practice,  but  not  as  a  party,  and  could  not  be  induced  to  flaunt 
the  party  banners.  Son  of  a  Catholic  mother,  he  was  forbidden 
not  only  by  largeness  of  mind,  but  by  tenderness  of  heart,  from 
all  prejudice  against  Catholics.  "  I  would  not  for  a  thousand 
presidencies,"  he  had  said  in  1876,  "  speak  a  disrespectful  word 
of  my  mother's  religion ;  "  but  he  equally  abhorred  all  political 
appeal  to  religious  prejudice,  "  the  introduction  of  anything  that 
looks  like  a  religious  test  or  qualification  for  office  in  a  republic 
where  perfect  freedom  of  conscience  is  the  birthright  of  every 
citizen." 

Against  this  opposition  —  large  and  small —  his  support 
went  on  gathering  volume  and  vigor,  and  promised  to  over 
bear  every  combination  and  segregation.  A  weak  word  proved 
the  fatal  flaw  through  which  all  the  carefully  accumulated  and 
well-stored  energy  was  wasted.  Moved  by  the  false  witness 
against  Mr.  Blaine,  a  company  of  more  than  a  thousand  clergy 
men,  representing  all  Protestant  denominations,  Roman  Catho 
lics,  Jews,  and  Quakers,  gathered  at  his  hotel  in  New  York  on 
the  29th  of  October  to  testify  their  respect  and  sympathy. 
He  received  them  on  the  stairs,  they  standing  partly  on  the 
stairs,  partly  in  the  corridor  below.  Among  the  many  speakers 
one  made  the  baseless  classification,  "  Rum,  Romanism,  and 
Rebellion."  The  obnoxious  phrase  was  instantly  caught  up  by 
the  opposition,  transferred  from  the  unimportant  clergyman  to 


588  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  all-imporfcant  candidate,  and  as  the  utterance  of  Mr.  Blaine, 
was  posted  on  the  streets  and  distributed  from  churches.  In 
New  Haven,  on  November  first,  lie  publicly  corrected  the  false 
report  and  demonstrated  its  absurdity;  but  all  in  vain.  The 
ignorant  Irish  took  the  alarm.  There  was  no  time  for  their 
leaders  to  overtake  them  with  the  truth,  and  they  rushed  back 
like  frightened  sheep  to  the  Democratic-British  fold  whence 
they  had  for  a  moment  escaped.  The  Irish  stampede  made  a 
closer  vote  in  New  York  State  than  either  party  had  apparently 
anticipated.  The  Democracy,  better  acquainted  with  the  politi 
cal  Irishman  than  the  Republicans,  proclaimed  at  the  outset  a 
State  plurality  of  50,000  for  Cleveland.  The  next  day  the 
figures  came  down  to  17,000,  then  to  12,000,  the  next  day  still 
to  5,000,  and  at  length  dwindled  to  456.  To  facile  manipu 
lators,  these  manageable  figures  offered  a  terrible  tempta 
tion.  The  election  was  on  the  fourth.  It  was  nearly  two  weeks 
before  a  decision  was  announced.  Republicans  more  than  hinted 
that  the  Democrats  were  waiting  to  see  how  large  the  fraud  was 
required  to  be.  General  Butler  openly  proclaimed,  and  pro 
claimed  as  long  as  he  lived,  that  the  Brooklyn  and  New  York 
vote  for  himself  was  counted  to  Cleveland.  Mr.  Vrooman,  of 
the  Republican  State  Committee,  protested  that  they  had  "  direct, 
positive,  and  official  information  of  frauds  being  perpetrated  and 
votes  illegally  counted  in  New  York,  St.  Lawrence,  Essex, 
Niagara,  and  several  other  counties  in  this  State.  Men  were 
allowed  to  vote  who  had  not  registered,  and  votes  cast  for  Butler 
and  St.  John  were  counted  for  Cleveland."  "  In  one  election 
district  in  this  city  we  have  twenty  voters  who  are  prepared  to 
make  affidavit  that  they  cast  their  ballots  for  Butler.  In  this 
district  not  a  single  vote  was  recorded  in  his  favor.  They  went 
to  the  credit  of  Cleveland."  The  Cleveland  and  Butler  ballots 
were  the  same  in  shape  and  general  appearance.  It  was  not 
until  ten  years  later  that  John  Y.  McKane  was  imprisoned  for 
dumping  into  the  ballot-box  each  year  at  Gravesend  whatever 
fictitious  ballots  the  exigencies  of  his  party  required.  Mr. 
Blaine  on  the  face  of  the  returns,  was  beaten  in  New  York 
by  1,040  votes.  A  change  of  600  votes,  even  counting  the 
fraudulent  as  genuine,  would  have  given  him  to  the  presidency. 
A  change  of  5,000  in  the  national  vote  would  have  given 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  589 

every  Northern  State  to  the  Republicans.  As  it  was,  leaving 
out  the  protested  vote  of  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn, 
Mr.  Elaine  had  a  majority  of  more  than  400,000,  nearly  500,000, 
in  the  popular  vote  of  the  North.  The  vote  of  the  South  was 
not  free  and  was  therefore  never  reckoned  on  by  the  Republican 
party.  Fraud  is  now  affirmed  and  accepted,  which  was  then 
only  suspected  and  reported.  A  high  Democratic  authority  in 
New  York  remarked  after  all  was  over,  that  "  Grover  Cleve 
land  came  near  being  elected  President."  The  "Commercial 
Advertiser  "  of  January  29,  1893,  said  that  reliable  Democrats 
asserted  that  they  could  name  the  very  districts  and  the  very 
polling-booths  in  which  enough  votes  were  taken  from  Mr. 
Blaine  and  given  to  his  opponent  to  defeat  the  one  and  give 
the  other  the  majority.  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  at  the  time  be 
lieve  that  fraud  could  be  unquestionably  proved.  The  inspec 
tors  were  permitted  by  law  to  destroy  the  ballots  as  soon  as 
the  returns  had  been  made.  He  believed  that  a  contest  would 
be  hazardous,  and  dangerous  to  the  public  peace ;  and  he  coun 
selled  immediate  acceptance  of  the  declared  result. 

At  Boston  on  the  evening  before  election  he  had  said,  "  I  go 
to  my  home  to-morrow,  not  without  a  strong  confidence  in  the 
result  of  the  ballot,  but  with  a  heart  that  shall  not  in  the  least 
degree  be  troubled  by  any  verdict  that  may  be  returned  by 
the  American  people."  During  the  long  waiting  he  was  at 
home  in  Augusta,  and  while  men's  foreboding  grew  heavier 
of  an  event  which  had  seemed  incredible,  old  friends  came 
to  his  house,  some  eager  and  restless,  some  simply  lingering 
in  speechless  sorrow  unable  to  stay  away.  Men  drove  in 
from  the  country  and  loitered  on  the  sidewalk  till  they  caught 
a  glimpse  of  him  at  door  or  window,  and  then  drove  home 
again  content  that  they  had  seen  his  face  and  that  he  was  yet 
alive.  To  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Phelps  ending  with,  "  Are 
you  fairly  well  ?  "  he  answered,  "  Never  better  in  my  life.  Our 
special  misfortune  was  the  loss  of  both  New  Jersey  and  Con 
necticut,  which  now  seems  at  least  possible,  perhaps  prol)- 
able.  I  class  them  both  as  easily  preventable  accidents.  I  was 
not  sustained  in  the  canvass  by  many  who  had  personally  a  far 
greater  stake  than  I.  They  are  likely  to  have  leisure  for  re 
flection  and  for  a  cool  calculation  of  the  small  sums  they  were 


590  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

asked  in  vain  to  contribute.  If  the  country  is  lost  it  will  be 
some  satisfaction  to  realize  that  the  class  which  permitted  it  to 
be  sacrificed  will  feel  the  result  most  keenly.  But  I  fear  you 
may  think  me  ill-natured  if  I  keep  on.  I  really  am  not,  and 
feel  as  placid  as  a  summer's  day.  Personally,  I  care  less  than 
my  nearest  friends  would  believe,  but  for  the  cause  and  for 
many  friends,  I  profoundly  deplore  the  result." 

On  the  night  of  the  18th  of  November,  after  the  decision  had 
been  announced  and  accepted,  a  great  multitude  assembled  be 
fore  his  house,  sombre  and  silent.     When  Mr.  Blame  appeared 
at  the  door  the  whole  scene   changed.     Clear,  cheerful,  strong, 
as  if  it  were  the  voice  of  victory,  his   voice  rang  out  on  the 
night  air.    "  Friends  and  neighbors,  the  national  contest  is  over, 
and  by  the  narrowest  of  margins  we  have  lost."     His  tall  figure 
stood  erect  in   full  relief  under  the  lights,  as  he  thanked  them 
for  their  superb  support.     "  No  other  expression  of  public  con 
fidence  and  esteem  could  equal  that  of  the  people  among  whom 
I  have  lived  for  thirty  years,  and  to  whom  I  am  attached  by  all 
the  ties  that  ennoble  human  nature,  and  give  joy  and  dignity  to 
life.  After  Maine,  indeed  with  Maine,  my  first  thought  is  always 
of  Pennsylvania.     How  can  I  fittingly  express  my  thanks   for 
that  unparalleled  majority,  of  more  than  eighty  thousand  votes  ? 
—  a  popular  indorsement   which  has  deeply  touched  my  heart 
and  which  has,  if  possible,  increased  my  affection  for  the  grand 
old  Commonwealth,  —  an  affection  which  I  inherited  from  my 
ancestry,  and  which  I  shall  transmit  to  my  children."     All  who 
had  marshalled  themselves  around  him  he   remembered.     With 
that  definiteness  which  made  his  recognition  valuable,  he  traced 
his  support  to  its  sources.     "  To  the   true  and  zealous  friends 
in  New  England,  who  were   nobly  steadfast  to   the  Republican 
party  and  its  candidates,  and  to  the  eminent  scholars  and  divines, 
who,  stepping  aside  from    their  ordinary  vocations,   made  my 
cause  their  cause,  and  to  loyalty  to  principle  added  the  special 
compliment  of  standing  as  my  personal  representatives  in  the 
struggle ;     .     .     .      to    that     magnificent    cordon    of    States 
that   stretches   from   the    foot-hills  of  the    Alleghanies   to  the 
Golden  Gate  of  the  Pacific,  —  beginning  with  Ohio  and  ending 
with  California,  —  where  the  Republican  banner  was  borne  so 
loftily  that  but  a  single  State  failed  to  join  in  the  wide  acclaim 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  591 

of  triumph ;  to  the  Republicans  of  the  Empire  State  who 
fought  against  foes  from  within  and  foes  from  without,  and  who 
waged  so  strong  a  battle  that  a  change  of  one  vote  in  every  two 
thousand  would  have  given  us  the  victory  in  the  nation ;  .  .  . 
to  that  great  body  of  workingmen  —  both  native  and  foreign 
born  —  who  gave  me  their  earnest  support,  breaking  from  old 
personal  and  party  ties,  and  finding  in  the  principles  which  I 
represented  in  the  canvass  the  safeguard  and  protection  of  their 
fireside  interests,"  he  rendered  special  gratitude  ;  but  with  all 
grateful  acknowledgment  for  loyalty  to  party  and  to  himself,  he 
repeated  and  accentuated  the  warning,  which  he  had  many  times 
before  given  from  other  points,  against  the  Southern  force  and 
fraud  which  had  crushed  out  the  political  power  of  more  than 
six  million  citizens  and  transferred  it  by  violence  to  the  white 
population  of  the  North,  thus  enabling  the  Southern  white  to 
exert  double  the  political  power  of  the  Northern  white,  —  the 
Southern  Confederate  soldier  to  have  twice  the  political  power 
of  the  Northern  Union  soldier.  These  questions  he  discussed 
with  slight  reference  to  the  present  personal  defeat,  but  chiefly 
as  bearing  on  the  national  future,  and  closed  with  cordial  good 
wishes  to  the  successful  candidate,  especially  "  that  his  admin 
istration  may  overcome  the  embarrassment  which  the  peculiar 
source  of  its  power  imposes  upon  it  from  the  hour  of  its  birth." 
The  effect  was  quick  and  powerful.  Men  went  away  not 
happy,  but  cheered  and  cheerful,  and  the  party  throughout  the 
country  took  up  his  words  as  striking  the  key-note  of  future 
politics,  marking  a  line  of  battle  for  the  next  campaign.  From 
all  quarters  his  opinion  and  advice  were  sought  regarding  past 
and  future,  and  he  gave  clear,  comprehensive,  unimpassioned 
analyses  of  the  chief  causes  of  defeat,  and  the  promising  paths 
to  victory,  betraying  no  trace  of  despondency,  no  sign  of  bitter 
ness,  showing  only  the  elasticity  of  his  temperament,  the  buoy 
ancy  of  his  energy,  his  steadiness,  and  his  strength.  The  wails 
of  disappointment  were  instantly  lost  in  the  war-cry  for  1888. 
Above  laments  over  "  the  crass  stupidity,  the  malignant  credulity 
of  the  campaign  "  came  the  call  for  "  the  coming  man."  Even 
the  chagrined  Irish  leaders  from  New  York  and  Brooklyn  wrote 
while  yet  their  hearts  were  sore,  "  You  will  be  renominated  and 
elected.  We  are  all  for  you,  and  with  a  good  committee  will 


592  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

increase  your  Irish  vote  to  ninety  per  cent."  "  The  Irish-Ameri 
cans  who  voted  for  Blaine  and  Logan  are  being  reorganized  in 
Protection  Unions.  We  all  want  you  in  1888."  "  I  come  as 
victor,  not  as  vanquished  !  The  solid  Irish-American  vote  is 
shattered  and  can  never  again  be  concentrated  by  the  Demo 
cratic  party  !  I  don't  know  one  man,  nor  have  I  even  heard 
of  one,  who  regrets  his  support  of  }^ou  in  the  recent  campaign." 

It  may  be  interesting  now  to  read  that  in  Honolulu  the  elec 
tion  was  held  with  due  formality  on  November  4th,  only  those 
being  allowed  to  vote  who  would  have  voted  had  they  been  in 
the  United  States.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  announce 
the  vote  to  Mr.  Blaine,  and  reported  that  "the  excitement 
throughout  the  day  was  intense ;  Mr.  Elaine's  majority  was 
309  ; "  adding  the  hope  and  prediction  that  he  "  would  bring 
these  lands  in  closer  relationships  with  God's  country." 

If  the  party  was  heartened  by  Mr.  Elaine's  sustained  and  com 
manding  attitude,  he  was  equally  heartened  by  the  steadfast  and 
enthusiastic  allegiance  of  the  party  in  defeat.  Never  was  a 
nobler  brotherhood  in  American  politics  than  the  splendid  band 
of  strong  men,  from  every  State  in  the  Union,  who  stood  by  him 
with  unchanging  friendship,  with  unselfish  devotion,  from  begin 
ning  to  end,  —  the  beginning  stretching  along  a  tract  of  twenty 
years,  the  end  always  the  same,  —  one  premature  sad  day.  The 
political  ambition  and  purpose  of  these  men  centred  in  making 
Mr.  Elaine  President  of  the  United  States,  and  each  national 
convention  was  to  them  but  a  stage  in  his  triumphal  march. 
Eacli  defeat  brought  to  them  the  stimulus  of  victory,  because 
each  struggle  left  a  wider  circle  under  the  charm  of  personality 
which  was  not  limited  to  personal  presence,  but  won  the  devoted 
attachment  of  thousands  who  had  never  seen  Mr.  Elaine's  face 
or  heard  his  voice ;  because  each  contest  made  ever  more  con 
spicuous  and  more  controlling  the  fitness  of  their  leader  to  lead, 
not  only  along  the  honest  and  homely  if  sometimes  humdrum 
paths  of  administration,  but  into  the  wider  ways  of  national 
expansion  and  elevation. 

The  defeat  of  the  Republican  candidate  did  not  transfer  the 
American  government  to  Democratic  control,  Congress  still 
holding  a  Republican  check  upon  the  Executive.  It  was  ten 
years  before  the  Democrac}7-  obtained  supreme  command.  The 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  593 

two  years  of  exclusively  Democratic  administration  from  1893 
to  1895  are  the  best  comment  upon  Mr.  Elaine's  prescience  and 
prophecy  in  1884. 

The  campaign  over,  the  election  decided,  Mr.  Elaine  went 
hack  immediately  into  his  library  and  wrote  the  second  volume 
of  his  u  Twenty  Years  of  Congress."  Treating  of  men  and 
topics  nearer  our  own  time,  it  is,  perhaps,  of  more  fresh  and 
varied  interest  than  the  first  volume.  Its  calm,  almost  severely 
philosophic  tone,  betrays  no  trace  of  the  storm,  the  stress,  the 
partisanship  of  the  period  which  it  delineates,  or  of  that  in 
which  it  was  written.  No  sign  of  interruption  or  cynicism 
appears,  while  vast  stores  of  memory  and  extraordinary  powers 
of  arrangement  are  brought  out  most  fully  in  the  swift  and 
condensed  yet  clear  treatment  of  the  subject. 

After  the  completion  of  this  work,  and  in  response  to  an 
emphatic  demand,  he  gathered  into  a  volume,  "  Political  Dis 
cussions,"  papers  and  speeches,  in  which  he  had  treated  themes 
of  permanent  interest,  or  important  unsettled  questions.  The 
national  issues  of  the  war,  the  great  measures  of  reconstruc 
tion,  all  the  forms  in  which  the  money  question  presents  itself, 
gold,  silver,  currency,  national  debt  and  national  honor,  national 
tariff  and  interstate  free-trade,  the  South  American  policy  in 
all  its  phases  of  reciprocity,  arbitration,  commercial  marine, 
and  ship-building,  the  Peace  Congress  and  the  revocation 
of  the  Peace  Congress,  the  English  policy  as  shown  in  the 
Halifax  award,  the  Clayton-Eulwer  treaty,  and  the  Irish  ques 
tions  ;  the  Hawaiian  policy,  the  Chinese  policy,  the  presentation 
of  Webster  in  his  true  and  noble  attitude  as  an  upholder  of 
the  national  sovereignty  against  the  encroachment  of  State 
sovereignty,  debates  during  and  after  the  electoral  canvass, 
and  other  important  papers,  are  arranged  with  regard  to  their 
importance  to  the  future  interests  and  influence  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1885  the  Independents  of  New  York,  who  had  evidenced 
as  plainly  as  their  modesty  permitted  that  it  was  they  who  de 
feated  Mr.  Elaine,  made  a  bold  stroke  for  proof  and  power ; 
made,  in  short,  a  vigorous  effort 4k  to  drive  Elaine  out  of  politics." 
A  little  intimidated  by  the  magnitude  of  Independent  claims, 
the  Republicans  sought  to  win  them  to  the  party  ranks,  and 


594  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

nominated  for  Governor  a  man  of  unexceptionable  character, 
who  had  voted  against  Mr.  Elaine  in  the  convention  of  1884. 
It  was  forthwith  proclaimed  that  New  York  had  gone  over  to 
"  the  Mugwumps."  Mr.  Elaine's  friends  desired  that  he  be 
invited  into  the  canvass.  Especially  the  Irish  leaders  asked  it, 
on  the  solid  ground  that  he  was  the  one  man  who  could  accom 
plish  the  most  important  object  of  dividing  the  Irish  vote.  But 
the  Independents  would  have  none  of  Mr.  Elaine.  That  would 
spoil  their  theorem.  Mr.  Elaine,  they  argued,  needed  only  a 
change  of  600  votes  to  win.  The  Mugwumps  would  give  10,000 
votes,  and  victory  was  assured.  They  Avould  not  even  allow 
their  candidate  to  publish  Mr.  Elaine's  congratulatory  telegram 
on  the  nomination,  or  his  letter  immediately  following,  offer 
ing  assistance.  The  result  was,  that  the  Irish  developed 
themselves  as  the  real  "  Independents."  The  whole  "  Mug 
wump  "  party  and  all  their  contingent  —  religious,  political, 
pictorial,  and  senatorial,  in  violent  activity  —  could  not  bring 
their  candidate's  vote  in  New  York  city  within  15,000  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  vote,  and  the  "  Independent "  candidate  was  over 
whelmingly  defeated  by  his  Democratic  competitor. 

While  prosecuting  his  literary  work,  Mr.  Elaine  was  constantly 
in  demand  for  public  occasions.  Of  such  appearance  he  was 
rather  chary,  but  political  assistance  he  gave  freely.  No  weight 
of  duties  or  of  honors  ever  lessened  the  sympathy  between  his 
audience  and  himself.  The  pertinence  of  his  facts,  the  straight 
forwardness  of  his  reasoning,  the  directness  of  his  address,  could 
never  lose  force.  He  took  his  hearers  into  his  confidence  and 
they  trusted  him  to  the  death.  When  General  Grant  died, 
Mr.  Elaine's  voice  was  first  in  sounding  the  long  lament.  In 
Portland  he  spoke  for  the  Irish  cause.  He  spoke  on  the  labor 
question,  and  as  he  had  sought  in  the  late  campaign  to  draw 
discussion  up  from  trivial  as  well  as  debasing  personalities,  .and 
from  sectional  strife  to  the  altitude  of  great  policies,  so  now  in 
his  dignity  of  tone,  in  the  absence  of  all  petty  charge,  or  even 
criticism  against  the  administration,  men  saw  that  he  would 
guide  debate  away  from  the  small  irritations  and  revenges  of 
labor,  towards  a  discovery  and  application  of  the  laws  of  its 
natural  evolution. 

In  the  autumn  of   1880  he  went  to  Pennsylvania  with  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  595 

doable  purpose  of  helping  to  elect  General  Beaver  to  the  gov 
ernorship,  and  visiting  his  old  home.  His  two  younger  sons 
accompanied  him,  and  various  friends  joined  him  at  different 
points.  A  private  citizen,  a  defeated  candidate,  his  whole  visit 
was  a  royal  progress.  Wherever  he  stopped  it  was  "  Elaine's 
day."  Especially  as  he  approached  Western  Pennsylvania  was 
his  reception  unique  and  thrilling.  He  was  too  deeply  touched 
to  speak  much  of  it  himself,  but  the  coldest  report  represents 
the  homage  offered  him  as  u  little  short  of  idolatry."  Processions 
and  parades,  soldiery,  and  police  marching  like  soldiery,  clubs 
from  all  the  surrounding  communities,  bands  of  music, —  every 
thing  that  could  be  done  to  show  honor,  the  great  State  brought 
to  her  son.  A  vast  throng  of  the  most  respectable  and  orderly 
in  the  twin  cities  of  Pittsburgh  and  Alleghany  waited  upon  his 
appearance,  pressed  upon  his  steps,  squeezed  the  guard  against 
his  carriage  and  the  four  white  horses  wherever  they  stopped, 
and  almost  lifted  the  horses  of  the  mounted  escort  off  their  feet, 
in  their  eagerness  for  a  glimpse  of  his  face,  a  grasp  of  his  hand. 
"  I  have  been  a  Whig  and  a  Republican  for  fifty  years,"  cried  an 
old  man  crowded  against  the  carriage  wheel.  "  Such  men  as 
you  die  in  the  faith,"  responded  Mr.  Blaine.  "  I  am  sorry  you 
lost  your  vote  on  me." — "  God  bless  you,  I  did  not  lose  it- 
any  more  than  my  sons  who  died  at  Gettysburg."  "  Blaine ! 
Blaine  !  Blaine  ! "  was  the  cry  along  the  packed  and  well-nigh 
impassable  streets,  and  the  boom  of  cannon  could  not  drown  the 
shouts  of  personal  welcome.  Where  he  was  to  speak,  the  audi 
ence  would  wait  for  no  introduction,  but  cried,  "  Blaine,  Blaine  ! 
Give  us  Blaine  ;  "  and  when  he  rose,  for  fully  five  minutes  the 
crowd  spoke  first,  ringing  out  volume  upon  volume  of  irrepres 
sible  cheers ;  but  when  he  did  speak,  they  said  his  voice  was 
worth  ten  thousand  men  to  the  soldier  candidate.  After  he 
had  spoken,  the  audience  climbed  upon  the  platform  so  irresist 
ibly  that  to  avoid  danger  the  meeting  was  declared  adjourned, 
and  Mr.  Blaine  was  gradually  withdrawn. 

Into  that  crowd  dared  an  old  man  who  had  passed  his  ninetieth 
birthday,  with  eye  still  bright  and  step  still  firm,  Hon.  John  H. 
Ewing,  who  had  come  up  from  Washington  to  make  sure  that 
his  beloved  nephew  should  not  slip  by.  But  the  nephew  must 
needs  pass  through  Brownsville,  by  way  of  Elizabeth,  to  look  at 


596  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    RLAINE. 

his  "  Savings  Bank,"  as  he  called  his  farm  there,  beneath  which 
lay  his  coal  mines ;  and  all  along  the  way  he  was  reviving 
memories,  pointing  out  to  his  sons  the  old  places,  recalling  inci 
dents  and  anecdotes  of  the  old  time,  stopping  to  speak  to  the 
boys  and  girls  in  the  school-houses,  who  returned  the  compliment 
by  laying  pennies  on  the  rails  of  the  track  to  be  pressed  into 
souvenirs  by  the  train  that  carried  him  away.  A  little  black 
baby  held  up  to  him  for  naming,  he  called  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  at  more  than  one  small  cottage  he  alighted  to  enter  and  to 
greet  an  infirm  old  woman  too  weak  to  move,  who  prayed  to 
take  his  remembered  hand  once  more. 

Brownsville  was  reached,  and  Brownsville  —  I  take  her  own 
testimony,  using  her  own  words  —  was  u  wild,  delirious,  frantic 
with  delight.  The  entire  population  locked  up  stores  and  houses, 
and  went  across  the  bridge  that  spans  the  Monongahela  to  the 
railroad  station,  to  meet  its  distinguished  son.  The  quiet  little 
streets  never  saw  such  a  commotion  before.  Flags  waved 
from  every  window.  Every  square  inch  of  the  narrow  side 
walks  was  filled  with  the  moving  inhabitants,  who  overflowed 
into  the  roadway,  and  pressed  close  to  horses  and  carriages. 
A  running  volley  of  cheers  rattled  all  along  the  line  of  march, 
and  if  the  impulse  had  not  been  resisted  by  some  of  the  more 
decorous  citizens,  the  horses  would  have  been  unhitched,  and 
Mr.  Elaine's  carriage  would  have  been  dragged  by  eager 
hands." 

The  feet  of  material  progress  had  trampled  into  ruins  the 
house  of  his  birth  and  the  playground  of  his  boyhood,  but 
the  palimpsest  was  clear  to  him.  Five  years  before  he  had 
written :  "  I  have  nowhere  witnessed  a  more  attractive  sight 
than  was  familiar  to  my  eyes  in  boyhood  from  the  old  Indian 
Hill  farm,  where  I  was  born,  and  where  my  great-grandfather, 
the  elder  Neal  Gillespie,  settled  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revo 
lution.  The  majestic  sweep  of  the  Monongahela  through  the 
foot-hills  of  the  Alleghanies,  with  the  chain  of  mountains  but 
twenty  miles  distant  in  full  view,  gave  an  impression  of  beauty 
and  sublimity  which  can  never  be  effaced.  ...  I  shall  al 
ways  recall  with  pride  that  my  ancestry  and  kindred  were,  and 
are,  not  inconspicuously,  connected  with  its  history,  and  that 
on  either  side  of  the  beautiful  river,  in  Protestant  and  Catholic 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  597 

cemeteries,  five  generations  of  my  own  blood  sleep  in  honored 
graves." 

The  river  was  there,  the  beauty  of  wood  and  hill  and  sky. 
The  graves  of  father  and  mother  were  there,  and  old  friends 
still  in  the  living  world  to  welcome  him.  From  Brownsville  to 
Washington  over  the  National  Road,  —  the  same  road  on  which 
forty-five  years  before  he  used  to  walk  out  as  far  as  he  dared, 
for  the  glory  and  the  joy  of  riding  home  beside  the  stage-coach 
drivers,  knowing  well  which  ones  would  take  him  up  beside 
them  to  that  place  of  honor.  But  it  is  a  good  half-day's  drive 
to  Washington,  and  the  jealous  present  sometimes  thrust  in 
even  upon  this  thrilling  past ;  and  only  the  Washington  com 
mittee  of  reception  at  Pancake  interrupted  a  spirited  but  entirely 
inappropriate  debate  in  Mr.  Blaine's  carriage  upon  relations  be 
tween  Russia  and  Turkey.  At  Pancake  his  happy  uncle,  head 
ing  the  committee  composed  of  old  college  students  and  the 
present  college  faculty,  took  him  in  charge  and  bore  him  trium 
phantly  home ;  and  after  dinner  the  young  students  surrounded 
the  house  and  conducted  him  to  the  college.  There,  on  the 
pillared  portico  of  the  only  building  left  from  his  youthful  days, 
surrounded  by  classmates,  he  was  presented  by  one  of  them,  Mr. 
Alexander  Wilson,  to  the  new  Washington  that  overspread  the 
beautiful  shaded  green  slope  of  the  campus.  In  the  evening 
Washington  took  its  turn  and  addressed  him  at  a  general  recep 
tion  in  the  college  building,  and  later,  at  another  by  the  Literary 
Society,  of  which  he  had  once  been  a  member.  They  brought 
out  the  archives  for  his  scrutiny,  and  he  smiled  down  the  pages, 
recognizing,  "  That  is  Tom  Searight's,"  and  "  Blame  fined  for 
non-performance," -  — for  the  young  man  had  always  shrunk 
from  the  formal  debate,  and  when  it  was  assigned  him,  nearly 
always  chose  "fine"  to  u performance,"  though  he  was  prompt 
when  the  task  was  a  written  essay,  and  entered  readily  —  his 
schoolmates  say  brilliantly  —  into  the  miscellaneous  debate 
which  followed  the  regular  performance. 

He  went  to  church  on  Sunday  between  rows  of  waiting  people, 
and  on  Monday  going  with  his  uncle  to  say  good-by  to  the  col 
lege  boys  in  the  college  proper,  the  two  were  presented  by  the 
President :  "  On  my  left  is  the  oldest  living  graduate  of 
Washington  and  Jefferson  College.  On  my  right  is  the  most 


598  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

distinguished  graduate."  He  gave  his  youthful  hearers  a  talk 
full  of  reminiscences  tender  or  humorous,  suggestions  practical 
and  otherwise,  which  the  young  fellows  were  only  too  ready  to 
greet  with  "  laughter  and  cheers,"  as  occasion  offered. 

"  In  our  preparation  here  I  think  we  were  drilled  in  reading, 
in  spelling,  in  geography,  and  in  English  grammar,  and  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  a  very  great  many  modern  college  graduates  do 
not  spell  with  absolute  accuracy,  could  not  bound  the  United 
States  in  each  separate  State  with  absolute  accuracy,  could  not 
take  a  blackboard  and  draw  a  map  of  the  United  States,  fix  the 
latitude  and  longitude  upon  it,  and  bound  each  State.  That  is  a 
very  good  exercise  ;  suppose  you  try  it.  [Laughter.]  Do  that  on 
the  blackboard  once  or  twice,  and  you  will  never  forget  it.  It  is 
an  exercise  in  which  many  of  us  Avere  expert  in  this  college 
thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago. 

"If  you  should  try  me  in  the  text-books  of  Latin  and  Greek  I 
think  you  would  find  me  deficient.  I  remember  once  when  we 
were  being  examined  in  the  Agricola  of  Tacitus,  a  graduate  of 
Oxford  University,  an  English  rector,  was  present,  and  he 
turned  over  to  De  Morebus  G-ermanorum  and  said :  '  Read  that.' 
A  member  of  the  class  answered, '  We  have  not  been  over  it.' 
'  But,'  said  he,  '  it  is  Latin.'  If  you  should  ask  me  to  read  it 
at  sight  to-day  I  should  repeat  the  excuse  ;  but  I  presume  every 
member  of  the  senior  class  before  me  could  do  it  readily." 

He  closed  as  he  began,  witli  a  tribute  of  gratitude  to  the  school 
and  the  teachers,  which  was  not  the  mere  compliment  of  pres 
ence,  but  the  often  expressed  sentiment  of  his  life. 

This  journey  offers  but  one  of  many  proofs  that  what  was 
intended  to  curse  Mr.  Elaine  altogether  blessed  him.  The 
American  people  refused  to  be  won  away  from  him.  They  said 
he  was  like  the  impregnable  stone  wall  that  stood  higher  after 
it  was  overturned  than  when  it  was  erect.  His  face  was  every 
where  known,  his  presence  everywhere  honored.  Ten  years  be 
fore,  when,  upon  his  entering  the  Supreme  Court  room,  crowded 
at  one  of  the  sessions  of  the  Electoral  Commission,  a  member  of 
the  counsel  had  given  Mr.  Elaine  his  own  chair,  Mr.  Hoar  had 
pencilled  a  note  to  General  Garfield,  "  Do  you  suppose  there 
is  any  assembly  in  America  that  Elaine  could  enter,  however 
crowded  it  was,  that  somebody  would  not  instantly  find  a  chair 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  599 

for  him  ?  "  This  specialty  of  attention  never  failed.  The  noble 
ness  of  his  face  and  figure,  his  distinction  and  his  self-uncon 
sciousness,  could  not  fail  to  attract  attention  anywhere.  "  I 
cannot  walk  with  Mr.  Elaine,"  protested  a  friend  in  New  York  : 
"it  is  too  conspicuous.  All  hats  are  in  the  air.  With  the 
policemen  at  the  crossings,  it  is,  c  Shall  I  take  you  across,  Mr. 
Elaine?''  —and  to  the  policeman  at  the  crossing  Mr.  Elaine 
was  as  courteous  as  to  the  lady  at  his  side.  Sometimes  more 
so,  for  with  his  close  friends,  even  women,  he  would  not  unfre- 
quently  fall  into  a  brown  study  that  was  blind  to  beauty  and 
deaf  to  music ;  and  they  never  misunderstood  him,  but  amused 
themselves,  perhaps,  with  signalling  his  abstraction  across  the 
table  till  he  came  back  from  his  remoteness,  and  vowed  that  he 
had  never  been  away.  Friends,  it  may  almost  be  said,  he  never- 
lost.  Yet  he  was  not  indifferent  in  friendship,  he  was  simply  and 
immeasurably  magnanimous.  He  discerned  and  he  prized  sin 
cerity,  but  he  was  pitiful  to  temptation.  Never,  until  it  was 
inevitable,  and  that  was  so  seldom  that  it  is  hardly  to  be  counted, 
did  he  terminate  friendly  relations.  He  understood  much  that 
he  did  not  notice.  Where  there  was  honest  love  he  remembered 
nothing  else.  Every  one  who  loved  him  could  laugh  at  him. 
His  friends,  his  sons,  his  smallest  child  scoffed  at  his  clothes,  and 
he  simply  and  stoutly  defended  his  clothes.  It  was  de  rigeur  to 
laugh  at  his  hats.  Postmaster-General  Jewell,  rallied  one  day 
on  a  railroad  journey  upon  the  faultlessness  of  his  costume  and 
his  reputed  contract  with  his  hatter,  said  that  he  had  changed 
that  contract,  and  now  instead  sent  his  hat  every  week  to  the 
hatter.  "  And  what  would  happen,"  asked  his  wife,  "  if  you 
should  chance  to  forget,  and  not  send  your  hat  each  week  to 
be  brushed  ?  "  — "  Why,"  said  Mr.  Jewell,  gleefully  glancing 
at  Mr.  Elaine  sitting  opposite,  "  it  would  look  just  like 
Elaine's !  " 

Eut  no  man  could  take  a  real  liberty  with  him.  Perhaps  no 
man  ever  tried  it.  Absolutely  free  from  small  resentments, 
when  he  came  to  the  parting  of  the  ways,  he  was  inexorable. 
No  occasion  could  be  availed  of  to  force  him  into  recognizing  a 
man  whom  he  had  determined  no  longer  to  know.  One  who  had 
lost  in  his  esteem  by  a  course  which  he  was  attempting  with 
partial  success  to  explain  was  pleased  at  finding  himself  not 


600  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

repulsed,  and  said,  "  Then  we  part  with  the  same  friendly  feel 
ing  as  of  old?"  —  "  Certainly  not!"  was  the  unexpected  reply. 

As  a  woman  once  photographed  him :  we  "  were  alone  that 
stormy  evening,  daring  to  amuse  ourselves  with  Hamerton  and 
his  platitudes,  when  the  front  door  flung  open  to  a  man  breezy 
as  the  north-east  wind  that  bowled  him  in  —  a  royal,  rollicking, 
confident,  yet  somehow  confiding  creature  who  brought  the 
sweep  and  swirl  of  all  out-doors  in  with  him,  filled  the  little 
drawing-room  with  the  spray  vigorously  and  cheerfully  shaken 
from  the  storm-besprent  shag  of  his  ulster,  and  began  to  con 
gratulate  '  two  forlorn  women '  on  their  luck  in  having  him 
come  down  upon  them ;  ordered  an  open  fire,  took  up  the  talk 
with  the  most  delightful  cordiality,  set  down  one  author  and 
put  up  another  wij,h  a  word,  disposed  of  a  whole  argument  with 
an  anecdote,  and  in  a  general  way,  not  in  the  least  conscious  of 
doing  anything  noticeable  or  going  out  of  his  course,  seemed 
quite  heartily  and  wholesomely  and  naturally  and  adorably  to 
pervade  all  space.  That  adorably  shows  Mr.  Elaine."  Sympa 
thetic,  sensible,  trustworthy,  in  his  companionship  with  women, 
he  demanded,  elicited,  and  gave  the  best,  and  he  received  his 
reward  in  friendships  enlivening  many  joys,  sustaining  in  great 
sorrows,  lasting  to  the  end. 

During  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1886  lie  interested  himself 
in  selecting  a  site  and  building  a  summer-house  at  Bar  Harbor, 
on  whose  stone  portals  he  inscribed  the  name  that  was  dearest 
to  him,  —  Stan  wood. 

In  the  summer  of  1887,  after  the  completion  of  his  third 
volume,  and  before  beginning  any  other  work,  he  went  abroad 
with  as  large  a  "  town-meeting  "  as  could  be  mustered,  for  rest, 
and  for  complete  freedom  from  all  complication  in  the  presiden 
tial  campaign  of  1888.  He  was  in  London  at  the  time  of  the 
Queen's  jubilee,  and  he  remained  there  some  weeks  enjoying 
London  society.  A  trained  observer  wrote:  "  He  could  have 
been  in  no  real  doubt  about  the  disposition  of  London  toward 
him  after  the  first  half-hour  at  the  Duchess  of  St.  Alban's 
party.  Everybody  wanted  to  know  him.  It  rained  introduc 
tions.  Such  a  face  and  figure  and  manner  as  his  of  course 
attracted  attention.  The  question  ran  round  the  room,  Who 
is  he  ?  It  was  put  to  a  lady  who  was  supposed  to  know  every 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  601 

person  worth  knowing.  4  I  don't  know,'  was  her  answer,  '  but 
he  is  somebody,  and  I  am  going  to  find  out.'  It  does  not  take 
long  for  intelligence  to  circulate  in  a  drawing-room.  There 
certainly  were  people  in  that  brilliant  company  to  whom  Mr. 
Blaine's  name  meant  nothing,  for  it  is  not  by  a  knowledge  of 
American  politics  or  personalities  that  London  society,  even 
then,  was  preeminently  distinguished.  But  if  the  name  did 
not  always  interest  them,  the  owner  of  it  did.  The  tall  form, 
the  singular  charm  of  the  face,  the  distinction  of  manner,  the 
intellectual  power  of  the  face  and  head,  the  refinement  of  both, 
the  alert  composure  of  the  expression,  the  sedateness  of  feature 
with  which  the  vivacity  of  the  eyes  contrasted,  and  that  in 
definable  air  of  being  perfectly  at  home  amid  a  throng  of  people 
whom  he  had  never  seen  before  —  all  this  was  remarked. 
.  .  .  He  had  that  cool  self-possession  and  quickness  of 
vision,  and  that  flexibility  of  nature  which  are  the  conditions 
of  social  success.  .  .  .  He  captivated  people  here  as  he  did 
people  in  Washington  or  in  Chicago."  "  That  man  burns  like 
a  flame  in  a  crowd,"  said  one  who  had  asked  that  Mr.  Elaine 
should  be  pointed  out  to  him. 

Of  course  he  could  not  know  what  impression  he  made,  but 
he  retained  impressions  and  made  friendships  that  were  pleasant 
and  lasting. 

In  July  he  went  to  Kilgraston,  of  which  he  says  :  "  '  Kilgras- 
ton  '  is  the  castle  of  Andrew  Carnegie.  '  Bridge  of  Earn  '  is 
the  neighboring  village.  N.B.,  North  Briton,  which  I  am  sur 
prised  to  find  so  often  used  instead  of  Scotland.  We  left  Lon 
don  on  the  7th  of  July,  stopping  three  days  in  Edinburgh  to 
witness  the  ovation  to  Andrew  Carnegie  in  return  for  his  gift 
of  £50,000  for  a  free  library.  Senator  Frye  and  wife  hap 
pened  there,  and  as  Hale  and  wife  were  with  us  we  had  quite  a 
home  time.  I  got  at  last  thoroughly  fatigued  by  my  '  season  in 
London,'  and  I  concluded  if  I  were  to  realize  the  rest  and  re 
freshment  for  which  mainly  I  came  to  Europe,  I  must  get  to  the 
country,  sleep  o'  nights,  and  have  fresh  air  in  the  day.  Hence  I 
am  here,  within  four  miles  of  the  city  of  Perth.  The  house  is 
quite  literally  a  '  castle,'  —  a  great  stone  structure,  one  hun 
dred  and  ten  feet  in  length  by  seventy-five  in  width,  with  an 
innumerable  array  of  rooms  of  all  possible  description.  There 


602  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

are  fifteen  or  sixteen  spare  chambers  after  the  family  are  all 
accommodated.  July  27. --The  life  is  most  charming,  and  I 
have  lost  even  the  imagination  of  illness  under  its  influence.  No 
two  lives  could  be  more  in  contrast  than  my  London  life  and 
the  life  here.  ...  I  am  taking  your  receipt  of  open  air  at 
the  rate  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  hours  a  day." 

From  Scotland  he  paid  a  short  family  visit  to  Ireland,  thence 
to  Homburg  for  the  waters.  Then  a  run  to  Vienna  and  Buda- 
Pesth  and  back  to  Paris,  where,  on  the  morning  of  December 
7,  President  Cleveland's  annual  message  to  Congress  startled 
him  with  a  vision  of  victory  for  Republican  principles.  He 
could  scarcely  credit  the  meagre  reports  in  the  Paris  morning 
journals,  read  before  he  had  risen,  but  they  were  substantiallv 
correct.  The  message,  leaving  matters  of  departmental  admin 
istration  and  harmonious  policies,  was  a  proiiunciamento  for 
free  trade  by  a  political  novice.  The  political  expert,  though 
absent  from  the  country,  sprang  to  the  opportunity.  The 
President  had  neutralized  the  power  of  his  own  party  by  invit 
ing  an  issue  which  it  had  sedulously  sought  to  avoid.  In  joy  at 
seeing  the  country  brought  at  last  to  a  meeting  in  the  open 
field  on  the  question  of  protection,  Mr.  Blaine  rose  from  his 
bed,  took  up  the  challenge,  and  in  an  interview  with  Mr.  G. 
W.  Smalley,  the  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune, 
laid  out  the  ground  on  which  the  contest  of  1888  was  fought 
and  won.  The  weak  points  of  the  message  were  seized,  and 
their  consequences  defined,  with  the  touch  of  authority.  Facts 
and  figures  were  marshalled  at  the  Hotel  Binda  as  readily,  ac 
curately,  and  effectively  as  if  the  reasoner  had  been  arguing  in 
his  own  library  at  Augusta.  Some  definite  paths  were  outlined, 
which  were  followed  to  immediate  success  in  the  next  election, 
and  some  general  principles  were  enunciated  whose  non-observ 
ance  has  since  then  cost  the  country  dear.  "  No  great  system  of 
revenue  like  our  tariff  can  operate  with  efficiency  and  equity 
unless  the  changes  of  trade  be  closely  watched,  and  the  law 
promptly  adapted  to  these  changes."  "The  Democratic  party 
in  power  is  a  standing  menace  to  the  industrial  prosperity  of 
the  country." 

Before  night  the  interview  was  telegraphed  to  the  Tribune 
by  Mr.  Smalley.     The  President's  message  had  been  delivered 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  603 

to  Congress  on  the  morning  of  December  5,  printed  in  the  news 
papers  of  America  December  6,  of  Paris  December  7.  Mr. 
Blaine's  reply,  which  came  to  be  called  u  Elaine's  message," 
appeared  in  the  New  York  Tribune  on  the  morning  of 
December  8. 

On  the  Galignani  despatches  he  had  prophesied  Democratic 
defeat,  and  having  done  his  share  to  that  end,  he  went  out  to 
meet  a  dinner  engagement  that  night  with  great  good  cheer. 
A  day  or  two  after,  he  was  at  Havre  to  meet  a  friend  from 
America.  He  visited  the  artists'  studios  and  bought  pictures. 
He  went  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  He  met  Clemenceau 
and  Floquet,  the  Speaker,  and  Tirard,  the  Prime  Minister.  He 
talked  with  President  Carnot,  he  visited  Madame  Carnot  at  the 
Elysee,  and  in  the  President's  box  at  the  Opera  Comique  en 
joyed  the  gayety  of  the  scene  and  the  excellence  of  the  acting. 

The  Republican  party  at  home  seem  to  have  been  somewhat 
dazed  by  the  President's  message.  Mr.  Elaine's  voice  was  the 
first  heard,  distant,  yet  prompt,  clear,  and  decided.  The  people 
saw  the  victory  which  he  pointed  out,  but  they  instantly  de 
manded  that  he  should  lead  them  to  it. 

From  Paris  he  went  to  Switzerland  and  Italy.  He  also 
watched  carefully  all  the  signs  of  the  times.  Many  have 
thought  that  if  he  had  been  at  home  he  would  have  felt  the 
popular  current  setting  so  strongly  towards  him  that  he  could 
not  have  resisted.  But  the  current  he  was  most  closely 
watching,  and  which  seemed  to  him  so  important  as  to  be 
the  deciding  one,  did  not  set  his  way,  and,  to  avoid  party  con 
fusion  and  disaster  he  felt  it  necessary  to  speak  openly.  First, 
however,  he  spoke  privately  to  a  few  friends.  January,  1888, 
he  wrote  from  Florence  to  Mr.  Patrick  Ford : 

I  am  goin£  to  withdraw  my  name  from  the  list  of  candidates  for  the 
Republican  nomination.  Ever  since  the  result  in  1884  I  had  my  mind  made 
up  to  run  again,  if  called  upon  by  an  undivided  and  unanimous  party,  but 
not  to  run  if  a  contest  were  required  to  secure  my  nomination.  I  did  not 
take  this  position  from  any  pique  or  pride,  but  because  I  thought  unanimity 
was  required  to  give  me  the  prestige  and  power  for  a  successful  canvass. 
I  cannot  say  that  I  ever  expected  unanimity,  and  therefore  it  is  that  I 
withdraw  without  surprise,  and  certainly  \vithout  regret.  I  feel,  indeed,  a 
certain  seme  of  relief  that  my  party  does  not  decide  to  devolve  the  task 
on  me. 


604  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Sherman  is  a  determined  candidate  from  Ohio,  Harrison  will  be  equally 
so  from  Indiana,  and  Hawley  will  have  the  delegation  from  Connecticut. 
Indiana  and  Connecticut  are  pivotal  States,  and  the  candidate  should  not 
be  one  that  they  are  unwilling  to  favor  with  their  support.  I  know  your 
friendship  sufficiently  well  to  be  assured  that  this  announcement  will  bring 
disappointment  to  you,  but  I  am  sure  that,  on  full  consideration,  you  will 
approve  my  position.  Having  once  been  nominated  and  defeated,  I  cannot 
consent  to  be  a  "claimant,11  appealing  to  the  party  to  "  try  me  again.11 

Jefferson  and  Jackson,  after  good  runs  the  first  time,  were  unanimously 
renominated.  I  came  very  much  nearer  victory  than  either  of  them  in  the 
first  trial,  and  could  not  consent  to  accept  a  nomination  save  from  a 
unanimous  party. 

All  this  is,  of  course,  confidential.  I  certainly  shall  not  put  any  ex 
planation  in  my  letter  of  withdrawal,  save  that  the  reasons  are  "  personal 
to  myself." 

I  cannot  close,  my  dear  Mr.  Ford,  without  saying  to  you  how  profoundly 
I  appreciate  your  unselfish  friendship.  The  contest  of  1884,  with  many 
things  that  were  painful  in  it,  was  lightened  and  relieved  by  the  acquisi 
tion  of  one  such  friend  as  you.  Our  joint  interest  in  public  affairs  will,  I 
am  sure,  continue.  My  kindest  regard  to  your  brother;  my  affectionate 
salutation  to  Austin ;  my  devoted,  unchanging  friendship  for  you. 

January  25  he  addressed  the  chairman  of  the  Republican 
National  Committee,  Mr.  B.  F.  Jones: 

I  wish  through  you  to  state  to  the  members  of  the  Republican  party 
that  my  name  will  not  be  presented  to  the  national  convention  called  to 
assemble  in  Chicago  in  June  next  for  the  nomination  of  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  I  am  constrained  in  this  decision  by 
considerations  entirely  personal  to  myself,  of  which  you  were  advised  more 
than  a  year  ago.  But  I  cannot  make  this  announcement  without  giving 
expression  to  my  deep  sense  of  gratitude  to  the  many  thousands  of  my 
countrymen  who  have  sustained  me  so  long  and  so  cordially  with  their 
feelings,  which  seemed  to  go  beyond  the  ordinary  political  adherence  of 
fellow-partisans,  and  to  partake  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  personal  attach 
ment.  For  this  most  generous,  loyal  friendship  I  can  make  no  adequate 
return,  and  shall  carry  the  memory  of  it  while  life  lasts. 

He  wrote  also  to  Mr.  Elkins,  giving  a  slight  review  of  the 
political  situation  as  it  appeared  to  him,  naming  Hon.  Benjamin 
Harrison,  of  Indiana,  as  on  the  whole  the  most  eligible  candi 
date,  and  giving  the  reasons  why  he  considered  him  a  good 
candidate,  and  likely  to  make  a  good  President.  This  letter 
was  afterwards  spoken  of  as  "  nominating  General  Harrison  for 
the  presidency." 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  605 

From  Florence  to  Rome  and  Naples,  and  the  dead  cities ; 
then,  forsaking  railroads,  driving  along  the  shores  and  hills 
of  Amalfi  and  Salerno  and  Vietri ;  along  Spezia  and  Sestri 
to  Genoa  and  Savon  a,  and  San  Remo  to  Nice,  and  by  rail 
road  again  to  Avignon  and  Lyons  and  Paris,  —  to  find  that 
his  letters  had  not  prevailed.  As  for  eliminating  himself  from 
the  political  problem,  he  might  as  well  have  stayed  at  home. 
Men  whose  hearts  had  been  set  now  for  a  dozen  years  upon  his 
presidency,  and  men  who  had  but  just  begun  to  desire  it, 
were  equally  engaged  in  explaining  away  his  words,  plead 
ing  that  they  were  not  determinative,  declaring  that  they 
should  not  be  conclusive.  He  had  taken  a  wide  and  absorbing 
personal  part  in  the  canvass  of  1884.  Now  men  wrote  and 
cabled  and  wrote  again  that  he  should  not  write  a  letter  or 
speak  a  word  or  spend  a  dollar  or  lift  a  finger.  Circumstances 
had  so  changed  that  it  was  not  necessary.  They  assured  him 
that,  once  at  home,  he  would  see  and  feel  the  change.  All 
they  asked  was  that  he  should  not  lift  a  finger  against  it,  but 
sit  still  in  Bar  Harbor,  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord. 

His  answer  was  the  same.  First,  as  before,  he  wrote  to  some 
friends  privately : 

With  a  heavy  heart,  for  of  all  the  trials  of  my  life,  the  hardest  is  to 
dissent  from  the  judgment  of  trusted  friends  and  act  contrary  to  their 
wishes  and  hopes. 

But  as  in  this  world  and  in  the  next  every  man  must,  in  the  end,  stand 
or  fall  to  himself  alone,  I  must  announce  to  you  that  I  cannot  consent  to  be 
a  candidate  for  the  presidency. 

My  Florence  letter  was,  in  my  own  mind,  a  formal  and  final  with 
drawal  from  the  presidency.  It  has  been  accepted  as  such  by  thousands  of 
my  best  friends.  Candidates  have  come  before  the  people  who  would  not 
have  been  there  but  for  my  action.  I  cannot  now  stop  to  take  any  subse 
quent  developments  and  change  of  circumstances  into  account.  I  must 
keep  my  faith  and  pledge,  as  I  understand  that  open  faith  and  implied 
pledge  to  have  been  given,  and  by  many  to  have  been  accepted. 

It  gives  me  the  deepest  pain  to  write  these  words  —  not  on  my  own 
account,  but  because  of  the  disappointment  it  will  bring  to  my  dear  and 
cherished  friends. 

Pray  do  not  differ  with  me ;  I  act  under  the  pressure  of  convictions 
irresistibly  strong.  Do  not  deem  me  ungrateful  or  insensible  to  the  devoted 
friendship,  the  intensely  cordial  support,  the  affectionate  help  you  have 
brought  to  me. 


606  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

On  May  17  he  wrote  from  Paris  to  Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid,  editor 
of  the  New  York  Tribune,  for  publication: 

PARIS,  May  17,  1888. 

Since  my  return  to  Paris  from  Southern  Italy,  the  4th  inst.,  I  have 
learned  (what  I  did  not  believe)  that  my  name  may  yet  be  presented  to 
the  national  convention  as  a  candidate  for  the  presidential  nomination  of 
the  Republican  party.  A  single  phrase  of  my  letter  of  January  25,  from 
Florence  (which  was  decisive  of  everything  I  had  personal  power  to  de 
cide),  has  been  treated  by  some  of  my  most  valued  friends  as  not  absolutely 
conclusive  in  ultimate  and  possible  contingencies.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  some  equally  devoted  and  disinterested  persons  who  have  con 
strued  my  letter,  as  it  should  be  construed,  to  bean  unconditional  withdrawal 
of  my  name  from  the  national  convention.  They  have,  in  consequence, 
given  their  support  to  eminent  gentlemen  who  are  candidates  for  the 
Chicago  nomination,  some  of  whom  would  not,  I  am  sure,  have  consented  to 
assume  that  position  if  I  had  desired  to  represent  the  party  in  the  presiden 
tial  contest  of  1888.  If  I  should  now,  by  speech  or  by  silence,  by  commission 
or  omission,  permit  my  name,  in  any  event,  to  come  before  the  convention, 
I  should  incur  the  reproach  of  being  uncandid  with  those  who  have  always 
been  candid  with  me.  I  speak,  therefore,  because  I  am  not  willing  to  re 
main  in  a  doubtful  attitude.  I  am  not  willing  to  be  the  cause  of  mislead 
ing  a  single  man  among  the  millions  who  have  given  me  their  suffrage 
and  their  confidence.  I  am  not  willing  that  even  one  of  my  faithful  support 
ers  in  the  past  should  think  me  capable  of  paltering  in  a  double  sense  with 
my  words.  Assuming  that  the  presidential  nomination  could  by  any  possible 
chance  be  offered  to  me,  I  could  not  accept  it  without  leaving  in  the  minds 
of  thousands  of  these  men  the  impression  that  I  had  not  been  free  from 
indirection,  and  therefore  I  could  not  accept  it  at  all.  The  misrepresenta 
tions  of  malice  have  no  weight,  but  the  just  displeasure  of  my  friends  I 
could  not  patiently  endure. 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

From  Paris  to  London,  then  coaching  with  Mr.  Carnegie  for 
June  weeks  through  the  cathedral  towns  of  eastern  England 
and  Scotland  to  Cluny,  tracking  the  Roman  roads,  sleeping  in 
the  rooms  of  Tudor  kings,  lunching  under  yew-trees  which 
might  have  been  the  ones  that  bothered  Caesar,  under  the  oaks 
of  Burleigh  House  by  Stamford  town,  on  the  hills  of  the  great 
White  Horse  or  of  the  Lammermoors,  in  battle-fields  of  York 
and  Lancaster,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tweed,  and  a  little  coldly 
in  the  damp  of  Delnaspidal. 

The  convention  was  assembling  while  Mr.  Blaine  was  exam* 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  607 

ining  the  gold-wire  hair  of  St.  Cuthbert  in  Durham.  Mr. 
Elaine's  elder  sons  were  in  attendance  to  defend  their  father's 
wishes,  which,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  were  not  their  own. 
"  On  the  opening  day,"  said  Mr.  Thurston,  a  delegate,  "  I  rode 
to  the  convention  door  with  Walker  and  Emmons  Elaine ; 
both  strong,  vigorous,  splendid  men."  There  was  need  of  a 
firm  hand,  for  the  bent  was  all  one  way.  "  Boys,"  said  Mr. 
Elkins  to  them  in  despair,  "  it  must  come."  "  It's  no  matter 
whether  Elaine  wants  the  nomination  or  not:  we  want  him," 
was  the  popular  voice  in  the  convention. 

'*  Elaine,  Elaine,  James  G.  Elaine, 
We've  had  him  once, 
We'll  have  him  again," 

was  the  chanted  shout  outside.  "  Mr.  Elaine  has  made  the  issue 
for  the  campaign  ;  we  are  going  to  win  on  it.  If  he  were  here,  if 
he  knew  the  exact  state  of  things,  he  would  lead  us.  He  must. 
No  man  is  big  enough  to  set  aside  the  voice  of  the  Republican 
party."  It  was  with  difficulty  that  the  convention  could  be 
held  from  nominating  him  on  Saturday  and  adjourning,  leav 
ing  with  Mr.  Elaine  the  responsibility  of  rejecting  the  nom 
ination. 

This  pressure  was  telegraphed  to  him  in  Edinburgh,  but  no 
one  telegraphed  that  the  "  determined  candidates "  had  with 
drawn,  and  Mr.  Elaine  could  make  but  the  same  reply.  u  To 
Eoutelle  and  Manley,  Chicago  :  Earnestly  request  my  friends  to 
respect  my  Paris  letter ;  "  and  later  in  the  day,  as  the  importu 
nity  increased,  to  the  same  men,  "  I  think  I  have  a  right  to  ask 
my  friends  to  respect  my  wishes  and  refrain  from  voting  for 
me.  Please  make  this  and  the  former  despatch  public." 

These  political  allies  and  devoted  friends  would  have  done 
anything  for  Mr.  Elaine  except  disregard  his  wishes.  With 
heavy  hearts  they  communicated  their  unwelcome  tidings  to  the 
convention,  and  in  the  ruins  of  the  palace  at  Linlithgow,  where 
Margaret  Tudor  had  cradled  her  Stuart  son  for  his  stormy  throne, 
a  despatch  was  brought  to  him  announcing  the  nomination  of 
Harrison. 

At  Cluny  a  short  three  weeks  of  stirring  out-door  life  and 
pleasant  July  hearth-fires  in  the  evening,  then  London,  Liverpool, 


608  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

and  home.  It  might  have  been  that  Mr.  Elaine's  steady  refusal 
of  the  candidacy  should  have  been  resented  by  those  who  had 
so  warmly  proffered  it.  But  the  vision  of  an  intelligent  people  is 
often  insight.  They  discerned  instantly,  instinctively  his  high- 
heartedness  and  met  it  with  noble  appreciation.  From  all  parts 
of  the  country,  in  clubs,  in  delegations,  in  mass,  the  people  went 
to  New  York  to  receive  him,  and  gave  him  such  a  welcome  home 
as  only  free  men  can  give  to  the  man  they  delight  to  honor.  The 
"City  of  New  York,"  in  which  he  had  sailed,  was  a  new  ship, 
and  her  arrival  was  delayed  some  days.  Many  were  not  able 
to  wait  over,  but  though  some  were  thus  disappointed,  in  the 
crowd  no  one  could  be  missed.  Mr.  Murat  Halstead  reported 
to  the  Blaine  club  of  Cincinnati,  August  18  : 

"  I  had  the  honor  to  be  your  representative  at  the  reception  of 
James  G.  Blaine  in  New  York  harbor  and  city  last  week,  and  of 
presenting  to  him  your  address  of  welcome.  .  .  .  You  will 
be  glad  to  know  that  Mr.  Elaine's  personal  appearance  contra 
dicts  in  the  most  satisfactory  way  the  sinister  stories  that  have 
been  industriously  and  continuously  circulated  about  his  health. 
He  is  not  a  man  you  would  think  fitted  for  immediate  service 
as  a  rail-splitter  or  in  a  railroad  iron  rolling-mill,  but  he  is 
erect,  bright,  quick,  alert,  crisp,  and  sparkling.  I  have  never 
seen  his  eyes  shine  as  they  did  when  he  sprang  from  the 
shadow  of  the  British  to  that  of  the  American  flag,  clearing  a 
space  of  about  four  feet  in  doing  so.  He  is  a  man  of  singular 
combination  of  strength  and  delicacy  in  his  physical  organiza 
tion,  and  it  is  to  this  rare  association  of  qualities,  giving  at  once 
sensitiveness  and  endurance,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  facul 
ties,  the  capacities,  that  make  up  the  man  whose  influence  has 
been  so  remarkable,  and  whose  popularity  is  a  phenomenon. 
He  is  of  fine  responsive  sensibilities.  There  is  nothing  on  earth 
or  in  the  air  that  does  not  tell  him  something.  .  .  .  He  is  like 
an  instrument  of  music  that  a  breath  moves  to  melody,  and  is 
in  tune  for  any  breeze,  and  yet  he  is  tenacious,  goes  on  with 
patient  strength,  and  wears  like  steel.  There  never  was  a 
more  delightful  family  reunion  than  that  of  the  Blaines  on 
the  "  Laura  M.  Starin,"  the  boat  that  met  the  splendid  steamer 
"  City  of  New  York  "  just  as  she  came  in  sight  of  her  namesake 
city.  The  three  sons  had  not  met  their  parents  and  younger 


IHOGRAPIIY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  609 

sisters  for  fourteen  months,  and  in  their  tender  and  joyful 
greetings  they  forgot  the  surrounding  multitude,  and  heard 
not  "  Home  Again  "  by  the  hand,  and  the  wild  acclaim  of  the 
fog-horns.  There  was  soon  a  rush  for  the  cabin,  and  there  the 
president  of  the  Blaine  club  of  New  York  made  an  eloquent 
address  .  .  .  and  there  never  was  a  more  sympathetic  audi 
ence  than  that  which  crowded  the  boat.  Mr.  Elaine's  reply 
was  in  conversational  tones,  and  his  short  sentences  were  spoken 
with  the  perfect  ease  and  simplicity  with  which  a  gentleman 
gives  his  opinion  to  three  or  four  friends;  and  each  word  was 
recorded  by  a  score  of  busy  pens,  and  all  civilized  men  have 
read  them,  for  the  wires  that  are  now  wound  about  the  world 
convey  daily  messages  to  all  the  nations,  and  Mr.  Elaine's 
words  had  a  meaning  for  all  men." 

They  had  a  delightful  meaning  to  Walker,  wild  with  the  long 
waiting  after  long  absence,  and  the  completed  joy  of  meeting  ; 
for  in  all  the  commotion  his  father  found  space  to  say,  "  We 
will  never  be  separated  again."  And  they  never  were. 

Mr.  Elaine  entered  upon  election  work  even  before  going 
home,  and  continued  it  in  Maine  till  after  her  State  election; 
then  in  the  West.  At  the  height  of  the  campaign  he  wrote : 

ELLSWORTH,  Me.,  Sept.  1,  1888. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  PHELPS  AND  MY  DEAR  MR.  HITT  : 

It  is  reported  in  the  Washington  despatches  that  the  Republican  mem 
bers  of  the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee  will  support  the  bill  giving  to 
President  Cleveland  all  the  power  he  asks  in  his  message  to  enable  him  to 
embarrass  the  commercial  intercourse  between  the  Canadian  Government 
and  the  United  States.  From  an  expression  of  Mr.  Phelps,  quoted  in  the 
New  York  Tribune,  I  infer  that  this  is  to  be  done  on  the  theory  that  you 
will  keep  loading  President  Cleveland  witli  power  to  right  the  wrong  of 
the  fisheries,  with  the  confident  expectation  that  he  will  oblige  us  by 
making  no  effort,  and  thus  will  fall  more  and  more  under  popular  disfavor. 
Are  you  quite  sure  of  your  ground  ?  Pray  look  at  the  situation. 

The  popular  tide  is  at  present  running  heavily  against  him.  The  upris 
ing  on  behalf  of  protection  threatens  to  distance  him  in  the  race.  He 
seeks  for  a  new  issue.  He  is  ashamed  to  use  the  powers  of  retaliation, 
which  he  has  neglected  for  a  year  and  a  half.  He  wishes  to  discredit 
them,  to  make  the  people  believe  that  he  has  never  had  any  proper  power 
of  retaliation  in  his  hands,  to  convince  the  people  that  the  Republicans 
have  been  humbugging  on  the  fishery  question,  and  have  only  given  him 
the  semblance  and  not  the  substance  of  a  retaliation  measure,  and  that  now 


610  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

he  asks  for  a  real  one,  and,  of  course,  if  the  Republicans  sustain  his 
demands  they  confirm  all  his  condemnation  of  their  own  previous  measures, 
to  the  discredit  of  their  entire  past.  Moreover,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that 
if  he  gets  the  power  in  his  hands,  which  this  new  retaliation  will  give  him, 
he  will  use  it  to  the  extent  of  stirring  up  an  apparent  row  with  Canada 
and  with  England,  just  enough  to  unsettle  the  entire  Irish  vote,  certainly 
enough  to  enable  the  Democratic  Irish  to  reclaim  a  large  proportion  of 
the  eighty  thousand  Irish  who  voted  the  Republican  ticket  in  New  York  in 
1884. 

In  his  present  position,  the  President  is  open  to  the  keenest  of  political 
weapons  —  ridicule.  I  have  been  on  the  stump,  continuously,  since  his 
message,  and  can  testify  that  the  disapprobation  of  his  position  by  large 
audiences  is  absolutely  unanimous,  so  far  as  I  can  judge.  Nor  do  I  mean 
by  this  simply  on  the  part  of  Republicans.  The  Democrats  are  more 
embarrassed  by  his  somersault  than  I  could  easily  describe.  If  he  be  left  just 
where  he  now  is  he  will  be  inevitably  beaten  badly  in  November.  If  the 
Republicans  in  Congress  approve  his  position,  by  giving  him  the  legisla 
tion  asked  for,  his  prestige  and  power  before  the  people  will  be  enor 
mously  increased.  It  will  effect  thousands  of  votes  in  this  State  if  it 
should  be  proved  that  the  Republicans  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  are 
ready  to  respond  to  the  extraordinary  demand  of  the  President,  and  destroy 
our  railway  trade  with  Canada.  If  you  are  not  ready  to  oppose  the  bill 
altogether,  why  not  put  this  amendment :  That  the  new  power  of  retalia 
tion  shall  not  be  used  until  that  already  granted  shall  be  proved,  by  trial, 
wholly  ineffective,  and  that,  in  any  event,  it  shall  not  be  used  until  six 
months  after  notice  is  given  to  England  of  the  formal  abrogation  of  the 
29th  Article  of  the  Treaty  of  Washington. 

I  do  not  suggest  these  amendments  as  desirable,  but  they  will  be  far 
better  than  to  support  the  bill,  and  as  they  would  certainly  be  rejected  by 
the  Democrats,  they  might  only  be  offered  to  fortify  the  logic  of  your 
position  in  opposing  the  main  proposition  of  the  President.  At  the  same 
time,  I  think  immeasurably  the  strongest  ground  is  to  treat  the  President's 
message  as  the  campaign  dodge  of  a  candidate,  hard-pressed  on  an  issue 
on  which  he  is  beaten  before  the  people,  all  the  more  disastrously  beaten 
because  he  forced  the  issue  himself.  I  think  we  have  all  the  weapons  in 
our  hands  for  pushing  him  over  the  precipice,  and  if  we  steadily  hold  to 
the  ground  that  the  main  issue  is  protection  versus  free  trade,  and  that  he 
has  shown  himself  incompetent  to  deal  with  the  fishery  question  and 
wholly  unwilling  to  use  any  instrumentalities  in  his  power  to  force  a 
judicious  settlement,  that  he  has  no  right  to  ask  for  any  other,  and  that 
the  whole  situation  demands  that  nothing  more  be  done  on  that  question 
until  after  the  presidential  election,  we  shall  inevitably  defeat  him.  The 
fishing  season  of  1888  has  gone  by;  there  is  no  pending  trouble,  and 
before  the  fishing  season  of  1889  is  open  the  new  President,  whoever  he 
may  be,  will  be  in  position,  free  from  the  pressure  of  an  impending 
election,  ready  to  act  with  cool  head  on  the  whole  question. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  611 

Postscript  in  his  own  handwriting  : 

MY  DEAR  FRIENDS  : 

If  the  foregoing  has  some  long,  involved  sentences,  pray  remember 
that  that  is  the  peculiar  vice  of  dictation.  But  I  hope  you  can  spell  out 
my  meaning. 

I  deem  the  point  of  inexpressible  importance.  See  Mr.  Kasson's  con 
currence  in  my  views  on  next  page. 

Mr.  Hitt  and  Mr.  Phelps  were  at  one  with  his  aim,  made  no 
mistake,  and  the  undesired  bill  never  matured  to  legislation. 

A  journalist  of  the  other  party,  who  was  on  the  Western  trip, 
says : 

"  In  one  sense,  all  the  meetings  of  that  trip  were  alike,  because 
at  all  of  them  there  was  the  same  great  outpouring  of  the 
people  to  see  and  hear  and  worship  Blaine  ;  the  same  adoration 
on  the  part  of  his  followers  and  admirers,  and  the  same  interest 
on  the  part  of  those  who  differed  with  him  upon  political 
principles. 

"  But  it  was  in  Indiana,  perhaps,  among  the  Hoosiers,  who  are 
born,  raised,  and  die  in  an  everlasting  political  maelstrom,  that 
the  most  interesting  scenes  were  witnessed,  and  that  Blaine 
himself  was  seen  at  his  truest  and  heard  at  his  best. 

"  Whether  at  Indianapolis,  Evansville,  Jeffersonville,  Green 
Castle,  Lafayette,  or  at  the  historic  battle-ground  of  Tippecanoe, 
Blaine  astonished  his  hearers  with  his  knowledge  of  the  history 
and  resources  of  each  locality.  It  was  this  display  of  the 
knowledge  of  their  own  home  affaire  that  so  endeared  Blaine  to 
the  common  people,  and  made  the  inhabitants  of  each  town 
believe  he  had  made  an  especial  study  of  their  own  home  lives 
and  industries." 

The  truth  is  that  he  always  made  special  studies,  caught  the 
truth  in  things  current,  and  presented  it  with  a  picturesque 
brevity  that  is  the  soul  of  wit. 

To  a  great  throng  he  began  : 

"  I  have  carefully  read,  this  morning,  the  speech  delivered 
last  night  in  your  city  by  the  Hon.  Roger  Q.  Mills,  Chairman  of 
the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  and  reputed  author  of  the 
4  Mills  Bill.'  And  I  can  confess  I  was  very  greatly  surprised, 
for  I  found  that  Mr.  Mills  was  laboring  all  through  his  bill  to 


612  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    I!  LA  INK 

persuade  his  people  of  Indiana  that  President  Cleveland  and  the 
Democratic  Congress  had  been  industriously  working  for  eight 
months,  just  to  get  five  per  cent,  off  the  tariff.  [Applause.] 

"  Mr.  Mills  began  his  tariff  crusade  by  declaring  that  protection 
was  robbery  —  that  is  the  doctrine  of  free-trade  democracy  — 
and  he  comes  out  to  Indiana  to  tell  you  that  the  Republicans 
are  in  favor  of  forty-seven  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  robbery  and 
the  Democrats  are  only  in  favor  of  forty-two  and  one-half  per 
cent.  [Applause.]  Why,  these  rascally  protectionists  have 
stolen  forty-seven  chickens,  and  we  honest  Democrats  only  got 
away  with  forty-two,  —  forty-two  and  a  half.  [Applause.] 
Joking  aside,  gentlemen,  it  shows  that  the  Democratic  party  in 
Washington,  when  they  had  not  yet  heard  from  the  people, 
were  eager  and  anxious  to  destroy  the  protective  principle,  and 
now  they  are  tenfold  more  eager  and  anxious  to  prove  to  the 
people  of  Indiana  that  they  have  not  destroyed  it." 

"  For  three  months,"  says  another  writer,  "  I  was  an  inmate 
of  Mr.  Elaine's  private  car  during  the  memorable  campaign  of 
1884.  I  never  saAv  such  crowds  before,  nor  have  I  since.  Gath 
erings  of  fifty  thousand  were  common.  Hosts  of  one  hundred 
thousand  were  not  unusual.  Acres  upon  acres  of  people  would 
pack  in  together  and  wait  with  stolid  patience  for  hours  simply 
to  see  him.  At  his  presence  a  cry  would  go  up  so  wild  in  its 
frenzy  of  enthusiasm  as  to  be  always  thrilling." 

His  speech  at  the  Polo  Grounds  in  September  was  published  in 
pamphlet  form,  and  with  the  Brooklyn  and  Madison  Square  Gar 
den  addresses  was  considered  decisive  as  holding  the  essential  Irish 
vote  which  had  been  already  drawn  from  the  Democratic  column. 

To  M. : 

AUGUSTA,  July  5,  1882. 

.  .  .  A  good  fire  is  blazing  in  the  sitting-room,  but  it  is  utterly  inade 
quate  to  the  demands  of  the  occasion,  which  are  met  by  the  native  inhabi 
tants  with  coal-fires  in  furnaces.  .  .  .  Your  dear  daddy  got  home 
Saturday  afternoon  in  his  summer  suit,  thin  shoes  with  stockings — old 
ones  at  that,  and  very  shambling  on  the  foot,  and  no  gaiters.  He  called  for 
woollen  socks  and  thick  shoes  as  he  came  up  the  walk,  and  when  lie  stood 
up  on  his  highest  soles,  the  spirit  of  a  man  came  again  into  him.  He  had 
travelled  with  a  Pullman  blanket  wrapped  all  about  him,  on  the  first  day  of 
July,  and  yet  all  Augusta  is  seeking  the  seashore  and  the  mountain  air. 

July  22.     This  blurred  paper  shows  the  excitement  of  your  father  over 


HIOGRAPIIY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  613 

the  game  buried  cities.  Your  dearest  dad,  who  is  the  bright  particular  star 
generally,  paled  his  ineffectual  fires,  and  on  the  lambent  and  attenuated 
pathway  of  a  steel  pen  was  fain  to  gaze  upon  those  hidden  cities  whose 
names  his  ears  were  not  quick  enough  to  catch,  so  that  all  my  beautiful 
"  Augusta,  Maine,"  paper  I  find  written  over  with  Shiphard-like  tes 
timony  to  this  eftec"t :  "Thou  art  sour,  O  mediaeval  jackass!"  —  "() 
gambolling  kitten,  there's  a  rat!  O  gambolling  kitten,  catch  that  rat!11 
—  "  Stop  this  infernal  music!  Open  —  Hag,  Enough  !  "  I  had  the  pleas 
ure —  and  it  was  a  pleasure,  since  it  was  for  him  —  of  packing,  before 
breakfast,  three  hampers  of  lunch  for  Emmons  to  take  on  the  "Circe" 
with  him.  .*  .  .  We  found  your  father,  who  always  rises  to  the  occa 
sion  of  an  imaginary  peril,  wisely  skipping  the  real  ones,  with  Mr. 
Trescott  and  Orville  in  the  library,  the  ex-envoy  smoking,  of  course, 
all  the  gas  lighted  in  that  room  and  the  billiard  room,  all  the  draughts 
quenched,  but  all  three  perfectly  happy,  and  not  aware  of  their  stifling  pur 
gatory  till  I  had  moved  them  into  the  heaven  of  the  pure  air  of  the  parlor, 
where  they  failed  to  find  the  thread  of  their  talk,  and  wandered  wretchedly 
to  and  fro.  Mem.  —  Never  to  disturb  people  who  are  unaware  of  the  defects 
of  the  surroundings.  Full  bowls  will  not  bear  moving.  If  you  joggle  the 
milk  the  cream  will  not  rise.  These  are  not  Poor  Richard's,  but  are  worthy 
him.  ...  I  had  a  letter  yesterday,  written  at  Venice  on  the  fourth, 
which  I  read  to  Emmons  sitting  with  me  on  the  porch,  and  to  your  father, 
sitting  in  the  library.  You  can  imagine  the  key  to  which  my  voice 
was  pitched,  especially  as  the  lounge  on  which  the  pater  was  sitting 
brought  his  deaf  ear  outside.  ...  I  have  been  interrupted  to  listen  to 
the  article  on  S.  A.,  which  the  pater  is  now  writing,  and  which  is  very 
good,  both  in  what  it  does  and  does  not  say. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  John  J.  Creswell : 

WASHINGTON,  August  1,  1882. 

I  am  just  in  receipt  of  your  kind  note  of  the  28th  ult.,  and  now  derive  a 
new  pleasure  from  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Walker  Blaine  to  the  position  of 
assistant  counsel  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  before  the  Court  of  Com 
missioners  of  Alabama  Claims,  since  I  know  that  his  selection  is  a  source  of 
gratification  to  you. 

My  intercourse  with  your  son  since  his  late  arrival  in  Washington  has 
been  quite  intimate,  and  I  am  already  enabled  to  assure  you,  of  my  own 
knowledge,  that  you  need  not  suffer  a  moment's  anxiety  with  respect  to  his 
diligence  or  efficiency.  He  is  fully  competent,  not  only  to  meet  my  largest 
expectations,  and  to  achieve  an  honorable  success  for  himself,  but,  in  addi 
tion,  to  render  most  important  services  to  the  government  and  the  public. 

To  M.: 

AUGUST  2,  1882. 

You  must  not  think  that  I  cherish  any  antagonism  towards  Arthur.  I  do 
not  in  the  least.  He  is  light-weight,  and  1  do  not  propose  to  sink  the  scale 


614  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

with  a  lie  to  the  contrary,  —  that  is  all.  .  .  .  Our  dear  Jacky  lias  left  us 
for  the  Geneva  Award  and  Washington.  I  hated  to  give  him  up,  as  lie  is  a 
delightful  resource  to  me,  and  the  most  happy  combination  of  devotion  as 
a  son,  and  a  well-spring  of  knowledge  as  a  man.  My  figure,  I  see,  is 
slightly  mixed,  but  never  mind. 

AUGUST  4,  1882. 

.  .  .  Your  father,  after  enduring  one  round  day  of  Augusta,  after  the 
boys  —  who  were  great  company  for  him — had  gone,  spurred  himself  to 
an  immense  amount  of  work,  with  which  he  loaded  the  mails  of  yesterday, 
and  in  the  afternoon  got  away  himself  to  Rye,  Hamilton,  for  a  day,  and 
perhaps  Saratoga.  .  .  .  And  I  am  the  emblem  of  authority,  the  court, 
the  ratio  d'etre  of  the  house,  the  hostess  when  company  chooses  to  come, 
and  the  mother  of  my  delightful  children. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Walker  : 

WASHINGTON,  August  9,  1882. 

I  was  in  to-day  for  a  moment  to  see  Henderson,  the  Secretary  of  the  Re 
publican  Congressional  Committee,  who  seemed  not  a  little  annoyed  that 
he  had  not  received  a  reply  to  a  letter  which  he  had  written  to  you  some 
time  since,  with  reference  to  your  taking  part  in  the  political  campaign. 

The  California  people  are  extremely  anxious  that  you  should  go  out  there, 
and  a  large  delegation  of  citizens  of  Delaware  were  in  town  to-day  and 
called  upon  Henderson.  They  are  extremely  anxious  that  you  should  make 
one  speech  in  Delaware.  ...  I  told  him  that  you  had  done  more  work 
of  that  character  than  anybody,  and  deserved  your  leisure  ;  but  he  was  very 
solicitous,  and  I  promised  him  to  write  you  at  once,  and  said  I  would  guar 
antee  a  reply.  Do  send  me  a  letter  that  I  can  show  him,  as  soon  as 
possible. 

If,  in  October,  you  could  make  one  speech  in  Delaware,  and  then  go  to 
California  and  make,  say,  four  speeches,  I  am  sure  it  would  be  a  great 
favor  to  him.  You  could  go  by  the  Southern  Pacific  and  return  the  other 
way,  and  you  could  arrange  your  speeches  so  as  to  have  one  day  or  more  in 
California  between  each,  and  be  back  in  a  month.  The  trip  would  do  you 
good.  They  would  send  you  by  special  car  all  the  way,  I  am  sure,  and  I 
think  it  would  really  be  a  great  thing  for  you  to  do,  as  you  are  now  out  of 
office,  and  have  nothing  personally  at  stake. 

To  M. : 

AUGUST  27,  1882. 

.     .     .     I  found  the  boys  and  your  father  off  for  a  stroll  over  the  Hallo- 
well  Ledge,  from  which  they  came  back  tired  and  hungry,   and  bright. 
.     Walker  came  Friday  afternoon,  a  good  deal  disgusted  at  finding 
himself  in  Augusta,  instead  of  at  the  Isle  of  Shoals.     .     .     .     However, 
by  this   time  he   finds  that  there   is   good   living,  and  some  folk  worth 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  615 

seeing,  even  here,  and  to-morrow  he  starts  out  on  a  speaking  tour,  and 
your  father  ditto.  Can  you  imagine  your  father's  going  to  a  picnic  at 
Hammond's  Grove?  Yesterday  afternoon  we  went  out  to  K.  R.'s  shanty 
and  had  tea.  Your  father  was  in  a  boat  almost  all  the  time,  rowing  about 
in  the  most  reckless  manner.  It  was  perfectly  delightful  to  see  him,  and 
after  we  had  returned,  the  exercise  and  the  open  air  making  him  drowsy, 
I  covered  him  with  newspapers,  and  while  he  slept,  played  solitaire,  with 
Walker  and  Emmons  overlooking  me. 

From  Mr.  Blaine,  to  Senator  Brown : 

.  It  would  give  me  much  pleasure  to  testify  the  respect  I  have 
always  entertained  for  Mr.  Hill's  great  ability  as  a  senator,  and  my  sincere 
friendship  for  him  as  a  man.  Though  frequently  opposed  in  debate,  our 
personal  relations  were  always  most  kindly,  and  never  for  a  moment  suf 
fered  interruption.  After  I  had  left  the  Senate,  we  had  an  interchange  of 
personal  courtesies  of  the  most  cordial  character.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
gifts,  patriotic  in  all  his  purposes,  and  capable  of  doing  great  good  for  his 
country. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Senator  Brown  : 

ATLANTA,  GEORGIA,  August  28,  1882. 

.  .  .  Coming  from  a  political  opponent  by  whom  Mr.  Hill  has  been 
confronted  in  Congress  again  and  again,  the  discussion  between  the  two 
being  very  able  and  exciting,  your  letter  does  great  credit  to  your  head  and 
heart.  And  I  assure  you,  it  is  very  highly  appreciated  by  me  as  the"  friend 
of  Senator  Hill,  and  by  other  friends  to  whom  I  have  exhibited  it. 

To  M.: 

AUGUSTA,  September  1,  1882. 

.  .  .  Walker  is  telephoning  for  a  horse  to  take  him  to  some  of  the 
Monmouths  or  Pittstons,  where  he  is  to  convince  a  willing  public  that  P. 
is  a  great  fraud,  who  should  be  allowed  to  play  out  his  farces  in  private  life. 
For  we  are  in  the  veiy  midst  of  the  campaign,  and  1  almost  hope  you  are 
so  indifferent  to  politics  that  you  will  without  interest  see  that  the  pater, 
having  taken  the  stump,  the  despatches  are  once  again  teeming  with  his 
name.  I  myself  went  to  Maranacook.  Did  you  not  go  with  us  to  that 
lovely  lake  ?  This  day,  changing  the  speakers  and  the  company,  was  a 
reproduction  of  that.  Caroline  roasted  the  same  chickens  which  Emmons 
cut  up  in  the  same  efficient  way  in  the  car,  and  your  father  bobbed  in  on  us 
from  Bangor  just  in  season  to  eat  a  second  breakfast  before  starting.  After 
all,  there  is  something  very  pleasant  in  the  Maine  election  to  me.  .  .  . 
Walker  speaks  every  night,  but  as  none  of  his  family  has  sufficient  devotion 
to  go  and  hear  him,  I  can  give  you  no  estimate  of  his  worth  as  a  public 
speaker.  I  have  an  inward  conviction,  however,  that  he  is  a  good  one. 

September  3.     .     .     .    I  do  not  think  that  the  opportunity  now  remains 


616  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

for  me  to  go  abroad.  We  must  go  into  the  new  house  this  winter.  Awhile 
ago,  when  I  proposed  to  go  to  Boston  to-morrow  with  Emmons  to  look  up 
my  stained-glass  windows,  you  ought  to  have  heard  the  objections  pitted 
against  me.  There  was  General  Harrison,  who  was  to  speak  here  Tuesday 
evening,  and  who  is  very  likely  to  be  the  next  Republican  presidential 
nominee  —  did  I  hear  you  sigh?  —  and  your  father  would  not  but  have 
him  entertained  in  this  house  lor  the  world,  and  it  would  be  no  entertain 
ment  if  he  and  I  were  both  away.  And  if  all  this  war  of  words  is  kindled  by  a 
proposal  of  one  day's  absence,  what  would  be  thought,  felt,  and  expressed 
if  I  should  mention  Europe  ?  .  .  .  Election  day  is  to-morrow  week, 
and  as  soon  as  they  have  voted,  your  father  and  Emmons  leave  for  Kansas. 
The  pater  hates  it,  but  Emmons  holds  him  to  his  promise  made  in  the  spring, 
to  speak  at  the  fair  in  Topeka,  in  September.  .  .  .  We  seem  to  have 
come  into  the  newspapers,  after  quite  a  lull,  your  father's  presence  in  the 
campaign  having  waked  up  large  audiences.  Walker  goes  back  to  Wash 
ington  to  his  work  as  soon  as  election  is  over.  Mr.  Creswell,  his  chief,  he 
likes  much,  and  is  quite  surprised  to  find  him  an  industrious,  stalwart,  and 
hard-working  commissioner. 

From  Hon.  Benjamin  Harrison,  to  Mr.  Blaine  : 

PORTLAND,  ME.,  September  9,  1882. 

As  I  go  to  Boston  after  the  meeting  to-night  the  hope  of  seeing  you 
again  is  gone,  and  as  I  shall  have  no  opportunity  to  urge  personally  my 
request  that  you  will  make  some  speeches  in  Indiana,  I  write  this  letter. 
We  vert/  much  need  you,  and  shall  be  much  disappointed  if  you  don't  come. 
Please  present  my  kind  regards  to  your  family,  to  whose  kindness  I  am  in 
debted  for  the  pleasantest  recollections  of  my  visit  to  Maine. 

To  M.: 

AUGUSTA,  September  11,  1882. 

.  .  .  This  is  election  day,  and  the  polls  are  already  long  enough 
closed  for  me  to  have  had  a  visit  from  Mr.  Iloman,  assuring  me  of  the 
gains  in  many  towns,  and  now  Walker  telephones  an  enlarged  list,  and 
Joe  Manley  shouts  over  the  wire,  "  We  shall  have  a  majority  of  over  four 
thousand.11  This  is  cheering  news  indeed,  for  even  so  late  as  our  3-o'clock 
dinner  Walker  felt  great  uneasiness.  I  can  quote  only  Walker,  for  your 
father  and  Emmons,  after  detaining  the  train  till  they  could  vote,  left  this 
morning  for  Kansas.  They  travel  night  and  day.  Your  father  never 
left  home  more  reluctantly  in  his  life  of  many  farewells  ;  but  Emmons  held 
him  to  his  promise  and  fairly  carried  him  off. 

September  20.  .  .  .  The  anniversary  of  the  sad  days  at  Elberon. 
One  year  ago  this  morning  we  were  stranded  on  the  hither  side  of  Stamford, 
while  Arthur  was  telegraphing  your  father  that  he  should  wait  for  him  in 
New  York  before  he  proceeded  to  Elberon.  Then  came  the  breakfast  at  the 
Gilsey  house,  the  special  train  to  Elberon  with  the  new  President,  the  recep- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  617 

tion  of  the  living,  the  still  more  solemn  meeting  with  the  dead,  the  funeral 
services  over  the  poor  remnants  of  the  poor  body,  the  journey  to  Washington, 
the  marvellous  impressiveness  of  the  ceremonies  there.  .  .  .  How  it 
makes  me  feel  to  go  over  my  evidence,  as  the  old  church  used  to  say,  and 
see  how  we  have  fallen  from  grace.  Does  it  pay  to  be  great  and  out  of 
place,  better  than  to  be  small  and  in  a  high  place  ?  Oh,  yes,  —  a  thousand 
times  yes.  Better  a  gem  of  purest  ray  serene,  than  paste  in  the  crown  of  a 
queen. 

October  5.  You  see,  don't  you,  that  you  are  in  my  own  room,  which  is 
warm  with  sunshine  and  a  wood  fire  ?  None  of  the  cold  elegance  of  a 
Parisian  bedroom  is  here,  but  all  is  cordiality,  and  newspapers,  and  warmth, 
and  bright  talk,  and  communism,  for  your  father  is  in  bed,  and  Emmons, 
wrapped  in  blankets,  sits  in  the  arm-chair,  and  Dr.  Brickett  comes  and  goes, 
and  Colonel  O.  is  here,  and  Fred  appears  at  the  door  with  an  old  pair  of 
tongs  which  he  has  hunted  up  in  the  cellar,  and  with  a  duck  towards  the  bed 
intimates  to  me  that  "  he\s  all  right,  madanie,  I  tell'd  'em  so  down  street" 
—  for  your  father  was  taken  ill  Sunday  at  York,  and  the  newspapers  have 
iterated  and  reiterated  the  report  till  even  strong  nerves  take  the  alarm. 
Emmons  drove  Jip  to  Lewiston  to  the  State  fair  last  Wednesday,  return 
ing  Friday  with  a  dreadful  cold  which  seemed  to  settle  into  a  malarial 
fever,  with  typhoid  tendencies,  so  that  I  wrote  your  father  asking  him 
to  come  home,  and,  to  my  great  dismay,  got,  instead  of  him,  a  telegram 
saying  that  he  was  himself  sick,  very  much  in  the  same  way.  However, 
he  got  home  at  8  last  night,  in  very  good  condition  both  in  mind  and 
body  —  thanks  to  the  kindness  of  President  Phillips,  who  sent  him  through 
in  his  private  car ;  and  now  after  traversing  that  old  gallery  about  fifty 
times,  going  from  one  side  room  to  the  other,  I  have  got  them  into  the 
same  room,  and  under  my  own  wing,  and  I  think  they  are  getting  better 
every  moment. 

To  M. : 

NOVEMBER  2,  1882. 

.  .  .  General  McClellan  wants  to  buy  the  old  Washington  house. 
At  first  your  father  utterly  refused  to  entertain  the  proposition,  saying  it 
would  turn  him  out  of  house  and  home  for  the  winter,  oblivious  apparently, 
utterly,  of  the  new  house.  -All  day  I  have  been  arguing  with  him  to  give 
up  the  house  now,  and  let  me  go  on  and  get  a  few  rooms  ready  in  the 
new  domain  for  immediate  occupancy.  I  am  afraid  of  so  much  unre- 
munerative  property.  One  good  thing  which  has  come  out  of  the  anxiety 
and  perplexity  of  the  day  is  that  your  father,  who  has  been  moping  miser 
ably  for  a  few  days,  has  roused  up  and  is  now  cheerful  and  peart  as  a  par 
tridge,  conversing  with  Emmons. 

From  Hon.  Pierrepoiit  Edwards  : 

ST.  PETERSBURG,  November  29,  1882. 

.  .  .  I  congratulate  you  and  your  husband  on  the  result  in  Maine, 
the  only  doubtful  State  saved  amid  the  general  wreck,  and  the  only  one 


618  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

except  Illinois  where  the  old  Cabinet  put  forth  its  strength,  and  a  repre 
sentative.  "  Arthur,11  said  a  friend  of  mine  the  day  that  Blaine's  resigna 
tion  was  accepted,  "  will  regret  this  step,  for  Blaine  is  far  more  important 
to  Arthur  than  Arthur  is  to  Blaine.11  Prophetic  words !  they  are  already 
history.  ...  I  am  disgusted  with  all  that  has  happened,  and  await  the 
fate  of  the  patriotic  and  loyal  party  that  has  been  dragged  by  the  strong 
arm  of  presidential  patronage  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 

To  M. : 

NEW  YORK,  December  6,  1882. 

.  .  .  You  will  infer,  of  course,  that  I  am  nere  in  the  interest  of  the 
house.  It  is  so  deplorable  to  have  no  home,  and  your  father  is  so  anxious 
to  have  a  retirement  in  which  he  can  write,  that  I  am  pushing  all  my  pur 
chases  with  vigor  rather  than  discretion,  though  I  am  not  reckless. 
.  Do  not  feel  uneasy  about  us.  Your  father  said  yesterday  the 
presidency  came  no  more  into  his  calculations,  but  that  his  family  had 
never  seemed  so  dear  to  him,  nor  had  he  ever  felt  himself  so  devoted  to 
them. 

From  Mr.  Blaine,  to  his  daughter  in  Europe : 

LAST  DAY  OF  1882. 

I  sit  in  the  front  window  of  the  new  house  looking  out  on  a  beautiful 
day,  with  all  Washington  out  in  gay  attire  for  Sunday,  and  inside  a  happy 
family  surrounded  with  the  confusion  and  disorder  of  boxes,  bales,  pict 
ures,  paint,  wall  paper,  etc.  .  .  .  Whenever  you  find  the  convent 
unendurable,  come  out ;  but  the  longer  you  stay,  the  more  you  will  know. 

From  G. : 

DUPONT  CIRCLE. 

.  .  .  People  seem  to  think  Mr.  Blaine  sits  here  like  a  spider  spin 
ning  a  web ;  and  so  he  does,  but  the  web  is  his  history,  and  not  politics. 

.  .  .  He  glories  in  the  gout  because  it  is  indisputable.  Most  of  his 
ailments  are  mere  fancies,  which  he  gets  laughed  out  of  before  he  is  com 
fortably  settled  down  in  them.  His  gout  is  an  inheritance,  not  an  acquire 
ment.  Never  a  man  lived  more  simply.  .  .  . 

To  M. : 

MARCH  4,  1883. 

Had  your  father  remained  in  the  Senate  instead  of  going  into  Garfield^ 
Cabinet,  this  day  would  have  completed  his  first  whole  term.  I  have  been 
talking  with  him  about  it,  and  he  says  he  has  not  a  regret  anent  his  own 
decision,  that  he  has  now  not  only  no  desire  for  public  life,  but  an  absolute 
repugnance. 

March  12.  ...  All  these  trips  of  Emmons  are  always  in  the  inter 
est  of  railways,  and  by  and  by  I  am  sure  that  he  will  alight  on  his  feet  a 
thorough  business  man.  Your  father  says  he  is  a  bull  always.  Every* 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  619 

thing  he   questions.     He  risks  nothing,  but  this   makes   him   a  discreet 
counsellor. 

You  want  me  to  write  politically.  I  do  not  know  what  to  say,  for  there 
is  no  situation  at  present.  I  know  the  nomination  of  '84  is  not  a  sujet 
dtfcmlu  exactly,  for  we  all  say  whatever  is  in  our  minds.  Your  father  is 
as  little  a  candidate  as  though  he  had  succeeded  in  76  and  '80.  The  one 
thing  he  perhaps  does  desire  is  to  be  once  more  Secretary  of  State. 

March  19.  ...  That  I  may  disburden  my  mind  of  its  most  press 
ing  need,  I  want  you  to  come  home  by  the  first  opportunity.  It  is  impos 
sible  for  me  to  go  over.  Your  father  is  opposed  to  it,  and  that  with  me 
has  always  been  a  sufticient  reason.  I  never  can,  I  never  wish  to  oppose 
him,  and  as  we  have  done  nothing  but  give  out  money  for  the  last  year 
ever  since  we  began  this  house,  even  the  slight  additional  outlay  of  a 
European  trip  might  inconvenience  him.  There  is  nothing  seriously  out 
of  joint  with  the  bank  account,  but  this  house  and  land  have  proved  a  sort 
of  sinking-fund  which  has  to  be  considered.  Still,  if  you  could  hear  that 
dear  pater  of  yours  at  this  moment  singing,  as  he  works,  you  would  see 
that  his  soul  is  not  disquieted  within  him  and  that  yours  must  not  be. 
.  Walker  is  worth  his  weight  in  love  and  gold,  and  can  be 
relied  on  for  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  tight  places  of  dinners  and  teas. 
Last  night  he  invited  all  the  guests,  arranged  their  seats  at  table,  himself 
took  out  the  only  stranger,  and  generally  stood  between  me  and  any 
anxiety,  in  a  way  which  your  father,  dear  and  interesting  as  he  has  always 
been,  never  knew  how  to  do.  Then  Jacky  is  very  interesting. 
Any  difficulty  but  that  of  money  I  could  perhaps  surmount,  but  the  un 
known,  and  money  is  always  to  me  the  unknown  factor,  frightens  me. 
Your  father  is  writing  a  book,  "  Twenty  Years  of  Congress."  It  will 
not  probably  be  interesting  to  you  and  to  me,  but  think  of  the  many, 
many  who  will  want  to  read  and  own  it. 

From  V. : 

APRIL  9,  1883. 

Mr.  Elaine  went  to  Judge  Strong's  Saturday  night  to  see  about  building 
a  new  Presbyterian  Church  up  here;  thinks  it  is  "sort  of  heathenish1' 
not  to  have  or  attend  any  church.  .  .  .  Quite  a  number  of  cyclopedia 
volumes  came  out  at  dinner — all  to  throw  light  on  the  Westminster 
catechism. 

Driving  with  Mr.  Blaine  I  asked  him,  **  If  any  one  should  ask  you  what 
was  your  creed,  what  shouJI  you  say  ?"  "  I  should  say  it  was  a  general 
belief  in  Christianity,  modified  by  the  Presbyterian  Blaines  on  one  side 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  Gillespies  on  the  other."  —  "  You  don't  know  any 
more  about  theology  than  the  squirrel  running  up  those  trees.  Let  me 
give  you  yo^ir  creed.  Thou  shall  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  —  —  "  Oh  !  I 
know  that." — "Nevermind,  listen  —  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy 
soul  and  with  all  thy  mind  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  the  rest.  Now 
say  it  over  yourself.  Say  it."  He  repeats  it  obediently,  and  after  a  pause, 


620  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

"  Well,  you  don't  know  the  difference  between  the  Democratic  platform 
of  1856  and  1852,"  and  completes  his  revenge  by  rejoicing  with  the  old 
Scotchman  that  I  "  meddle  only  with  the  things  o1  God  which  I  cannot 
change,  rather  than  with  the  things  o'  man  where  I  might  do  harm." 
.  Clarence  Hale  is  in  Washington  on  business  before  Walker's 
court;  says  the  atmosphere  of  the  court  is  redolent  of  Walker's  praises. 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  M. : 

WASHINGTON,  April  20,  1883. 

First  as  to  business.  You  will  receive,  a  day  or  two  after  this  reaches 
you,  an  additional  credit  for  something  over  5, 000  francs,  which  I  hope  may 
square  you  off;  but  if  you  deem  it  necessary  to  go  beyond  that  sum,  you 
will  not  regard  it  as  an  absolute  restriction,  — though  I  wish  you  may  find 
it  sufficient  for  all  your  demands,  —  Worth  and  worthless.  We  are  over 
joyed  at  your  expected  return ;  you  will  come  to  warm  hearts  and  open 
arms,  and  I  persuade  myself  that,  hard  in  many  ways  as  the  long  separa 
tion  has  been  to  you  and  to  us,  it  will,  for  all  your  life,  be  regarded  as 
time  most  profitably  spent.  You  will  find  changes,  —  my  hair  a  little 
whiter.  .  .  .  Alice  gone  from  us  to  a  new  home  of  her  own,  Jacky 
given  up  too  much  to  society  and  to  fashion,  Emmons  more  serious  and 
thoughtful,  but  all  unchanged  in  deep  affection  for  you,  except  that  it  grows 
deeper.  We  hope  to  remain  in  Washington  till  you  come,  though  it  is  pos 
sible  the  heat  may  grow  too  intense  either  for  your  comfort  or  ours,  in 
which  event  we  shall  hope  for  a  reunion  in  the  old  home  house. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Col.  John  Hay: 

JUNE  21,  1883. 

The  book  puts  you  easily  and  securely  in  the  front  rank  of 
American  men  of  letters. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Walker : 

WASHINGTON,  June  30,  1883. 

.  .  .  I  have  also  been  to  see  the  P.  M.  General  about  Mrs.  T. 
Gresham  says  he  will  give  you  a  place  if  you  desire  it,  but  here  is  the  em 
barrassment:  They  have  been  obliged  to  reduce  the  force  in  one  of  the 
bureaus  recently  by  twelve  (all  women  and  all  good  clerks).  Now,  the 
Civil  Service  rules  go  into  effect  about  the  middle  of  July,  and  though  these 
women  are  all  good  clerks,  yet  they  could  not,  perhaps,  pass  the  examina 
tion.  If  they  are  not  given  places  before  that,  they  will  all  lose  their  places, 
reform  being  absolutely  heartless  and  mercilessly  just — or  unjust.  Mrs. 
T.  only  wants  a  place  for  a  short  time,  these  other  people  want  it  for 
bread  and  butter  —  their  only  means  of  support;  and  when  Gresham  ap 
pealed  to  sympathy,  I  didn't  know  what  to  say.  I  finally  asked  him  to 
leave  the  matter  open  for  a  day,  which  he  said  he  would  do.  ...  I 
am  heartily  sick  and  tired  of  this  place-seeking  business,  and  nothing  but 
sympathy  for  those  for  whom  I  seek  coula  keep  me  up  in  it.  I  would  not 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  621 

take  the  bread  out  of  the  mouth  of  a  poor  woman,  and  I  did  not  feel  like 
pushing  Gresham,  who  was  really  very  kind,  and  who  would,  I  think,  have 
made  the  appointment,  had  I  persisted. 

ToM.: 

AUGUSTA,  June  30,  1883. 

.  .  .  Your  father,  who  arrived  on  the  "Flying  Yankee1'  yesterday, 
at  7.30,  has  spent  the  whole  of  it  on  the  lawn,  and  under  the  apple-trees, 
with  a  billiard  cue.  He  says  he  has  taken  more  exercise  than  in  the  whole 
preceding  six  months.  He  was  very  homesick  last  night,  but  this  morning 
highly  approves  Augusta. 

To  Walker : 

JULY  10,  1883. 

.  You  remember  how  sweetly  your  father  and  Emmons  sang  its 
praises  in  Washington.  Your  lonely  condition  seemed  to  them  of  no 
account.  Well,  here  I  am,  with  a  house  in  beautiful  order,  excellent  ser 
vants,  bright  skies,  delicious  air,  and  a  sun  rejoicing  to  run  his  race.  Here 
are  your  two  sisters ;  but  where,  oh,  where  are  those  nobler  spirits  who 
were  so  impatient  for  this  elysium  ?  Emmons,  at  the  first  petty  tempta 
tion,  went  off  after  just  one  day's  enjoyment  of  his  family  and  friends,  and 
that  same  afternoon  what  did  your  father — pater  nobilis  filii  nobilis —  but 
telegraph  Payson  Tucker  to  know  if  the  "  Flying  Yankee  "  could  be  stopped 
at  North  Hampton.  Of  course  it  could ;  when  was  the  descensus  not 
made/actVis?  So  at  four  o'clock  behold  him  with  remorseful  visage  and 
many  self-reproaches,  I  own,  kissing  his  womankind  in  the  hall,  while  the 
Augusta  House  hack  waited  at  the  gate.  Yes,  Walker,  the  A.  H.  H.,  for 
we  still  have  no  horses,  nor  do  I  see  why  we  are  likely  to  have  any. 
Charlie  White,  to  be  sure,  has  driven  a  pair  around  the  "  Heart"  for  our 
inspection,  but  when  M.  said,  "  Why,  Mr.  White,  you  cannot  see  them  with 
out  looking  over  the  dasher,  can  you  ?  "  he  coolly  gathered  up  the  reins, 
remarking  only,  "  They  are  not  mine,"  and  drove  off. 

From  Hon.  W.  W.  Phelps  : 

TEANECK,  NEAR  ENGLEWOOD,  SUNDAY,  July  22,  1883. 

DEAR  MRS.  BLAINE  :  Only  to  hope  that  you  are  pretty  cool,  well  and 
happy ;  only  to  hope  that  our  M.  I.  isn't  a  Catholic  ;  only  to  tell  you  that  I 
spent  Friday  night  at  Elberon  and  there  talked  with,  inter  alios, 

Childs, 

Cornell. 

Each  was  separate  from  the  other.  Said  Childs,  "  Grant  thinks  your 
friend  Elaine  will  be  the  next  President."  Said  Cornell,  "  I  think  your 
friend  Elaine  is  sure,  if  he  can  keep  out  of  the  fight  till  nearly  the  end,  to 
win."  Etc.,  etc.  Whence  it  is  plain  that  at  Long  Branch,  and  in  the 
mouths  of  Grant  and  Cornell,  our  future  is  assured. 


622  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

I  do  not  think  so,  nor  do  you.  But  I  thought  you  would  like  to  know 
this  incident  of  my  Elberon  evening.  So  I  write  this,  and  nothing  more, 
except  that  I  am 

Cordially  all  of  yours. 

To  Walker : 

AUGUSTA,  July  28,  1883. 

.  .  .  Thursday  we  had  a  circus  here.  In  the  morning  Mons  went 
down  to  inspect  the  grounds.  As  he  was  walking  about,  a  flashily  dressed 
man  came  from  one  of  the  tents,  and  said,  "  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Blaine. 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  making  your  acquaintance  at  the  Hot  Springs.11  Of 
course  Ernmons  established  your  identity.  I  believe  Mr.  Davis  —  for  it  was 
the  manager  himself  —  credits  you  with  originating  his  enterprise.  At  any 
rate,  he  seemed  to  entertain  the  liveliest  recollection  of  your  agreeability, 
and  on  parting  presented  your  brother  with  four  tickets.  As  M.  had  a 
little  circus  party  that  night,  they  came  in  very  well. 

August  7.  ...  Only  to  let  you  know  that  this  is  our  Emmons1 
twenty-sixth  birthday.  Your  father,  in  a  worse  than  usual  hat,  is  saun 
tering  under  the  apple-trees,  while  Emmons  looks  up  Cowper  from  the 
bookcase  —  Islington  and  Edmonton  being  in  dispute  between  his  father 
and  himself,  he  winning,  of  course,  for  your  fathers  taste  is  not  poesy. 
.  .  .  He  came  from  Rye  Saturday  morning,  looking  and  feeling  all 
the  worse  for  his  attempted  flight  at  gayety.  He  was  pretty  blue  that 
night,  but  Sunday  he  got  up  with  spirits  attuned  to  the  day,  which  was 
bright,  and  yesterday,  though  not  quite  so  peart,  he  did  not  go  far  back,  and 
this  morning  he  is  again  in  harmony  with  the  outside  world. 

August  22.  ...  Your  father  once  more  in  love  with  his  book,  and 
writing  assiduously  all  the  morning. 

From  Walker,  to  M. : 

WASHINGTON,  October  15,  1883. 

.  .  .  I  went  to-day  to  look  over  the  Marcy  house,  and  a  very  cheerful 
habitation  it  appeared.  I  can't  say  that  I  admire  the  third-story  carpets, 
which,  when  new,  must  have  looked  like  a  green  nightmare.  Age  has  im 
proved  them  a  little.  Moreover,  an  old  man,  bent  in  the  middle  like  a 
rusty  jack-knife,  showed  me  about,  and  eyed  me  suspiciously  as  though  my 
name  was  not  what  I  professed ;  but  despite  carpet  and  caution,  it  seemed 
to  me  that  it  would  prove  to  be  a  cheerful  abiding-place  for  the  season. 
Whether  the  season  will  prove  a  gay  one  or  not  I  do  not  know.  The  house- 
renting  would  indicate  it,  but  the  elections  have  played  such  havoc  with 
Republican  hopes  that  the  g.  o.  p.  will  not  be  very  jovial.  Did  you  know 
that  at  a  lecture  on  the  Senate  which  a  man  named  French,  who  used  to  be 
sergeant-at-arms  of  that  body,  gave  here  the  other  night  the  whole  audi- 
dience  rose  and  cheered  when  he  mentioned  father's  name  ?  and  General 
Beale  told  me  on  the  way  to  the  farm  that  he  regarded  father  as  the  only 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  623 

candidate  for  the  Republicans.  That's  pretty  strong  from  such  a  Grant 
man.  But  I  doubt  much  whether  the  Republicans  can  elect  anybody.  As 
forme,  I'm  hammering  away  and  being  hammered  at  in  my  court,  day  in 
and  day  out,  and  I  get  so  tired  of  hearing  about  cruisers  and  high  seas,  that 
my  mind  is  in  a  whirl  all  the  time.  To-morrow,  for  example,  I  have  to 
face  an  attorney  who  has  been  talking  nonsense  all  day,  and  if  I  express  my 
conscientious  opinion  of  his  logic  he  will  grow  very  indignant.  As  he  has 
a  tile  loose  in  the  roof,  I  don't  know  what  he  may  do.  If  I  don't  express 
the  opinion  he  will  insult  me.  As  it  is,  I  think  I'll  polish  him  oft*  with 
lavish  compliments,  which  will  so  please  him  that  he  will  never  see  how  he 
is  beaten,  — not  by  the  force  of  argument,  but  by  fact,  for  he  was  a  fool  to 
bring  his  case  in  the  beginning.  .  .  .  Don't  you  be  disappointed  about 
the  house.  You'll  like  Lafayette  square  just  as  well,  and  I'm  going  to  devote 
myself  to  making  the  winter  most  delightful  and  agreeable  to  you.  When 
is  T.'s  birthday  ?  With  love  to  all  the  family,  and  with  the  earnest  entreaty 
that  you  will  soon  come  on,  for  I  pine  for  you. 

Devotedly, 

JACKY. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard : 

OMAHA,  NEB.,  October  16,  1883. 

I  meant  to  have  written  you  about  some  choice  despatches  you  sent  me 
in  1861-2.  I  have  preserved  them  and  every  letter  you  have  written  me. 
I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  using  two  or  three  which  concerned  myself 
and  expressed  your  patriotic  kindness.  I  trust  you  will  have  no  objection 
to  this.  I  want  to  say,  dear  friend,  that  I  have  always  felt  a  strong  attach 
ment  to  you,  and  deep  gratitude  for  your  kindness  to  me  and  mine. 

To  Mr.  Blaine : 

CHICAGO,  October  28,  1883. 

.  .  .  He  had  the  assurance  to  ask  me  the  disposition  of  your  mind 
towards  the  presidency,  to  which  I  answered  that  I  could  not  possibly  see 
how  that  could  be  of  interest  to  him  who  had  already  advertised  to  the 
world  his  own  convictions  on  that  subject  as  regarded  you  personally. 
"  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I  assure  you  I  am  not  interviewing  you,  and  anything  you 
may  choose  to  say  I  shall  regard  as  confidential."  Whereupon  I  told  him 
that  I  had  never  heard  you  speak  of  it,  which  on  after  reflection  I  was 
pleased  to  find  was  the  truth. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

WASHINGTON,  April  21,  1884. 

.  .  .  What  do  you  think  ?  Three  or  four  country  papers  in  Massachu 
setts  are  out  for  me,  including  the  Salem  "  Post."  They  are  pitching  into 
the  Boston  papers  furiously.  I  am  not  in  the  least  off  my  feet ;  but  you 
had  better  hurry  home  and  preserve  the  equilibrium  in  other  members  of 


624  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  household.     I  do  not  think  I  shall  be  nominated,  but  I  am  disturbing 
the  calculations  of  others  at  an  astonishing  rate. 

But  two  things  in  Virginia  are  worth  seeing,  —  Natural  bridge  and  Hamp 
ton  roads.  See  them  quick,  and  be  done  with  them. 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  General  Sherman : 

(Confidential) 
Strictly  and  absolutely  so. 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  May  25,  1884. 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL  :  This  letter  requires  no  answer.  After  reading  it 
carefully  file  it  away  in  your  most  secret  drawer,  or  give  it  to  the  flames. 

At  the  approaching  convention  in  Chicago  it  is  more  than  possible  —  it 
is  indeed  not  improbable  —  that  you  may  be  nominated  for  the  presidency. 
If  so  you  must  stand  your  hand,  accept  the  responsibility,  and  assume  the 
duties  of  the  place  to  which  you  will  surely  be  chosen  if  a  candidate. 
You  must  not  look  upon  it  as  the  work  of  the  politicians.  If  it  comes  to  you, 
it  will  come  as  the  ground-swell  of  popular  demand  —  and  you  can  no 
more  refuse  than  you  could  have  refused  to  obey  an  order  when  you  were 
a  lieutenant  in  the  army.  If  it  comes  to  you  at  all  it  will  come  as  a  call  of 
patriotism.  It  would,  in  such  an  event,  injure  your  great  fame  as  much  to 
decline  it  as  it  would  for  you  to  seek  it.  Your  historic  record,  full  as  it 
is,  would  be  rendered  still  more  glorious  by  such  an  administration  as  you 
would  be  able  to  give  the  country.  Do  not  say  a  word  in  advance  of  the 
convention,  no  matter  who  may  ask  you.  You  are  with  your  friends,  who 
will  jealously  guard  your  honor. 

Do  not  answer  this. 

ST.  Louis,  May  28,  1884. 
HON.  J.  G.  BI.AINE  : 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  25th ;  shall  con 
strue  it  as  absolutely  confidential,  not  intimating  even  to  any  member  of 
my  family  that  I  have  heard  from  you ;  and  though  you  may  not  expect 
an  answer,  I  hope  you  will  not  construe  one  as  unwarranted.  I  have  had 
a  great  many  letters  from  all  points  of  the  compass  to  a  similar  effect,  one 
or  two  of  which  I  have  answered  frankly;  but  the  great  mass  are  un 
answered.  I  ought  not  to  subject  myself  to  the  cheap  ridicule  of  declining 
what  is  not  offered,  but  it  is  only  fair  to  the  many  really  able  men  who 
rightfully  aspire  to  the  high  honor  of  being  President  of  the  United  States 
to  let  them  know  that  I  am  not  and  must  not  be  construed  as  a  rival.  In 
every  man's  life  there  occurs  an  epoch  when  he  must  choose  his  own  career, 
and  when  he  may  not  throw  the  responsibility,  or  tamely  place  his  destiny  in 
the  hands  of  friends.  Mine  occurred  in  Louisiana  when,  in  1861,  alone 
in  the  midst  of  a  people  blinded  by  supposed  wrongs,  I  resolved  to  stand  by 
the  Union  as  long  as  a  fragment  of  it  survived  to  which  to  cling.  Since 
then,  through  faction,  tempest,  war,  and  peace,  my  career  has  been  all  my 


•RIOGEAPI1Y    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  625 

family  and  friends  could  ask.  We  are  now  in  a  good  home  of  our  choice, 
with  reasonable  provision  for  old  age,  surrounded  by  kind  and  admiring 
friends,  in  a  community  where  Catholicism  is  held  in  respect  and  venera 
tion,  and  where  my  children  will  naturally  grow  up  in  contact  with  an 
industrious  and  frugal  people.  You  have  known  and  appreciated  Mrs. 
Sherman  from  childhood,  have  also  known  each  and  all  the  members  of  my 
family,  and  can  understand,  without  an  explanation  from  me,  how  their 
thoughts  and  feelings  should  and  ought  to  influence  my  action;  but  I  will 
not  even  throw  oft'  on  them  the  responsibility.  I  will  not,  in  any  event, 
entertain  or  accept  a  nomination  as  a  candidate  for  President  by  the  Chicago 
Republican  convention,  or  any  other  convention,  for  reasons  personal  to 
myself.  I  claim  that  the  Civil  war,  in  which  I  simply  did  a  man's  fail- 
share  of  work,  so  perfectly  accomplished  peace,  that  military  men  have  an 
absolute  right  to  rest,  and  to  demand  that  the  men  who  have  been  schooled 
in  the  arts  and  practice  of  peace  shall  now  do  their  work  equally  well. 
Any  senator  can  step  from  his  chair  at  the  capitol  into  the  White  House, 
and  fulfil  the  oftice  of  President  with  more  skill  and  success  than  a  Grant, 
Sherman,  or  Sheridan,  who  were  soldiers  by  education  and  nature,  who 
filled  well  their  office  when  the  country  was  in  danger,  but  were  not 
schooled  in  the  practices  by  which  civil  communities  are,  and  should  be, 
governed.  I  claim  that  our  experience  since  1865  demonstrates  the  truth 
of  this  my  proposition.  Therefore  I  say  that  "  patriotism  "  does  not  demand 
of  me  what  I  construe  as  a  sacrifice  of  judgment,  of  inclination,  and  of 
self-interest.  I  have  my  personal  affairs  in  a  state  of  absolute  safety  and 
comfort.  I  owe  no  man  a  cent,  have  no  expensive  habits  or  tastes,  envy 
no  man  his  wealth  or  power,  no  complications  or  indirect  liabilities,  and 
would  account  myself  a  fool,  a  madman,  an  ass,  to  embark  anew,  at  sixty- 
five  years  of  age,  in  a  career  that  may,  at  any  moment,  become  tempest- 
tossed  by  the  perfidy,  the  defalcation,  the  dishonesty,  or  neglect  of  any  one  of 
a  hundred  thousand  subordinates  utterly  unknown  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  not  to  say  the  eternal  worriment  by  a  vast  host  of  impecu 
nious  friends  and  old  military  subordinates.  Even  as  it  is,  I  am  tortured 
by  the  charitable  appeals  of  poor  distressed  pensioners,  but  as  President, 
these  would  be  multiplied  beyond  human  endurance.  I  remember  well  the 
experience  of  Generals  Jackson,  Harrison,  Taylor,  Grant,  Hayes,  and  Gar- 
field,  all  elected  because  of  their  military  services,  and  am  warned,  not 
encouraged,  by  their  sad  experiences.  No, — count  me  out.  The  civilians 
of  the  U.S.  should,  and  must,  buffet  with  this  thankless  office,  and  leave  us 
old  soldiers  to  enjoy  the  peace  we  fought  for,  and  think  we  earned. 

With  profound  respect, 

Your  friend, 

W.  T.  SHERMAN. 

To  Walker,  from  V. : 

AUGUSTA,  June  4,  1884. 

.     .     .     There  is   a  great  and  new  feeling  astir  in  Massachusetts.     I 
perceived  it  as  soon  as  I  set  foot  in  the  State.     It  manifested  itself  along 


626  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  route.  At  Salem  quite  a  crowd  had  assembled.  While  I  was  waiting 
at  Ipswich,  a  telegram  came  from  Newburyport  saying  that  the  people 
were  gathering  there  and  begged  Mr.  Blaine  to  let  them  see  him.  When 
we  reached  Newburyport  the  station  was  full,  and  a  voice  cried  out, 
"  Come  out  here,  Senator  Blaine,  and  let  us  show  you  that  you  have  friends 
in  Massachusetts.11  When  he  appeared  there  was  an  outburst  of  applause. 
The  Augusta  people  telegraphed  up  for  permission  to  give  a  reception,  but 
I  believe  even  M.  considered  that  premature.  There  was  a  great  throng 
at  the  station.  You  need  not  be  informed  that  the  people  here  are  a  little 
wild.  Your  Spartan  mother  is  furbishing  her  drawing-rooms,  however, 
witli  unhurried  step,  and  trying  with  varying  success  to  keep  your  father 
and  M.  from  coming  to  blows.  M.  views  his  serenity  with  unconcealed 
disgust,  and  evidently  considers  that  if  he  \v6uld  telegraph  to  Chicago  that 
his  one  object  in  life  is  the  nomination,  and  that  he  proposes  to  slay  every 
man  who  opposes  it,  success  would  be  certain.  Ske  is  as  frank  as  a 
chicken  in  the  exhibition  of  her  wishes.  You,  I  fear,  are  net  sufficiently 
rural  to  take  in  the  full  force  of  that  simile.  .  .  .  All  are  well,  and  in 
good  spirits,  except  M.,  whose  spirits  depend  entirely  upon  the  telegraph 
wire.  Dear  Walker,  whatever  happens,  be  the  brave  and  worthy  son  of 
your  father,  whose  magnanimity  is  never  more  manifest  than  on  these 
great  occasions.  Never  a  man  was  brought  to  severer  tests,  and  never  a 
man  stood  them  more  tranquilly.  But  let  his  family  be  to  him  a  wall  of 
strength.  He  is  great,  above  and  beyond  all  the  chances  and  caprices  of 
any  convention.  Heaven  give  you  also  strength  to  be  strong,  all  alone  as 
you  are. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  General  Sherman : 

ST.  Louis,  June  7,  1884. 

I  am  told  that  the  proper  thing  to  do  is  for  rival  candidates  after  the  con 
test  to  shake  hands,  and  for  the  defeated  to  congratulate  the  victor.  I 
will  now  admit  that  I  was  a  candidate  before  the  Chicago  convention,  but 
am  nevertheless  willing  to  congratulate  you  on  your  brilliant  success  before 
the  august  body,  and  I  honestly  wish  you  success  at  the  election  next 
November.  I  also  wish  the  same  success  to  General  Logan,  who  was  an 
ardent,  brave,  enthusiastic  general  under  me  in  many  of  his  most  brilliant 
achievements.  For  a  time  Logan  was  a  bitter  enemy  of  mine  in  Congress, 
reducing  my  pay  and  making  it  impossible  for  me  to  live  in  Washington  in 
the  Grant  house  presented  to  me,  the  taxes  of  which  steadily  rose  from 
$400  a  year  to  $2,250,  —  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  more  than  the  rent  I 
afterwards  paid  for  the  house  on  15th  street.  But  Logan  has  spasms  of 
generosity  as  well  as  hatred,  and  I  will  be  only  too  happy  to  aid  his  canvass 
by  being  a  full  witness  to  his  really  good  qualities.  He  was  not  with  us  on 
the  "march  to  the  sea,11  but  was  in  nearly  all  the  other  campaigns  of  the 
Western  armies,  and  as  this  "march  to  the  sea11  was  recited  in  the  con 
vention,  and  in  a  biography  printed  here,  I  would  advise  him  to  correct  it 
himself  before  it  is  tortured  to  his  prejudice  by  a  political  enemy. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  627 

I  thank  you  cordially  for  securing  the  nomination  at  Chicago,  because 
spite  of  all  I  could  do,  certain  injudicious  friends  were  determined  in  case 
of  a  "  break"  to  use  my  name,  and  I  was  equally  determined  to  decline  it, 
certain  to  give  offence  to  the  convention  which  construed  itself  the  people 
of  the  U.S.,  whose  mandate  was  the  voice  of  God.  I  could  not  regard  it 
in  that  light,  and  therefore  I  repeat,  that  your  nomination  without  a 
"  break  "  probably  saved  me  from  making  a  mistake  which  would  have 
damaged  my  fame,  as  you  say,  as  much  as  the  disobedience  of  a  lawful  order 
when  I  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  army.  All  my  family  were  made  happy 
last  night  by  the  good  news,  and  I  assure  you  that  I  wish  you  all  honor  and 
success. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  W.  W.  Phelps : 

WASHINGTON,  June  9,  1884.' 

Back  here  in  Massachusetts  avenue,  clean,  in  my  right  mind,  but  tired 
and  determined  to  do  no  thinking  for  two  or  three  days,  except  this  :  To  put 
off  much  booming  until  we  have  our  Democratic  opponent;  to  think 
Lucian's  praise  of  Caesar  as,  vise.,  Nil  reputans  actum,  si  quid  manure t 
agendum  ;  and  so  forgetting  the  past  to  press  forward  for  the  prize,  etc. 
.  Reid  and  Elkins  and  I  never  for  one  moment  admitted  fatigue 
or  discouragement  to  each  other.  And  Tom  Platt,  like  a  little  hero,  in  a 
remote  parlor  upstairs,  without  any  recognition  or  summons  to  caucus  or 
council,  organized  his  forces,  paid  his  own  bills,  and  made  victory  possible. 
lie  had  neither  recognition  nor  promise,  but  did,  in  the  opinion  of  all  on  the 
inside,  much  the  most  valuable  work  done ;  and  that  was  heroic,  for  he  had 
to  learn  from  outside  of  what  was  done  by  councils  where  all  his  enemies 
and  contemners  were  running  the  machine  with  all  its  power  and  galore. 
.  .  .  Tell  that  great  lady  that  I  did  not  spend  two  minutes  away  from 
the  work  I  went  to  do.  .  .  .  What  an  ovation  I  had !  Everybody  in 
person,  by  letter,  by  telegram  sought  me  to  say,  "  They  were  always  for 
Blaine.11  Big  tears  came  into  good  old  S.'s  eyes  as'I  said,  "  Mr.  S.,  I 
should  as  soon  have  thought  of  my  own  defection  from  Mr.  Blaine  as 
yours.11  And  generally  I  had  a  delightful  debauch  of  malice  and  love. 
But  I'm  too  tired  to  tell  it  all. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  John  Roach : 

NEW  YORK,  June  12,  1884. 

.  .  .  I  have  carefully  watched  and  studied  the  policy  of  the  so-called 
Independents,  and  have  come  to  the  following  conclusion  as  to  its  meaning: 
It  is  simply  a  movement  in  the  interest  of  free  trade,  and  they  attack  the 
man  rather  than  the  platform.  By  this  means  they  hope  to  carry  their 
point.  .  .  .  And  indeed  this  is  the  only  weapon  left  them  since  their 
blunders  on  the  tarift'  during  this  session  of  Congress. 

Regarding  your  South  American  policy,  —  we  were  producing  not  only 
a  great  surplus  of  breads,  meat,  cotton,  oil,  etc.,  but  we  were  rapidly 


628  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

producing  a  large  surplus  of  manufactured  articles  of  all  kinds  and  needed 
a  foreign  market.  You  were  the  only  man,  occupying  a  prominent  position 
before  the  public,  who  saw  that  in  the  near  future,  with  our  best  resources 
and  the  inventive  genius  of  our  people,  we  should  need  a  market  for  our 
surplus  products.  This  market  could  not  be  found  in  European  countries, 
where  they  already  produce  more  than  they  can  sell.  You  saw  it  in  South 
America,  and  had  you  been  permitted  to  carry  out  your  plans  you  would 
have  succeeded.  Yours  was  not  a  policy  of  blood  or  the  destruction  of  life, 
but  it  was  one  in  the  interest  of  the  American  farmer,  manufacturer,  and 
mechanic.  England,  of  course,  saw  this,  realized  her  danger,  and  influ 
enced  the  press  of  New  York  to  torture  your  policy  into  a  desire  for  war, 
or  as  likely  to  result  in  that.  I  doubt,  however,  if  any  fair-minded  man  in 
this  country  could  see  anything  wrong  in  pursuing  a  policy  that  would 
bring  the  representative  men  of  South  America  to  our  city  to  discuss  a 
policy  that  would,  no  doubt,  be  mutually  beneficial.  England  now  sees  in 
the  Chicago  platform,  and  in  you  as  its  standard-bearer,  the  handwriting  on 
the  wall,  and  will  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  defeat  you.  She  sees  that 
with  your  election  she  is  likely  to  lose  her  hold  on  the  United  States 
market,  and  then  with  your  South  American  policy  carried  out,  the  markets 
of  Brazil,  Peru,  Chili,  River  Platte,  and  others  lost  to  her.  Do  you  wonder 
that  she  is  interested  ?  This  accounts  largely  for  those  attacks  on  your 
private  character  and  your  public  policy. 

From  Hon.  H.  M.  Watts  : 

PHILADELPHIA,  June  23,  1884. 

The  news  of  the  great  event  at  Chicago  has  already  run  around  the 
globe  with  electric  speed,  and  your  noble  husband  is  now  the  most  con 
spicuous  figure  on  earth.  Mankind,  at  home  and  abroad,  are  measuring 
his  strength  and  studying  his  character  with  a  view  to  their  future  rela 
tions.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  the  nominee  of  the  great  and 
heretofore  triumphant  party  should  reply  to  the  committee  announcing, 
"  I  am  impressed,  also,  I  am  oppressed,  with  the  labor  and  responsibility 
which  attaches  to  my  position." 

You  may  not  know  why  our  extensive  family  in  Pennsylvania  feel  an 
especial  interest.  It  carries  back  our  memory  to  the  beginning  of  this 
most  eventful  century.  My  earliest  impressions  are  of  Middlesex,  three 
miles  east  of  Carlisle,  where  the  widow  of  Colonel  Blaine  resided.  She 
was  the  cousin  of  my  mother,  and  they  stood  in  the  same  relation  as 
grandchildren  of  Joseph  and  Ursula  Rose.  Joseph  Rose  was  an  Irish 
barrister,  and  emigrated  from  Dublin  Bar  to  Lancaster,  and  was  greatly 
distinguished  for  his  erudition  as  a  classic  scholar  and  lawyer.  Benjamin 
West,  before  his  elevation  as  President  of  the  Royal  Academy  in  London, 
was  one  of  his  proteges,  and  he  painted  several  pictures  of  his  daughters, 
one  of  which,  of  my  grandmother,  I  now  possess  ;  and  one  of  Mrs.  Postle- 
thwaite,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  family  of  the  late  Dr.  Stephen  Duncan, 
of  Natchez.  The  large  brick  house  in  Carlisle,  in  which  my  lather  lived 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  629 

and  died  and  in  which  thirteen  children  were  born,  was  built  by  Colonel 
Blame.  In  the  law  office  of  this  house  were  many  students  who  made 
their  mark  in  life,  .  .  .  within  my  recollection,  a  group  of  such 
gentlemen  as  Henry  M.  Campbell,  Samuel  Lyon,  Ephraim  Blaine,  and 
others.  I  have  a  distinct  recollection  of  Ephraim  Blaine,  the  father  of 
your  distinguished  husband.  He  was  the  inheritor  of  the  Middlesex 
estate  and  reputed  to  be  rich,  and  was  a  dashing  beau.  He  set  the  fashion 
in  our  country  town  of  driving  horses  tandem,  and  my  elder  brother 
imitated  him.  There  was  another  tie  that,  perhaps,  bound  the  families. 
Your  husband's  grandfather  and  ours  were  officers  of  the  Revolutionary 
army,  and  both  Colonel  Blaine  and  Gen.  Henry  Miller  rendered  important 
military  and  civil  services.  I  could  write  a  volume  of  eulogy  which 
might  greatly  interest  the  numerous  descendants  of  these  remarkable 
familes  which  to  this  day  are  held  in  grateful  remembrance,  but  whose 
glory  is  lost  in  the  shadow  of  ages,  and,  we  are  happy  to  say,  is  now 
wholly  eclipsed  by  the  rising  sun. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Emmons  : 

CEDAR  RAPIDS,  July  1,  1884. 

R.  is  very  anxious  you  should  issue  your  letter  for  publication  so  as  to 
hit  the  Saturday  morning  papers.  Says  that  you  will  have  a  Sunday  morn 
ing  in  the  country  that  "  alone  will  be  worth  the  price  of  admission." 
Methinks  the  point  is  well  taken. 


From  Hon.  W.  M.  Evarts : 

WINDSOR,  VT.,  July  4,  1884. 

.  .  .  I  was  at  the  wedding  of  Judge  Hoar's  daughter  on  the  12th 
of  June,  and  was  glad  to  find,  as  I  expected,  to  be  sure,  that  he  was 
u  solid  "  for  you,  and  shared  my  opinions  of  the  great  step  now,  at  last, 
taken  in  our  politics  by  the  nomination  of  a  political  leader  as  well  as  a 
public  man  trained  in  the  service  of  the  State.  To  reach  this  I  have 
struggled  against  the  corporate  spirit  of  placemen,  the  disorganizing  in- 
iluence  of  chieftains,  the  weakness  of  "  favorite  sons,v  and  the  wretched 
policy  of  impromptu  statesmen.  Perhaps  your  attention  has  been  called 
to  two  of  the  most  remarkable  political  speeches  that  ever  were  made. 
They  are  both  in  "  Troilus  and  Cressida,"  scarcely  the  play  in  which  such 
eloquence  and  wisdom  were  to  be  looked  for.  They  are  both  very  appli 
cable  to  our  politics.  One  marks  the  remediless  disaster  where  the  best  is 
not  in  the  enterprise,  and  the  other  shows  that  the  capacity  of  leadership 
will  not  secure  it,  unless  it  be  kept  in  the  eyes  of  men.  1  wish  our  accom 
plished  and  consummate  scholars  would  read  and  digest  these  speeches. 
The  papers  say  you  occupy  yourself  in  everything  but  campaign  talk,  and 
you  may  find  refreshing  reading  in  Ulysses1  speech  to  Agamemnon,  Act  I., 
Scene  III.,  and  his  other  speech  to  Achilles,  Act  III.,  Scene  III. 


630  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

To  Mr.  Blame,  from  A.  H.  Walker : 

HARTFORD,  July  17,  1884. 

.  .  .  Professor  Stowe,  though  now  eighty-three  years  old,  and  seldom 
leaving  his  house,  has  already  engaged  me  to  take  him  to  the  polls  next 
November  to  cast  one  more  vote  for  a  Republican  President.  It  will 
doubtless  be  his  last.  I  well  remember  the  old  man's  ardor  when  I  took 
him  in  my  carriage  to  vote  for  Garfield.  I  regret  that  such  time-honored 
men  as  Beecher  and  Curtis  are  not  with  us  this  year,  but  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  has  been  far  more  influential  and  far  more  widely  honored  than  both 
in  the  grand  history  of  the  Republican  party.  She  has  no  vote  to  give,  and 
her  pen  is  now  weary  with  labor  and  with  age,  but  I  know  that  her  heart 
and  her  prayers  will  attend  the  Republican  campaign. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Elliott  F.  Shephard : 

LONG  BRANCH,  July  21,  1884. 

Your  admirable  letter  accepting  the  nomination  for  the  presidency  is  to 
our  Republican  forces  like  the  arrival  of  Sheridan  on  the  field  of  Win 
chester.  .  .  .  The  great  solid  blocks  of  fact  which  you  present  will 
not  fail  to  be  considered  by,  nor  to  greatly  influence,  the  American  people. 
.  .  .  The  Republican  is  the  party  of  moral  ideas.  ...  It  substan 
tially  represents  the  Christian  sentiment  of  the  country,  and  that  senti 
ment  is  the  backbone  of  the  nation.  The  reflective  classes  understand 
this,  and  want  a  leader  who  recognizes  it. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Daniel  Dougherty : 

PHILADELPHIA,  July  21,  1884. 

.  Let  me  say  that  while  political  opinions  compel  me  to  vote  and 
ardently  work  for  the  election  of  Mr.  Cleveland,  I  do  this  at  the  sacrifice 
of  my  personal  feelings,  because  I  entertain  for  you  a  sincere  regard. 

Citizens  need  make  no  apology  for  differing  on  the  vital  issues  con 
nected  with  a  presidential  struggle,  but  the  campaign  should  be  conducted 
with  the  courtesies  of  parliamentary  debate ;  and  therefore  be  assured  I 
have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  personally  attack  one  of  whom  as  an 
American  we  should  all  be  proud.  From  my  heart  I  wish  you  all  the  good 
that  can  be  wished,  not  wrongTing  the  cause  I  serve. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  A.  S.  Barnes : 

LAKE  WINDERMERE,  ENG.,  July  23,  1884. 

.  I  trust  no  influence  will  be  so  strong  as  to  prevent  you  from 
occupying  that  high  position  for  which  you  are  so  eminently  fitted.  I  was 
glad  to  notice  my  old  pastor,  Richard  S.  Storrs,  D.D.,  had  so  decidedly 
expressed  his  views  on  your  nomination. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  631 

From  General  Sherman : 

ST.  Louis,  October  13,  1884. 

I  understand  there  is  a  possibility  of  your  visiting  St.  Louis.  If  so  I  beg 
you  to  make  use  of  our  house,  which  is  spacious,  and  you  know  how  wel 
come  you  shall  be.  I  could  meet  you  at  the  depot,  or  after  the  whooping 
and  yelling,  of  which  you  must  be  tired,  you  could  take  refuge  with  us. 

To  G.: 

AUGUSTA,  October  15,  1884. 

.  .  .  How  do  you  suppose  it  seems  to  me  to  be  called  into  the  library 
because  Mr.  Blaine  wants  to  speak  to  me,  and  when  I  get  there  to  hear 
Tom  say  through  the  telephone,  "  Mr.  Blaine  will  be  in  in  a  moment,  but 
Joseph  Manley  is  here!"  Then  Joe  says,  "Mr.  Blaine  is  out  speaking 
and  Walker  is  with  him.11  After  a  little  he  came.  Last  night  his  second 
question  was,  "Are  the  plumbers  out  of  the  house  ?"  To-night  I  asked 
him,  shall  I  give  Miss  A.  a  C  ?  Instantly  came  back,  "  Do  you  mean  one 
hundred?"  Yes.  "Certainly,  with  pleasure."— "  His  day  has  been 
fatiguing.  West  Virginia  has  gone  solidly  against  us.  What  do  the  papers 
say  about  Ohio  ?  "  .  .  .  Mr.  Blaine  is  telegraphing  this  moment.  You 
must  write  him  to-morrow- at  South  Bend,  hid.  He  says  he  has  t made 
thirty  speeches  and  ridden  two  hundred  miles  to-day,  and  has  been  talking 
with  me  an  hour. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Rev.  Egbert  C.  Smyth : 

AN  DOVER,  November  3,  1884. 

Allow  me  the  pleasure  of  expressing  the  profound  admiration  with  which 
I  have  followed  you  in  your  journey  since  you  left  Augusta.  The  tact, 
variety,  and  eloquence  of  your  addresses  are  something  wonderful.  I 
confidently  anticipate  your  election,  though  not  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
adverse  forces.  I  anticipate,  as  well,  that  your  administration  will  rebuke 
your  slanderers,  and  open  the  eyes  of  honest  men  who  have  been  deceived. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  General  Howard : 

OMAHA,  Neb.,  November  4,  1884. 

This  is  a  day  of  double  interest  to  me.  It  is  Mrs.  Howard's  birthday, 
and  it  is  to  be,  I  trust,  the  day  of  your  election.  Guy  and  I  cannot  vote, 
but  Jamie  and  Chancey  have  voted  for  you  already  before  ten  o'clock. 
Chancey  formed  a  club  of  young  voters  who  in  marching,  talking,  drilling, 
visiting  outside  meetings,  etc.,  have  done  loyal  service  in  this  region. 
John  cannot  vote  for  two  years  yet.  He  has  done  marching  and 
talking,  however,  to  balance.  ...  I  know  that  the  results  will  be 
manifest  before  you  see  these  lines.  I  simply  wish  to  say,  whatever  be  the 
issues  of  the  conflict,  may  God  bless  and  direct  you  !  Of  course  mud  has 
been  thrown,  but  it  has  not  even  spotted  your  garments. 


632  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Rev.  Cyrus  Hamlin : 

MIDDLEBURY,  Vt.,  November  17,  1884. 

.  I  ought  not,  perhaps,  for  such  a  trifle  to  intrude  upon  your  time, 
but  I  will  take  this  opportunity  to  express  my  profound  grief  and  disap 
pointment  at  the  results  of  the  election. 

The  waves  of  defamation  swept  harmless  by,  but  the  madness  and 
folly  of  the  Prohibitionists  struck  their  own  cause  and  their  country's  a  fatal 
blow.  I  feel  now  that  in  this  State  admiration  accompanies  sympathy,  and 
that  in  the  esteem  of  all  good  men  you  have  risen  immeasurably  above 
your  opponents  and  defamers.  May  Divine  Providence  still  guide  your 
life  to  great  and  noble  ends ! 

From  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar : 

WORCESTER,  November  20,  1884. 

I  wish  to  put  on  record  my  sense  of  the  great  strength  that  the 
Republican  cause  derived  in  the  late  campaign  from  its  candidate.  I  do 
not  think  you  said  a  word  that  any  supporter  of  yours  could  wish  unsaid  ; 
and  your  speeches  and  letter  of  acceptance  were  a  contribution  to  the  cam 
paign  worth  all  others  put  together.  I  thought  beforehand,  as  you  know, 
that  in  the  existing  divisions  of  the  Republican  party  another  candidate 
would  have  been  stronger,  especially  for  Massachusetts.  But  I  am  now 
very  strongly  inclined  to  think  I  was  wrong  in  that  opinion,  that  we  should 
not  have  done  so  well  in  the  country  under  anybody  else. 

At  any  rate,  neither  you  nor  those  who  supported  you  have  anything  to 
repent  of. 

From  Mr.  John  G.  Whittier  : 

DANVERS,  November  28,  1884. 

.  .  .  I  am  awfully  vexed  by  the  result  of  the  election.  Our  candi 
date  made  such  a  splendid  canvass  and  would  have  been  triumphantly 
chosen  over  Democrats  and  Independents,  but  for  the  miserable  John- 
Johns. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Edward  F.  Waite  : 

NEW  YORK,  January  28,  1885. 

I  have  just  learned,  to  my  great  gratification,  that  you  are  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  Fraternity.  It  was  long  a  tradition 
of  the  Fraternity  that  such  was  the  fact,  but  as  the  last  catalogue,  issued 
in  1879,  did  not  contain  your  name,  I,  in  common  with  others,  con 
cluded  that  the  tradition  was  but  a  pleasant  myth.  I  remember  that  we 
used  to  sing,  "  There's  Blaine  and  Banks  and  Burnside,  Foote,  Taylor, 
and  Burlingame,"  etc.,  and  we  didn't  stop  singing  it  that  way  Avhen  we 
began  to  doubt  whether  we  could  rightfully  claim  you ;  we  took  the  bene 
fit  of  the  doubt.  Mr.  Porter  says  you  were  elected  by  the  Bowdoin  chap 
ter  in  1856.  It  has  recently  been  discovered  that  Nathaniel  Hawthorne 
was  elected  by  the  same  chapter,  and  that  his  letter  accepting  the  election 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  633 

has  long  hung  upon  the  wall  of  the  Bowdoin  chapter-house.  So  little 
pains  was  taken  by  the  chapter  to  make  this  fact  generally  known  in  the 
Fraternity  that  it  has  but  recently  come  to  light,  and  his  son,  Mr.  Julian 
Hawthorne,  who  was  a  D  K  E  at  Harvard,  was  not  aware  of  it.  Probably  the 
doubt  which  has  heretofore  enshrouded  your  own  election  in  the  Fraternity 
jit  large  is  due  to  the  same  cause.  The  Bowdoin  chapter  must  be  admon 
ished  not  to  hide  its  candle  under  a  bushel  any  longer. 

From  General  Sherman: 

.  .  .  Tell  Blaine  that  as  a  matter  of  course  I  have  read  his  first 
volume  with  greedy  interest,  and  that  I  await  still  more  for  his  second 
volume,  which  must  treat  of  the  '«  Reconstruction,11  wherein  lies  the  germ 
of  his  own  failure  to  be  President,  the  "  Solid  South,11  and  other  kindred 
evils,  the  end  of  which  is  not  yet.  Say  to  him  that  I  believe  in  the  course 
of  his  studies  for  his  first  volume  he  changed  his  mind,  his  estimate  of 
men,  Grant  of  the  number.  He  used  to  say  that  Grant's  great  success  as  a 
general  was  the  result  of  accident,  but  before  his  judgment  crystallized 
and  became  "  history,1'  he  saw  that  so  many  successes  in  war  was  a  legiti 
mate  result  of  qualities,  and  not  of  accident.  I  think  the  better  of  Blaine 
for  this  honest  change  of  opinion.  Now,  in  his  second  volume  his  per 
sonal  knowledge  of  the  legislation  and  of  the  men  who  produced 
it  will  be  simply  immortal,  if  he  can  be  equally  frank  and  illuminative. 
His  qualities  are  literary,  not  administrative.  His  oration  on  Gar- 
field  was  worthy  of  a  Pitt.  But  to  be  honest,  I  would  not  choose  Blaine 
to  command  a  regiment  or  frigate  in  battle.  Many  an  inferior  man  would 
do  this  better  than  he.  He  was  at  his  best  as  the  Speaker  of  the  House, 
and  his  true  arena  is  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  However,  he  has 
begun  the  political  history  of  his  time,  and  must  finish  that  before  he 
begins  something  new.  During  the  war  the  armies  and  navies  sub 
dued  the  Rebellion,  Congress  aiding,  and  sometimes  meddling.  "  Inter 
arm  a  silent  leges  "  was  a  maxim  before  America  was  discovered. 

Congress  declared  the  war,  and  after  should  have  supplied  the  means, 
and  remained  silent,  but  on  the  theory  that  it  still  legislated  under  the  Con 
stitution  it  undertook,  like  the  French  Assembly,  "  to  run  the  war,"  till  it 
grew  to  such  formidable  proportions  that  they,  Congress,  became  ignored. 
Then  the  armies  went  on  from  victory  to  victory  till  1865,  when  the 
South,  exhausted,  humiliated,  and  defeated  lay  at  the  mercy  of  Congress. 
The  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  succession  of  Johnson  were  the 
real  cause  of  the  subsequent  mistakes,  because  then  Congress  assumed  all 
the  dictatorial  powers  of  the  government,  ignoring  Constitution,  President, 
and  the  Supreme  Court,  all  coequal  in  one  complicated  system. 
In  1865-6  the  Republicans  could  have  taken  into  their  party  four-fifths  of 
the  young  men  who  fought  and  were  mad  at  Jeff  Davis,  Toombs,  etc., 
who  had  betrayed  them  into  Rebellion.  .  .  .  But  in  the  end  all  will 
be  right.  Cleveland  will  have  more  than  he  can  carry,  must  commit  faults, 
and  the  Republicans,  if  wise,  may  profit  by  them. 


634  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

ST.  Louis,  Mo.,  September  28,  1885. 

DEAR  BLAINE  :  I  feel  specially  honored  by  the  receipt  of  your  kind 
letter  of  the  25th  inst.,  with  the  first  seventeen  pages  of  your  second 
volume,  every  word  of  which  I  have  already  read  with  thrilling  interest 
and  wonderment  that  in  the  great  mass  of  events  you  have  been  able  to 
keep  a  straight  course  towards  the  conclusion  which  we  know. 

My  castle  is  well  guarded  against  the  Demons  of  the  Press,  and  these 
sheets  shall  see  no  human  eyes  save  those  of  my  clerk,  who  is  trustworthy, 
and  it  may  be  for  occasional  paragraphs  shown  to  11.,  whose  loyalty  to  you 
cannot  be  doubted.  Each  page  as  received  shall  be  pasted  in  one  of  those 
convenient  letter  stubs  ready  to  receive  them,  and  deposited  with  my 
closely  guarded  "  War  Records." 

Since  Grant's  deatli  I  have  gone  over  my  files,  and  find  a  large  mass  of 
his  personal  letters  and  notes,  which  I  will  bind  in  like  manner  with  others, 
which  will  have  historic  value  when  men  are  ready  to  receive  the  truth. 

.  .  .  I  feel  a  special  interest  in  this  your  second  volume,  because  I 
have  honestly  doubted  whether  the  Republican  party  were  wise  in  their 
reconstruction  measures.  I  thought  and  believed  in  1865  that  this  party 
might  have  had  for  the  mere  asking  the  united  support  of  the  young  (-oil- 
federates,  who  realized  they  had  been  misled  by  their  selfish  leaders,  but 
who  went  oft'  like  a  herd  of  buflfaloes  to  the  opposition  because  the  Repub 
licans  insisted  on  investing  with  political  power  the  recently  enfranchised 
negro.  But  I  assure  you  I  will  give  absolute  faith  to  your  statement  of 
facts,  causes,  and  results. 

With  respect  and  affection,  your  friend, 

W.  T.  SHERMAN. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Mr.  Oliver  Ames  : 

BOSTON,  March  16,  1885. 

I  propose  to  invite  Governor  Robinson  and  his  council,  heads  of  depart 
ments,  the  Legislature,  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  ex-governors  of 
Massachusetts,  our  senators  and  representatives  in  Congress,  and  other  lead 
ing  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  to  my  house  on  Tuesday  evening,  April  14. 

I  now  write  to  invite  you  to  be  present  on  that  occasion  as  my  guest.  I 
sincerely  hope  you  will  come,  as  I  wish  to  have  you  meet  the  leading  men  of 
Massachusetts  —  from  every  part  of  the  State  —  so  that  they  may  know  you 
as  I  know  you.  It  will  do  them  good,  and  it  will  be  a  good  thing  for  you. 

From  G.: 

WASHINGTON,  March  22,  1885. 

Mr.  Hale  looked  in  a  minute  this  morning.  Said  he  went  into  the  Inte 
rior  this  morning,  a  room  not  much  larger  than  this,  between  thirty  and  forty 
men  in  it,  filling  every  available  nook  and  corner  in  it.  Mr.  Lamar,  writing 
at  his  desk,  looked  up,  —  "  Good  God,  .Hale,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  come 
here;1'  and  then  in  an  aside,  "What  do  you  think  of  this?"  They  say 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  635 

he  is   the  picture  of  despair  —  among  all  those  office-seekers,  and  he  a 
philosopher. 

.  To  Madame  de  Struve's  musical  party  invitations  were  in- 
Ibrmal.  When  Mr.  Blaine  went  in,  he  said  to  Madame  de  Struve,  "  I  don't 
know  that  I  am  invited.11  Said  she,  instantly,  "  You  were  born  invited.1' 
May  7.  ...  There  is  to  be  a  dinner  here  Saturday  night,  and  Mr. 
Lamar  is  bidden.  His  note  to  Mr.  Blaine  has  just  come,  and  it  would  cast 
a  damper  over  a  funeral.  He  says  he  can't  refuse  the  kindness  that  has 
asked  him,  so  he  is  coming  ;  otherwise  he  knows  he  is  so  broken  in  heart 
and  spirit  that  he  thinks  it  is  an  imposition  for  him  to  come.  Strange  that 
he  should  have  been  willing  to  give  up  his  senatorship,  which  lie  might 
have  for  life,  for  the  bother  of  the  Interior  Department,  which  never  brings 
renown . 

To  M. : 

AUGUSTA,  December  4,  1885. 

.  .  .  Your  father  is  doing  a  prodigious  work  on  his  book.  He  read 
us  last  night  his  chapter  on  the  Fisheries,  and  then  sat  down  and  wrote  to 
Mrs.  II.  and  Mrs.  II.,  who  had  written  to  him. 

From  Mr.  Blaine : 

AUGUSTA,  December  3,  1885. 

MY  DEAR  LADIES:  "Wot  a  incomprehensible  letter."  I  am  as  much 
bothered  as  was  the  younger  Weller  with  all  this  "  he-ing  and  I-ing."  Are 
you  starting  out  on  a  joint  tour  a  la  Robson  and  Crane,  just  to  see  how  funny 
you  can  be,  and  how  easily  you  can  surpass  the  epistolary  effort  in  the  twenty- 
fourth  chapter  of  Pickwick  ?  Who  would  have  dreamed  of  such  embarrass 
ment  as  you  inflict  ?  I  could  say  so  many  things  to  either  of  you  alone,  and 
yet  so  few  tilings  to  both  of  you  together.  I  am  in  the  condition  of  Josh 
Billings'  hero,  who  found  it  so  hard  to  devote  himself  lovingly  to  two 
women,  and  keep  up  a  fair  average.  Mrs.  H.,  for  instance,  has  not  the 
slightest  idea  how  profoundly  1  admire  Mrs.  H.,  nor  would  I  for  the 
world  let  Mrs.  H.  know  the  things  I  have  said  of  Mrs.  H.  Write  me  singly, 
and,  as  we  said  when  boys,  give  a  fellow  a  chance  for  his  ivhite  alley.  If 
each  of  you  will  write  me,  and  swear  in  advance  that  neither  will  show  the 
answer  she  receives  to  the  other,  —  then,  why  then,  I  will  be  profoundly 
sure  to  distrust  both  of  you.  This  is  a  sort  of  game  that  differs  from  poker : 
one  pair  is  better  than  threes ;  and  if  you  ask  me  how  I  will  constitute  the 
pair,  and  get  rid  of  the  third,  my  simple  and  direct  answer  is,  that  I  will 
drop  Mrs.  H.  and  cling  to  Mrs.  H. 

With  haste  and  hope. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  to  Walker  : 

AUGUSTA,  December  6,  1885. 

.  .  .  But  you  must  settle  the  point  for  yourself .  Were  I  situated  just 
as  you  are,  my  mind  would  incline  to  Chicago.  Wherever  you  go,  I  am 
sure  you  have  all  the  elements  of  success  in  you.  You  have  ability  and 


636  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

learning, — I  think  you  have  steady  application  when  it  is  demanded. 
Wherever  you  may  go,  I  am  sure  that  you  will  acquit  yourself  well.  My 
deepest  affection  will  follow  you,  and  the  profoundest  interest  of  my  life 
will  centre  in  you.  I  only  want  you  to  be  equal  to  yourself,  to  concentrate 
your  energies  and  stimulate  your  ambition,  and  in  the  language  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  "  not  permit  slight  avocations  to  seduce  your  attention." 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  F.  D.  Grant : 

NEW  YORK,  March  6,  1886. 

.  .  .  I  wish  to  thank  you  on  my  own  account  for  the  excellent  pict 
ure  of  my  father  you  have  selected  as  a  frontispiece.  It  is  the  one  my 
father  selected  himself  as  the  picture  he  wished  preserved  of  him  as  Presi 
dent.  ...  He  received  the  first  volume  of  your  *«  Twenty  Years  of 
Congress,11  and  directed  me  to  acknowledge  it.  He  was  much  pleased 
with  what  you  wrote  in  transmitting  the  book,  and  directed  me  to  send 
you  a  copy  of  his  work. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Mr.  Patrick  Ford : 

NEW  YORK,  April  10,  '86. 

.  .  .  The  regard  I  have  for  you  does  not  consist  in  shows  of  civility. 
"  I  have  that  within  me  which  passeth  show."  My  loyalty  to  you  as  the 
representative  of  principles  and  a  policy  that  seem  to  me  to  be  essential  to 
the  healthy  growth  and  dignity  of  the  Republic  is  deep  and  fervid,  rooted 
in  my  convictions  and  sentiments.  .  .  .  You  are  not  only  my  first 
choice,  but  my  only  choice.  Outside  of  you  I  have  not  speculated  at  all. 
No  other  man  in  the  Republican  party,  in  fact  no  other  possible  candidate 
in  America  in  either  of  the  parties,  has  the  hold  on  the  Irish  vote  that  you 
have,  and  if  the  Republican  party  fail  to  nominate  you  in  '88,  it  will  in  my 
judgment  have  committed  the  greatest  mistake  in  its  history. 

I  hope  and  pray  that  the  Republicans  will  do  the  right  thing  at  that 
time.  And  for  this  reason  among  others:  I  want  to  see  the  "Irish  vote" 
broken  up.  I  want  to  see  American  citizens  of  the  Irish  race  free  —  and 
they  now,  thank  God,  are  free  —  to  vote  as  they  individually  see  fit.  This 
has  been  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  my  life.  I  don't  believe  in  race  elements 
or  religious  creeds  resolving  themselves  into  a  •«  solid  vote."  I  believe  it 
is  bad  for  the  country  and  bad  for  the  element  itself.  The  first  links  in 
the  chain  that  has  held  the  Irish  in  bondage  to  the  Democratic  party  are 
now  broken  —  they  were  struck  off  in  1884  —  and  your  nomination  in  1888 
will  complete  their  emancipation.  .  .  .  The  labor  element,  by  recog 
nizing  its  just  claims  and  without  any  demagogic  appeals,  can,  I  believe,  be 
secured  to  us  in  1888.  ...  I  am  thinking  of  taking  a  run  over  to  Ire 
land  in  a  few  weeks,  and  if  I  can  arrange  to  go  by  way  of  Augusta  I  shall 
do  so.  In  May  next  it  will  have  been  forty  years  since  my  father  took  me, 
with  the  family,  from  Galway  town.  I  was  then  a  child,  a  trifle  over  eight, 
and  I  have  not  seen  the  Green  Isle  since. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G,    ELAINE.  637 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  W.  I).  Washburne : 

MAY  2,  1886. 

Several  days  ago  a  snug  little  package  came  by  express  addressed  to 
Mrs.  Washburne,  but  in  my  care,  and  with  the  curiosity  of  a  man  I  opened 
the  package,  which  proved  to  be  the  two  handsome  volumes  of  your 
"  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,11  presented  to  her  with  your  compliments  and 
with  a  very  pleasant  allusion  to  the  friendship  that  has  existed  between 
ourselves  for  a  period  of  more  than  thirty  years.  ...  As  for  my 
self,  you  can  rest  assured  that  my  friendship  for  you  has  never  wavered 
since  I  first  came  to  know  you  in  Augusta  in  1854,  when  a  green  stripling  I 
left  old  Bowdoin.  I  trust  this  friendship  of  so  long  standing  may  continue 
to  the  end. 

From  Neal  Dow  : 

PORTLAND,  Me.,  June  5,  1886. 

The  Boston  papers  say  that  I  was  absent  from  the  City  Hall  meeting 
because  I  would  not  be  on  the  same  platform  with  you.  I  hope  it  is  not 
necessary  to  assure  you  that  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  truth  in  that.  I  have 
in  no  way  changed  my  personal  relations  toward  you  since  I  gave  my  vote 
for  you  most  cordially  in  1884,  believing,  as  I  did,  that  with  you  in  the 
White  House  the  Republican  party  would  recover  the  confidence  and  re 
spect  of  the  country  which  it  had  most  gloriously  won.  It  seems  to  me  now 
that  the  Democratic  party  is  doing  its  best  to  ensure  for  1888  what  barely 
failed  in  1884. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

BAR  HARBOR,  June,  1886. 

Not  one  day  since  my  last  have  I  even  been  off  this  hill.  Here  we  are,  H., 
M.,  and  T.  —  and  myself  with  carpenters,  painters,  blacksmiths,  plumbers, 
cabinet-makers,  paper-hangers,  seamstresses  (strong  spell),  and  I  know  not 
what  with  us  ;  we  have  firm  possession  of  the  third  fioor,  and  disputing  the 
second,  while  chaos  and  mechanics  have  absolute  sway  on  the  first.  But 
we  fight  our  way  along.  I  have  to  be  everywhere  at  once,  and  have  done 
more  actual  physical  labor  for  the  past  ten  days  than  you  ever  did  in  the 
whole  of  your  life.  .  .  .  Walker  leaves  this  week  for  Chicago  —  to  be 
launched  at  last  on  the  sea  of  life. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  J.  B.  Foraker : 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  OFFICE  OF  THE  GOVERNOR, 

COLUMBUS,  September  17,  1886. 

Only  yesterday  I  wrote  you  urging  you  to  accept  the  invitation  of  the 
Republicans  of  Chattanooga  to  address  them  some  time  next  month,  and 
now  I  am  in  receipt  of  a  letter  from  the  President  of  the  Young  Men's 
Blaine  Club  of  Cincinnati,  insisting  that  I  shall  write  you  urging  you  to 


688  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

accept  the  invitation,  which  he  informs  me  they  have  sent  you,  to  attend 
the  opening  of  their  new  headquarters  on  the  evening  of  the  30th  inst. 

This  club  numbers  something  like  four  hundred  or  five  hundred  mem 
bers.  They  are  the  most  active  of  all  the  working  members  of  our 
party  in  Hamilton  county.  You  never  made  a  prettier  or  more  credita 
ble  little  speech  than  the  one  you  made  to  them  at  the  Unmet  House. 
They  organized  the  same  evening  after  you  were  nominated,  as  a  tempo 
rary  club  for  the  purposes  of  that  campaign,  and  organized  as  a  perma 
nent  club  the  day  after  you  were  defeated.  .  .  .  Not  only  will  they 
but  all  the  other  clubs  and  Republicans  of  Cincinnati  and  southern  Ohio 
greet  you  and  make  your  stay  a  pleasant  ovation.  Accept  if  you  can. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

UOSTON,  October,  1886. 

I  had  the  felicity  of  N.'s  company,  who  dwelt  at  great  length  on  the  great 
ness  and  grandeur  of  my  character.  He  intimated  that  compared  with  me 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were  "  small  potatoes  " —  all  of  which  in  a  car, 
and  in  a  loud  voice,  with  many  people  listening,  may  be  called  pleasant 
entertainment. 

I  had  a  charming  visit,  everything  delightful. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Hon.  Geo.  H.  Pendleton  : 

AMERICAN  LEGATION, 

UERLIN,  November  8,  1886. 

.  I  am  pleased  to  see  you  have  had  such  a  gratifying  tour  through 
Pennsylvania,  for  though  we  have  not  always  been  able  to  agree  in  politi 
cal  opinion  and  actions,  there  has  never  been  a  time  since  we  met  in  Con 
gress  when  I  could  not  offer  you  the  most  friendly  congratulations  on  the 
manifestation  of  good-will  and  appreciation  on  the  part  of  our  countrymen 
towards  yourself. 

From  V. : 

AUGUSTA,  December,  '86. 

.  .  .  Dr.  Webb  met  Mr.  Ulaine  at  the  station.  He  had  a  little  touch 
of  gout  before  he  left  home.  He  thinks,  however,  that  he  did  not  show  it 
or  walk  lame  so  that  any  one  suspected  him  —  though  he  says  when  he 
came  out,  it  was  like  walking  on  your  eye-balls.  Nor  did  he  suffer  much 
trouble  that  night,  but  the  next  morning  the  foot  was  so  swollen  and  pain 
ful  that  he  could  not  touch  it  to  the  floor.  I  don't  know  how  he  got  to  the 
station,  but  I  think  he  was  carried  in  a  chair  to  and  from  the  carriage.  Dr. 
Webb  went  with  him.  He  telegraphed  to  Dr.  Gordon,  of  Portland,  who  met 
him  at  Portland  station  with  hot-water  bags  and  morphine  pills,  and  Mr. 
Manley  went  to  Portland  to  meet  him,  and  the  morphine  put  him  to  sleep  at 
once,  nor  has  he  got  over  it  yet,  but  has  slept  much  of  the  time  since.  Two 
policemen  brought  him  from  the  carriage  here  up  to  his  room.  .  .  . 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  639 

He  is  much  pleased  with  his  reception.  .  .  .  Dr.  Webb's  introduction 
of  him  was  a  bit  of  inspiration  —  quite  spontaneous,  Mr.  Blaine  says.  Dr. 
Webb  asked  him  how  he  should  introduce  him,  and  Mr.  Blaine  said,  only  as 
your  friend  and  parishioner,  nothing  more ;  and  Dr.  Webb  took  the  cue 
well.  Rev.  Heman  Lincoln's  speech  was  good,  except  the  little  snap  at  the 
end,  which  Dr.  Webb  says  was  in  express  violation  of  contract.  He 
told  Mr.  Lincoln  he  was  afraid  he  would  get  loose,  and  Lincoln  promised 
he  wouldn't.  I  don't  suppose  he  thinks  he  did.  -Mr.  Blaine  was  greatly 
pleased  with  President  Robinson,  of  Brown.  Dr.  McKenzie  was  effusive. 
Pity  he  could  not  have  effused  a  little  a  year  or  two  earlier,  and  led  the 
ministers  instead  of  following  them.  When  Mr.  Manley  wanted  him  to 
turn  the  tide  of  detraction  a  little,  I  remember  his  reply,  that  it  was  so  long 
since  he  had  known  Mr.  Blaine,  that,  etc.,  —  and  he  did  not  do  it.  It  is  just 
as  long  now,  and  will  never  be  any  shorter.  Did  Mr.  Blaine  seem  in  good 
heart?  He  was  pretty  low  down  for  two  or  three  days  before  he  went. 
We  refused  to  admit  for  one  moment  the  possibility  of  his  not  going,  so 
did  Mr.  Manley,  and  I  don't  think  even  with  all  his  gout  he  is  sorry  he 
went. 

From  Dr.  Webb : 

BOSTON,  December  25,  1886. 

DEAR  MRS.  BLAINE  :  I  wish  thee  and  thy  "gude  mon  "  a  merry  Christ 
mas.  Is  he  sorry  that  he  came  to  Boston  ?  I  am  glad  as  a  girl  when  her 
love  has  been  requited.  And  the  club  was  glad.  When  they  saw  a  man 
(and  Blaine  is  more  of  a  stranger  in  Boston  than  anywhere  else  in  the 
country)  delicate  and  gentle  in  appearance,  with  nothing  about  him  that 
seemed  to  say,  "  I  will  exalt  my  throne  above  the  stars;  I  will  sit  also 
upon  the  mount  of  the  congregation  ;  "  a  man  without  a  sword  on  his  thigh, 
or  a  concealed  dagger  in  his  bosom ;  a  man  that  one  can  honor  and  trust 
and  love,  —  rise  right  up  before  them  in  modesty,  grace,  and  good 
ness,  they  just  broke  loose;  men  swung  their  hats,  and  women  —  God 
bless  them  !  —  fluttered  their  handkerchiefs  and  half  cried  with  emotions  of 
gladness. 

And  now  that  the  enemy  has  picked  the  meeting  and  the  speeches  all  over, 
he  finds  a  chance  to  hatchel  Brother  Lincoln  a  little  —  and  that  is  all. 
I  answered  Brother  L.'s  letter  a  day  or  two  since,  and  told  him  not  to 
sleep  less,  nor  write  less,  nor  minimize  his  hope  of  heaven  because  of  any 
thing  that  the  critics  could  say  against  him.  Good  man,  he  had  rather 
cut  off  his  hand  than  wound  Mr.  Blaine.  Do  you  see  —  if  such  ubiquity 
and  power  were  imputed  to  an  angel  in  heaven,  he  would  be  a  marked 

character  —  that  the said  next  morning  that  Mr.  Blaine  is  going  to 

Europe  next  autumn :  first,  to  visit  Ireland  and  stir  up  the  Irish  for  the 
sake  of  the  effect  in  this  country  on  his  candidacy  for  the  presidency ;  and 
then,  second,  to  visit  Germany  to  stir  up  the  Germans  so  as  to  get  their 
vote,  and  so,  of  course,  make  a  dead  sure  thing  of  it  ? 

Compass  the  world  for  an  office  !     To  tell  them  that  the  man  would  not 


640  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

lift  his  hand  for  it,  to  tell  them  that  he  never  drew  his  pen,  nor  uttered  a 
wish  for  the  last  nomination,  is  to  be  thought  daft. 

I  have  many  congratulations  on  the  success  of  the  evening.  I  sincerely 
hope  that  Mr.  Elaine's  coming  did  not  cause  his  attack,  and  that  before 
this  he  is  all  right  again.  Will  you  tell  him  for  me,  that  notwithstanding 
his  captivating  address,  and  urgency  of  unwritten  sermons,  the  best  thing 
he  ever  did  was  the  written  eulogy  of  Garfield  ?  So  ! 

From  G.  : 

AUGUSTA,  January  1,  1887. 

.  .  .  Mr.  Elaine  went  to  the  station  with  M.,  and  "Toby  Candor" 
fell  foul  of  him  and  said  he  had  been  instructed  to  see  Mr.  Elaine  him 
self  and  lind  out  if  the  reports  at  Washington,  that  he  was  critically  ill, 
etc.,  were  true.  He  said  he  should  report  that  he  had  seen  Mr.  Elaine  in 
an  open  sleigh  a  mile  from  home  at  midnight,  with  the  thermometer  three 
below  zero  !  which  he  thought  would  be  answer  enough. 

To  Mr.  Blame,  from  Walker : 

CHICAGO,  February  3,  1887. 

I  have  just  received  your  letter,  written  on  your  birthday,  and  have 
deposited  the  enclosure  in  the  bank.  ...  I  can  really  look  back  in 
many  ways  upon  the  outcome  of  the  election  in  '84  with  pleasure,  for 
I  feel  that  with  the  responsibilities  of  the  presidency,  added  to  the  necessity 
of  finishing  your  book,  the  work  would  have  been  too  great.  As  it  was, 
the  book  took  more  than  a  year  of  hard  work  in  the  quiet  of  the  country 
and  of  Washington,  and  will  prove  as  valuable  a  memorial  of  your  fame 
as  a  successful  administration.  But  for  the  future  I  have  great  hopes  and 
great  ambitions,  centred  not  upon  the  presidency,  but  upon  your  going 
back  into  public  life.  It  seems  to  be  an  era  of  indifference  and  incom- 
petency  just  now,  and  I  am  sure  better  things  must  come  in  the  future. 

Far  more  than  anything  else  was  I  touched  by  your  letter.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  imagine  any  home  as  pleasant  as  the  one  into  which  I 
was  born,  and  perhaps  having  lived  in  it  for  several  years  past  has  made 
my  present  life  rather  more  lonely  than  it  otherwise  would  be.  I  am  glad 
you  think  of  having  a  home  once  more  in  Washington.  With  greatest 
love  and  pride  in  the  best  of  fathers. 

From  V. : 

F.  wanted  to  be  night  watchman  at  the  State  House,  and  got  recom 
mendations  from  Mr.  Elaine,  all  the  congressional  delegation,  and  most 
of  the  chief  citizens  of  Augusta,  Republican  and  Democrats.  "  What  the 
devil  do  you  apply  for  watchman  for  with  these  names?  I  should  think 
you  would  run  for  Governor,"  said  the  head  one  of  the  State  House,  when 
F.  presented  his  paper.  On  the  strengtli  of  it,  his  wife  borrowed  ten  dollars 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  641 

of  Mrs.  Elaine,  and  F.  appeared  in  a  tall  silk  hat,  better  than  I  ever  saw 
Mr.  Blaine  wear.  Mr.  Manley  said  that  after  Mr.  Blaine  gave  F.  his 
letter  stating  his  good  points,  it  was  hard  to  make  F.  do  another  thing. 
He  thought  that  was  enough. 

To  G.  : 

AUGUSTA,  June  5,  1887. 

.  Blainey  ran  away  yesterday  noon  just  as  his  dear  grandpa  was 
about  sitting  down  to  his  last  dinner.  I  galloped,  T.  galloped,  we  galloped 
all  three,  and  the  dear  little  culprit  was  found  hunting  his  home  in  the 
Sturgis'  yard.  "  I  didn't  run  away,  grandpa;  I  didn't  go  near  the  track." 

EMS,  GERMAN  LLOYD  LINE,  June  14,  1887. 

We  got  off  Monday  afternoon  at  three,  and  as  the  train  swung  along 
below  the  Governor's  grave,  there  sitting  on  the  green  bank,  waving  to 
us,  were  Blainey  and  Jose,  and  the  four  girls,  —  and  then  and  there  my 
heart  broke.  That  little  figure  in  the  Hitt  hat,  with  its  red  streamers, 
waving  to  his  grandma,  I  shall  never  see  again.  Q.,  and  Emmons,  and 
Walker,  and  R.  came  down  to  the  steamship,  and  saw  us  pulled  out  into 
the  stream,  without  any  attempt  at  cheerfulness.  .  .  .  Mr.  Blaine,  who 
began  with  a  perturbed  stomach,  a  disbelief  in  his  companions  in  misery, 
two  overcoats,  his  old  Pennsylvania  gloves,  and  a  yellow  silk  handkerchief 
round  his  neck,  a  steamer  chair,  and  all  the  rugs  he  could  persuade  his 
womankind  they  did  not  need,  being  generally  swaddled,  and  swathed, 
and  feet  put  to  rest  by  kindly  strangers,  is  now  perambulating  the  deck 
in  one  summer  overcoat,  kid  gloves  stitched  with  black,  and  a  freedom  of 
step,  which  is  commonly  supposed  to  belong  to  the  heather,  as  alert,  and 
bright-eyed,  and  gentle  as  he  appeared  to  Dr.  Webb  at  the  Orthodox  club 
dinner.  ...  I  so  approved  your  Andover  article,  I  brought  it  along 
for  Mr.  Blaine,  and  in  reading  it  that  first  day  out,  he  forgot  to  remember 
his  woes  and  all  his  home  joys.  .  .  . 

To  Walker: 

LONDON,  June  30,  1887. 

I  am  waiting  for  your  father  to  dress  him  for  Lord  Rosebery's  dinner. 
.  Yesterday  your  parents  and  M.  were  graciously  pleased  to  be 
present  at  the  Queen's  garden-party.  .  .  .  The  beef-eaters  told  us  how 
to  go  through  the  palace,  and  after  we  found  ourselves  on  the  terrace  — 
this  was  all  there  was  of  it—  like  Niagara.  The  gardens  are  pretty  as  a 
dream,  and  there  were  thousands  of  ladies,  gayly  and  beautifully  dressed, 
and  gentlemen  by  the  hundred,  in  every  shade  of  ugliness.  ...  It 
was  not  an  impressive  sight  to  see  all  the  ladies  falling  backwards  before 
this  little  and  old  woman,  like  waves  dying  on  the  seashore.  That  they 
should  be  willing  to  do  it,  I  found  it  hard  to  understand,  for  the  courtesying 
amounted  to  obeisance.  Some  of  the  dress  was  very  handsome,  and  the 
jewels;  but  the  tone  of  the  whole  thing  was  gloomy,  frigid,  and  totally 
unimaginative.  Nothing  here  has  surprised  me  more  than  the  gloomy 


642  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

character  of  English  enjoyment  as  compared  with  the  gayety  of  home. 
.  .  .  Your  father  is  reading  the  papers,  and  breakfasting  in  our  own 
sitting-room.  .  .  .  After  the  Rosebery  dinner  he  went  last  night  to  a 
great  art  reception. 

From  Mr.  Elaine  : 

METROPOLE,  June  30,  1887. 

It  is  always  the  poorest  of  excuses  to  say  you  are  so  busy  you  cannot 
write,  but  I  have  been  overwhelmed  since  I  reached  London.  Invita 
tions  have  come  from  all  hands  like  snow-flakes,  and  I  have  been  up  to  the 
eyes  in  hospitalities  and  social  engagements.  I  cannot  go  into  details,  but 
a  few  things  strike  me,  —  first,  that  as  a  rule,  the  houses,  such  for  instance 
as  the  Duke  of  -  -  and  Earl  of  -  — ,  are  not  so  large,  nor  nearly  so 
elegant,  as  many  houses  in  Washington,  and  are  immeasurably  behind  the 
great  houses  of  New  York. 

We  were  all  at  the  Queen's  garden-party  at  Buckingham  Palace  yester 
day.  It  was  very  line ;  and  all  England  of  royalty,  nobility,  and  fashion 
were  there. 

Queen  Kapiolani  —  looks  just  like  old  Caroline,  the  cook  —  walked  with 
royalty,  and  gave  a  shade  of  color  to  the  procession. 

The  nobility,  civil  as  they  are,  .  .  .  fear,  hate,  dread  the  influence 
of  the  Republic  on  their  own  position  and  privileges.  I  can  see  that  feeling 
daily. 

I  look  back  homeward  with  a  feeling  and  longing  near  akin  to  home 
sickness,  and  with  a  recollection  of  events  that  seem  too  delightful  in  ret 
rospect  ever  to  have  been  real.  Do  you  know  enough  of  my  feeling  to 
understand  it  ?  If  not,  come  abroad  and  see  how  quickly  you  will  com 
prehend  it. 

To  Walker : 

KILGRASTON,  July  15, 1887. 

.  .  .  We  came  to  it  Monday,  not  knowing  whither  Andrew  was 
leading  us,  so  stupidly  ignorant,  in  fact,  of  all  the  delights, of  this  House 
Beautiful,  that  your  father  was  almost  ready  to  say  he  would  not  come  un 
less  the  Hales  did,  and  I,  I  confess,  as  bad,  with  a  difference.  And  here  we 
are  enjoying,  as  only  pilgrims  and  sojourners  at  hotels  can  enjoy,  this  oasis 
of  home  life,  and  day  and  night  I  bless  the  Providence  which  has  set  the 
solitary  in  families  and  moved  him  to  hospitality.  Yesterday  we  returned 
from  an  excursion  of  two  days  to  Dunfermline.  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Hay 
are  coming  to-day  to  stop  over  Sunday,  a  splendid  addition  to  the  company. 
Your  father  is  getting  so  much  benefit  from  the  open  air,  in  which  lie 
spends  his  entire  day — and  think  how  long  the  days  are  in  this  latitude: 
it  was  half-past  eight  when  we  reached  home  last  night,  and  the  sun  was 
just  setting,  and  we  were  dining  at  half-past  nine  by  its  waning  light 
alone,  and  your  father  could  read  the  label  on  the  champagne  bottle  with 
out  glasses ;  that  he  has  discarded  woollen  socks  and  gaiters  and  one 
overcoat,  and  is  getting  really  a  color.  Also  he  has  danced  the  hay- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    KLAINE.  643 

makers —  which  is  our  Virginia  reel  —  on  the  lawn,  and  has  played  skittles. 
We  breakfast  every  morning  at  nine,  and  as  Mr.  Carnegie  would  not  sit 
down  to  the  table  without  him,  he  gets  up  in  good  season  —  a  great  advan 
tage  over  that  long  lying  in  bed  which  at  home  he  so  much  indulges  in. 

To  G.: 

KILGRASTON,  July  18,  1887. 

It  was  on  the  queen's  highway  and  this  morning  that  Mr.  Blaine  and  I 
stopped  the  mail  carrier,  and  it  might  have  been  Henry  Hall  himself  who 
unstrapped  the  pouch,  so  much  as  a  matter  of  course  did  he  seem  to  take 
it  that  Mr.  Blaine's  peremptory  "  halt"  should  be  obeyed.  .  .  .  Where 
were  we  going?  Nowhere;  that  is,  I  was  not,  but  my  other  ego  was 
bound  for  Kinghorn  to  do  honor  to  Mr.  Carnegie,  whom  all  Scotland  is 
just  now  delighting  to  honor.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Carnegie  had  gone  oft'  on  the 
coach  to  Kinghorn,  —  about  thirty- five  miles,  —  but  Mr.  Blaine  against  this 
long  drive  had  protested  so  vigorously  that  he  was  allowed  to  go  by  train, 
though  he  had  to  give  his  word  to  coach  back  to-morrow.  .  .  .  Our 
most  generous  and  hospitable  host  is  very  peremptory.  .  .  .  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Hale  went  away  yesterday  after  a  week's  visit,  and  Colonel  and 
Mrs.  Hay  went  this  morning,  and  yesterday  the  C.  P's  (live)  came. 
Mrs.  Carnegie  poured  coffee  this  morning  for  sixteen.  Scotland  is  a 
beautiful  country,  and  I  have  enjoyed  this  oasis  of  home  life  in  the  midst 
of  hotel  life.  .  .  .  This  beautiful  Scotch  day,  which  began  in  cold  and 
drizzling  clouds,  is  now,  at  eleven  o'clock,  beaming  upon  us  with  sunshine 
and  cool  breezes.  Our  hostess,  Mrs.  P.,  Lady  C.,  T.,  and  young  P.  have 
gone  into  Perth  —  for  what?  to  buy  a  piano.  So  our  autocrat  of  the 
breakfast,  dinner,  and  lunch  table  has  decreed.  Young  P.  is  a  musical 
genius,  and  this  old  "  grand,"  belonging  to  the  effete  nobility,  whose 
purse  is  light,  suddenly  found  itself  condemned  last  night,  after  yielding 
up  strains  of  sweetest  harmony,  I  must  say,  to  silence,  and  it  was  or 
dered  that  its  successor  should  be  installed  in  office  before  the  evening  of 
another  day.  Hence  Perth,  which  is  four  miles  oft'.  .  .  .  For  instance, 
this  morning  at  breakfast  the  talk  had  run  into  the  expediency  of  build 
ing  up  the  navy,  when  Mr.  Blaine  was  delivered  of  one  of  the  most  inter 
esting  and  masterly  statements  of  what  it  was  in  his  mind  to  secure 
through  the  Garh'eld  administration  that  I  have  ever  heard  even  from  his 

O 

lips.  They  all  came  back  from  Kinghorn  in  season  for  a  half-past  seven 
dinner  Wednesday,  the  Carnegies  having  slept  in  a  room  at  the  castle 
once  occupied  by  Mary  Stuart,  and  Mr.  Blaine  in  Cromwell's  room.  All 
the  Blaines  in  Scotland  were  named  by  name  at  the  banquet,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  that  bailiwick  women  sat  down  to  a  public  dinner.  The  P's 
have  gone  over  incontinently  to  the  Blaine  banner,  if  that  banner  shall 
ever  float  again.  .  .  .  We  think  now  we  may  leave  for  the  Trossachs 
Monday,  coming  back  here  for  our  luggage.  I  hate  to  go  out  into  a  cold 
world  again,  but  we  have  not  really  crossed  the  water  to  spend  our  sum 
mer  with  Americans.  I  sometimes  ask  myself  why  we  came  abroad. 


644  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE. 

Certainly  I  am  not  half  as  happy  as  I  should  be  at  Bar  Harbor  with 
Blarney,  and  all  the  others  whom  I  hold  dear;  but  I  shall  have  attained, 
when  L  return,  to  something,  without  which  I  have  always  thought  myself 
to  have  fallen  short. 

From  Mr.  Blaine : 

LONDON,  August  15,  '87. 

The  people  of  Ireland  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  discouraged  or  even  heart 
broken  race  I  could  not,  if  called  upon,  fortify  this  conclusion  by  facts 
and  illustrations,  but  the  impression,  which  is  about  all  a  traveller  gets, 
was  all  that  way.  Their  cause  is,  however,  progressing  in  England,  not 
exactly  for  the  kind  of  "home  rule"  which  Gladstone  enclosed  in  last 
year's  bill,  but  still  a  substantial  and  valuable  measure  of  local  self-govern 
ment,  and  which  will  still  leave  Ireland  represented  in  the  Imperial 
Parliament.  In  America,  you  know,  we  never  considered  any  other  form 
of  "  home  rule"  either  practicable  or  desirable.  They  wished  to  give  me  a 
great  banquet  in  Dublin,  but  I  felt  that  to  accept  would  simply  be  eating 
and  drinking  the  substance  of  the  poor.  .  .  .  One  must  come  to 
Europe  to  see  how  much  we  have  at  home.  I  have  lost  sight  of  politics. 

To  Walker  : 

BROWN'S  HOTEL,  LONDON. 

.  .  .  We  had  too  good  a  time  at  the  Carnegies  to  enjoy  anything 
which  followed,  and  when  the  following  was  poor  Ireland,  it  was  a  far 
from  pleasing  week,  —  saving  always  our  visit  to  Cork  and  the  Coppinger 
family,  which  was  very  satisfactory  to  us,  and  I  hope  to  them.  .  .  . 
This  hotel  seems  much  more  satisfactory  than  the  Metropole  ;  but,  alas  !  we 
must  quit  our  haven  of  rest  Monday  to  go  and  bathe  in  Germany.  Three 
days  in  London,  though,  make  one  sooty  enough  to  render  any  course  of 
baths  beneficial. 

From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

HOMBURG,  August  24,  '87. 

Trevelyan  turned  back  when  he  saw  that  Liberal  Unionism  was  Toryism 
in  disguise,  and  especially  when  he  saw  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  willing  to 
modify  his  bill  of  last  year  on  the  points  where  he  had  made  objections,  — 
Irish  representation  in  Imperial  Parliament  and  the  abandonment  of  the 
scheme  of  buying  out  the  landlords  at  the  expense,  or  even  possible  expense, 
of  the  British  taxpayer.  Trevelyan  felt  —  so  a  friend  of  his  told  me  — 
that  he  would  be  selling  his  birthright  —  as  the  nephew  of  his  uncle  —  to 
separate  from  the  Liberal  party ;  and  so  he  is  back  in  triumph  and  the 
beating  of  drums.  There  may  be  an  Irish  bull  in  inheriting  a  birthright 
from  an  uncle,  but  you  know  my  meaning.  This  place  is  gay  and  inter 
esting,  and  a  splendid  health  resort.  I  am  so  busy  getting  well  and 
strong  that  I  have  no  time  for  trifles. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  645 

To  Walker: 

HOMBURG,  September  1,  1887. 

.  We  are  all  well,  though  rather  lost,  almost  every  one  we  know 
having  completed  or  cut  the  cure.  The  Fricks  went  yesterday  and  the 
Hales  this  morning  and  the  Depews  this  afternoon.  Mr.  Blaine  has  been 
playing  a  cold  and  rheumatism  anywhere,  preparatory,  I  think,  to  the  morti- 
i'ying  announcement  that  he  was  satisfied  with  a  half  cure.  .  .  .  We 
breakfast  in  our  sitting-room,  waited  on  by  a  German  maid,  who,  when  I 
complain  of  the  rolls  not  being  fresh,  feels  them  all  over  with  her  fingers, 
to  assure  me  that  they  are  soft.  .  .  . 

September  23.  .  .  .  He  found  the  F's,  with  whom  he  boarded  twenty 
years  ago,  going  on  at  the  same  old  stand  and  delighted  to  see  him,  only  it 
was  the  son  and  daughter  instead  of  the  father  and  mother.  They  were  as 
fully  posted  about  him  as  you  and  I,  and  his  doctor  is  the  doctor  of  twenty 
years  ago. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Colonel  Hay : 

WASHINGTON,  December  8. 

I  must  thank  you  for  my  share  of  the  enjoyment  of  your  counterblast 
published  in  the  Tribune  to-day.  We  were  all  lost  in  disgust  at  the 
.  .  .  message,  and  not  knowing  just  what  to  do  with  it,  when,  as  we 
might  have  expected,  but  did  not,  came  from  over  the  sea  the  clear  blast 
of  the  trumpet,  declaring  battle  and  bringing  the  fighting  men  into  well- 
ordered  ranks.  You  have  given  us  our  platform  for  next  year. 

Enjoy  yourself  and  come  back  to  us  with  your  neck  clothed  in  thunder. 
We  need  all  the  celestial  help  there  is  going  next  year.  I  can't  help 
thinking  of  that  awful  German  line,  "  Against  stupidity  the  very  gods  war 
unvictorious."  But  we  must  not  give  up  in  advance. 

From  Mr.  Blaine,  to  Hon.  J.  H.  Manley : 

SORRENTO,  ITALY,  April,  1888. 

I  beg  you  will  not  fail  to  continue  your  letters  and  make  them  more  fre 
quent.  They  are  a  great  resource  to  me,  away  off,  fifteen  hundred  miles  from 
home.  As  I  write  this,  Mrs.  Blaine  is  sitting  on  a  balcony  from  one  of  our 
windows  that  looks  over  a  precipice  three  hundred  feet  high,  with  the  Bay 
of  Naples  below,  the  city  fourteen  miles  across  the  bay,  directly  opposite  ; 
Vesuvius  on  the  right,  with  a  great  volume  of  smoke  issuing  from  the 
crater ;  the  island  of  Capri  and  earthquake-shaken  Ischia  on  the  .left ;  Pom 
peii  distinctly  visible  with  a  glass  she  holds  in  her  hand,  and  with  another 
sweep  of  the  glass  she  can  distinctly  see  the  island  to  which  Brutus  fled  after 
the  murder  of  Cresar,  and  where  Cicero  visited  him  in  his  exile.  A  little  be 
yond,  in  plainer  view  with  a  glass  than  the  State  House  is  from  your  home, 
overlies  the  city  of  Puteoli,  where  St.  Paul  landed  and  preached  a  week  on 


646  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

his  way  to  Rome.  He  left  his  ship  there  and  went  overland.  I  have  taken  the 
glass,  and  I  can  easily  see  the  pier  where  St.  Paul  put  his  foot.  See  the 
last  chapter  of  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  I  have  visited  all  these  places  again 
and  again,  having  been  in  the  neighborhood  nearly  a  month ;  and  while  I 
take  great  pleasure  with  these  associations,  I  would  not  give  one  good  look 
at  Bar  Harbor  for  the  whole  of  it. 

INDIANAPOLIS,  Ind.,  June  30,  1888. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BLAINE  :  Your  cablegram  was  so  prompt,  so  generous, 
and  so  stirring  that  I  could  not  refrain  from  giving  it  to  the  press,  which  I 
did  not  doubt  would  be  in  the  line  of  your  wishes.  My  first  thought  was 
to  send  you  by  cable  my  grateful  acknowledgments,  but  on  reflection  I 
concluded  to  use  the  mails,  as  offering  me  a  medium  for  a  fuller  and  more 
confidential  expression  of  my  feelings. 

From  your  most  intimate  and  trusted  friends  I  had  the  assurance  that  in 
a  possible  contingency  you  and  they  might  regard  my  nomination  with 
favor.  It  was  only  such  assurances  that  made  my  Indiana  friends  hope 
ful  of  success,  and  only  the  help  of  your  friends  made  success  possi 
ble.  It  will  give  me  pleasure  always  to  show  my  high  appreciation  of  the 
efficient  and  conclusive  support  your  very  close  friends  gave  to  me  in  the 
convention. 

I  am  now  looking  forward  with  great  interest  to  the  time  when  you  shall 
return  and  give  to  the  campaign  the  impetus  that  only  your  voice  can  give 
to  it.  If  it  suits  your  plans  I  would  like  to  have  an  early  visit  from  you, 
and  Mrs.  Harrison  requests  that  you  will  bring  Mrs.  Elaine  with  you. 
You  will,  of  course,  know  that  this  implies  that  during  your  stay  we  shall 
expect  to  have  a  great  meeting  and  a  speech  from  you.  Our  State  conven 
tion  meets  August  8.  I  write  in  haste  and  amid  constant  interruptions. 
Please  convey  to  Mr.  Carnegie  my  thanks  for  his  congratulatory  message, 
and  to  your  family  my  very  kind  regards. 

Gratefully  and  very  sincerely  yours, 

BENJ.  HARRISON. 

(  Perso?i(i,l.) 

INDIANAPOLIS,  June  30,  1888. 
WALKER  BLAINE,  ESQ.,  Chicago,  III.: 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  want  first  to  thank  you  for  your  very  kind  letter  of 
congratulation,  and  for  your  assurance  that  my  nomination  would  be  very 
agreeable  to  your"  father.  He  has  personally  given  me  so  many  evidences 
of  his  confidence  that  I  did  not  for  a  moment  doubt  that  he  would  now 
give  me  his  indispensable  support  in  this  campaign.  His  cordial  and  very 
hopeful  telegram  was  a  most  auspicious  beginning,  and  gave  me  a  hospi 
table  reception  from  his  friends.  I  would  have  cabled  my  thanks  to  him, 
but  in  the  hurry  here  I  could  not  get  his  address.  And,  besides,  I  pre 
ferred  a  method  of  communication  that  would  enable  me  to  speak  more 
fully  and  more  confidentially.  Will  you  be  good  enough  to  seal  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  647 

address  to  him  the  enclosed  letter.     I  have  also  enclosed  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Carnegie,  which  I  will  also  ask  you  to  address  and  forward. 
I  shall  be  very  glad  to  see  you  at  my  house  at  any  time. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

BENJ.  HARRISON. 

P.S.  —  Since  writing  the  above,  Mr.  Elkins  has  arrived  at  my  house, 
and  I  have  been  able  to  send  the  letter  to  your  father  direct. 

To  Walker: 

CLUNY  CASTLE,  July  10,  1888. 

.  .  Your  father  is  perfectly  well,  in  the  best  of  spirits.  Think  of 
it:  to-day  he  has  driven  in  a  soaking  rain,  in  an  open  carriage,  sixteen 
miles,  and  I  have  now  just  left  him  after  his  lunch,  — roast  lamb,  cabbage, 
stewed  rhubarb  and  cream,  whiskey  and  water  (the  great  English  table- 
drink  now) ,  and  crackers  and  cheese,  —  reading  aloud.  Tell  Emmons  1  will 
be  sure  to  have  him  well-dressed  when  he  visits  New  York.  The  conven 
tion  made  no  rullle,  and  has  left  none  on  the  bosom  of  his  content.  Not 
for  worlds  would  he  have  the  campaign  on  his  hands. 

From  Mr.  Elaine,  to  Colonel  Hay : 

CLUNY  CASTLE,  KINGUSSIE,  N.B.,  July  17,  1888. 

.  .  .  "  Vidi  mullos  homines  et  tenas  "  since  I  left  home  in  June  of  last 
year,  but  I  am  about  to  return  doubly  content  with  America,  and  willing 
to  give  bond,  if  need  be,  that  I  shall  give  stintingly  of  whatever  time  1 
have  in  the  future  to  the  effete  monarchies.  I  find  that  every  year  makes 
my  own  fireside  more  attractive.  The  common  experience  to  this  effect 
still  leaves  it  a  novelty  to  each  man  as  it  comes  upon  him  with  unexpected 
force.  ...  I  have  been  deeply  entertained  with  each  successive  chap 
ter  of  your  history.  But,  heavens !  how  you  are  (in  the  cause  of  truth) 
uncovering  some  cruel  facts.  .  .  .  Facts  are  fearful  things,  especially 
if  they  suddenly  rise  from  the  grave,  where  you  had  vainly  imagined  them 
to  be  buried  beyond  hope  of  resurrection.  ...  I  am  anxious  to  reach 
home  to  see  how  the  political  currents  are  drifting.  Newspapers  give 
little  information,  when  you  are  beyond  touch  with  the  inside  and  real 
movements.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  Harrison  has  many  elements,  beside 
the  one  of  geography,  for  a  good  canvas.  It  seems  truly  awful  to  contem 
plate  the  possibility  of  the  Democrats  securing  another  lease.  I  am  long 
ing  for  one  good  talk  with  an  American  who  knows  something.  You  are 
one  of  that  kind,  but  as  a  man  grows  older,  the  number  grows  less. 

From  Colonel  Hay: 

AUGUST  3,  1888. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me  to  be  in  New  York  next  week, 
and  mix  my  feeble  fife  with  that  vast  roar  of  welcome  that  awaits  him. 
I  fancy  he  will  himself  be  appalled  at  the  fury  of  affection  and 


648  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

with  which  he  will  be  welcomed  home.     The  country  has  had  a  year  to 
think  it  over,  and  it  concludes  that  it  likes  him,  and  is  glad  to  get  him 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  General  Harrison  : 

INDIANAPOLIS,  Aug.  5,  1888. 

I  have  by  the  kindness  of  your  son  had  the  opportunity  to  send  you 
some  oral  messages,  but  I  cannot  omit  to  add  in  writing  my  cordial  greet 
ings  to  those  of  the  multitude  that  will  have  the  pleasure  denied  to  me  of 
meeting  you  when  you  land.  I  feel  sure  that  no  circumstance  that  could 
emphasize  the  affectionate  good  will  of  the  Republicans  of  the  whole  country 
will  be  omitted,  and  you  will  not  doubt  that  I  feel  very  much  gratified  that 
it  should  be  so.  We  would  have  sent  a  delegation  from  Indiana,  but  our 
State  convention  assembled  on  the  first,  and  those  who  would  otherwise 
have  gone  were  needed  here. 

Emmons  will  tell  you  of  the  plans  I  have  formed  for  you,  and  if  they 
meet  your  approval,  I  will  have  the  pleasure  before  long  of  seeing  you 
again  at  my  home. 

From  Mr.  John  G.  Whittier  : 

CENTRE  HARBOR,  N.H.,  August  14,  1888. 

.  .  .  I  was  much  disappointed  by  Mr.  Elaine's  letter  of  declination, 
but  when  I  see  the  great  heart  of  the  nation  warmed  and  stirred  to  meet 
him,  I  think  he,  at  least,  has  lost  nothing  by  his  choice  of  a  private  station. 
This  grand  ovation  is  worth  more  than  a  dozen  presidencies.  What  you 
have  seen  is  only  a  ripple  of  the  great  wave  of  popular  sympathy  and 
love. 

NEW  YORK,  October  1,  1888. 

The  meeting  is  said  to  have  numbered  forty  thousand  by  competent 
judges.  Father  was  greeted  with  cheer  after  cheer  by  the  largest  audience 
he  has  ever  faced.  It  was  a  great  sight.  He  went  this  morning  to  Tea- 
neck  with  Mr.  Phelps  and  stays  overnight.  I  am  glad  to  have  him  go, 
as  it  rests  him. 

NEW  YORK,  November  1,  1888. 

:.  .  .  Jacky  and  your  father  have  just  started  for  Connecticut.  .  .  . 
After  my  long,  and  lonesome,  and  most  uncomfortable  ride  from  Boston, 
for  every  chair  in  the  car  was  taken,  and  I  was  oppressed  almost  to  vertigo 
by  the  air  of  the  car,  it  was  indeed  reviving  to  see  Colonel  Coppinger's  white 
moustache,  which  I  was  expecting,  and  to  hear  Walker's  cheery  greeting  — 
a  surprise.  Your  father  looked  extremely  well  and  young,  and  his  face 
was  like  that  of  one  of  the  shining  ones. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  649 

NEW  YORK,  November  2,  1888. 

.  Your  father  and  Walker  left  the  hotel  at  nine  in  the  morn  in"1, 
so  I  had  a  long  day  before  me.  .  .  .  Alice  took  me  by  the  elevated  to 
Mrs.  Sherman's  door,  where  she  left  me  to  seek  a  mass.  Mrs.  S.  has 
changed.  She  has  the  look  which  long  and  endured  suffering  gives.  Still 
she  kept  me;  and  when  Alice  came  back,  her  religious  aspirations  unsat 
isfied,  she  made  us  stay  to  lunch.  E.  was  there,  and  Mrs.  E.,  I,.,  and  R., 
M's  oldest  boy,  —  a  great  family,  you  see,  and  a  most  delightful  one,  and  the 
meal  so  good.  Their  dining-room  overflows  with  hospitality.  I  made 
such  an  appeal  to  the  general  and  Mrs.  Sherman,  that  R.  is  going  home 
with  me  on  a  very  brief  visit.  It  was  very  interesting,  and  no  less  touching, 
to  see  the  abandon  of  E.  to  entertain  and  amuse  her  mother.  After  luncheon 
I  had  gone  down  into  the  office  to  see  the  general  —  you  know  he  never  has 
lunch.  Word  came  down  that  a  Mrs.  Salisbury,  an  old  Methodist  lady, 
had  called,  and  that  Mrs.  Sherman  wished  the  general  and  Mrs.  Blaine 
would  see  her,  as  it  would  gratify  the  poor  body.  Up  went  the  general,  and 
I  followed.  He  was  very  much  disgusted  as  Mrs.  Salisbury  insisted  on 
telling  her  church  troubles,  which  all  hinged  on  the  innovation  of  an  organ 
into  the  meeting-house.  The  general  snorted  and  gave  audible  vent  to  his 
impatience,  which  Mrs.  Sherman  hushed  up,  and  Mrs.  Salisbury  kept  on  to 
the  end  of  her  tale,  when  the  general  ran  impolitely  out  of  the  room.  Mrs. 
Salisbury  was  E.,  and  he  had  never  discovered  it.  Then  R.  and  E.  danced 
to  a  little  singsong  which  was  very  pretty,  and  afterwards  R.  played  on  the 
banjo,  and  she  and  E.  sang  old  negro  melodies,  particularly  those  of  old 
Shady.  The  sick  mother,  the  distinction  of  the  family,  the  motive  of  the 
entertainment,  the  tenderness  and  the  talent  of  the  two  girls,  both  so  young 
and  pretty,  and  yet  one  the  mother  of  four  children,  made  a  great  impres 
sion  on  me.  .  .  .  The  campaigners  come  back  to-night.  ...  I 
wish  T.  could  have  seen  her  father  at  Hartford.  Poor,  dear  father,  if  he 
only  gets  home  whole,  and  can  be  got  into  trousers  unbagged  at  the  knees, 
and  will  feel  that  he  is  warm  in  a  cutaway  coat,  he  will  look  ten  years 
younger.  There  is  no  trouble  save  in  his  feelings.  "  He's  all  right,"  but  he 
loves  the  confessional  and  the  lay  sister  (me),  why,  I  do  not  know,  as  I 
always  shrive  him  out  of  hand. 

November  3.  ...  Father  stands  here  overlooking  and  hurrying 
the  fireman  building  the  fire,  for  we  have  been  driving  in  Central 
Park,  and  now  have  dinner  before  us,  and  your  father,  alas  !  a  speech  in 
Brooklyn.  He  threatens  to  go  to  bed,  but  he  will  not.  Walker  has  gone 
to  Poughkeepsie,  where  I  hope  he  may  cover  himself  all  over  with  glory. 
.  .  .  You  would  not  be  very  proud  of  the  beloved's  clothes,  but  the 
real  man  is  all  right.  He  would  not  go  on  to  the  stand  this  afternoon,  as  he 
is  not  a  candidate,  and  thought  that  place  better  filled  by  Morton  and 
Miller.  .  .  . 

November  4.  ...  Mr.  Blaine  made  three  speeches  last  night  at 
Brooklyn,  and  has  come  out  of  the  long  campaign  with  more  vigor,  I  think, 
than  he  carried  into  it. 


650  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

AUGUSTA,  MAINE. 

Joseph  Manley  and  Mr.  Blaine  and  Walker  are  under  the  apple- 
trees  looking  at  the  sunset,  and  weighing  the  campaign  in  the  balance. 
Apparently  our  hero  is  none  the  worse  and  much  the  better  for  its  wear 
and  tear.  Alice  is  telling  stories  in  true  maternal  fashion  to  Conor  in  the 
sitting-room,  while  in  the  distance  Blainey,  returning  from  the  cemetery 
with  Amit  Ellen,  sends  out  a  cheerful  holloa  to  the  philosophers  in  the 
garden. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF  JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  651 


XVIII. 

AGAIN    SECRETARY    OF    STATE,    1889. 

TTPON  the  election  of  Mr.  Harrison,  as  on  that  of  Mr.  Gar- 
^  field,  Mr.  Blaine  was  nominated  as  Secretary  of  State  by 
the  Republican  party.  His  appointment  seemed  to  the  people  a 
logical  result  of  the  election.  His  clear  call  from  Paris,  rousing 
the  Republican  party  to  hope  and  action,  his  insistent  self-renun 
ciation,  his  prompt  entrance  into  the  field  immediately  upon  his 
arrival  from  Europe  when  the  political  canvass  had  been  sluggish 
and  was  almost  motionless,  and  his  cheerful  and  ardent  advocacy 
till  it  was  closed  with  victory,  seemed  to  demand  this  appoint 
ment.  His  designation  of  Mr.  Harrison  as  the  candidate,  ex 
pressed  more  than  a  year  before  the  meeting  of  the  convention, 
and  later  at  the  crucial  moment,  gave  a  personal  phase  to  the 
general  desire,  while  his  own  wish  to  carry  forward,  as  Secretary 
of  State,  the  great  work  which  had  been  wantonly  arrested  was 
well  known.  Opposition  to  him  had  not  died  out,  but  it  had 
greatly  weakened.  Hardly  stronger  arguments  against  his  ap 
pointment  were  brought  than  that  he  would  "  seek  to  dictate," 
and  this  was  offset  by  Garfield's  remembered  testimony  that 
"  Blaine  gave  him  less  trouble  than  any  other  member  of  his 
Cabinet."  This  appointment  was  not  made  so  quickly  as  that 
made  by  Garfield,  and  there  was  anxiety  and  much  energetic 
correspondence,  but  on  the  17th  of  January,  1889,  the  President 
elect  wrote  him : 

[COPY.] 

INDIANAPOLIS,  January  17,  1889. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BLAINE  :  I  beg  to  offer  you  the  position  of  Secretary  of  State, 
and  very  sincerely  and  cordially  to  request  your  acceptance  of  the  office. 
Hoping  to  hear  favorably  from  you  at  your  early  convenience,  I  am 

Very  respectfully  and  sincerely 
Yours, 

BENJ.  HARRISON. 
To  HON.  JAS.  G.  BLAINE, 

Washington,  D.C. 


652  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

[COPY.] 
Private. 

INDIANAPOLIS,  January  17,  1889. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BLAINE  :  I  have  in  a  note  which  you  will  receive  with  this 
requested  your  acceptance  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State.  There  are 
some  further  and  more  familiar  things,  however,  which  I  want  to  say  in 
this  confidential  note.  It  is  quite  essential,  if  such  a  relation  is  to  be 
established  between  us,  that  the  offer  and  the  acceptance  should  both  be  in 
a  spirit  of  the  most  perfect  cordiality  and  confidence.  I  want  to  assure  you 
without  reservation  that  the  offer  is  made  in  that  spirit,  and  in  the  sincere 
hope  that  you  will  find  it  agreeable  to  accept  it.  Our  long  and  friendly 
acquaintance  gives  me  the  assurance  that  you  would  take  up  the  great  office 
in  the  same  spirit. 

We  have  already  a  pretty  full  understanding  of  each  other's  views  as  to 
the  general  policy  which  should  characterize  our  foreign  relations.  I  am 
especially  interested  in  the  improvement  of  our  relations  with  the  Central 
and  South  American  States.  We  must  win  their  confidence  by  deserving 
it.  It  will  not  come  upon  demand.  Only  men  of  experience,  of  high 
character  and  of  broad  views  should  be  sent  even  to  the  least  important  of 
these  States.  In  all  this  I  am  sure  you  will  be  a  most  willing  coadjutor,  for 
your  early  suggestions  and  earnest  advocacy  have  directed  public  attention, 
to  the  subject. 

As  to  our  relations  with  European  governments  they  will,  I  hope,  be  easy 
of  management,  and  in  the  main  formal.  But  three  distinct  questions  with 
as  many  of  the  great  powers  will  require  early  and  discreet  attention.  I  do 
not  doubt  that  it  would  be  your  inclination  as  it  will  be  mine  to  so  deal  with 
these  questions  as  to  bring  about  just  and  peaceful  conclusions.  Your 
familiarity  with  the  origin  and  progress  of  these  differences,  and  indeed 
with  the  whole  history  of  our  diplomacy,  would,  I  am  sure,  give  you  great 
advantage  in  dealing  with  them. 

I  have  another  general  purpose  and  duty  in  which  I  am  sure  you  would 
cooperate  with  the  greatest  cordiality.  It  is  to  preserve  harmony  in  our 
party.  The  continuance  of  Republican  control  for  a  series  of  presidential 
terms  is,  I  think,  essential  to  the  right  settlement  of  some  very  grave  ques 
tions.  J  shall  be  very  solicitous  to  avoid  anything  that  would  promote 
dissensions,  and  very  desirous  that  the  civil  service  shall  be  placed  and 
conducted  upon  that  high  plane  which  will  recommend  our  party  to  the  con 
fidence  of  all  the  people.  This  purpose  is  absolutely  disassociated  with 
any  selfish  thought  or  ambition.  I  .will  be  quite  as  ready  to  make  proper 
concessions  as  to  ask  others  to  do  so.  Each  member  of  my  official  family 
will  have  my  full  confidence  and  I  shall  expect  his  in  return.  There  are 
other  things  which  I  shall,  perhaps,  desire  to  talk  with  you  about,  but  they 
can  abide  the  personal  conference  which  I  hope  to  have  with  you  at  your 
early  convenience. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

BENJ.  HARRISON. 


BIOGRAPHY'    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  653 


[COPY,] 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  January  21,  1889. 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL:  I  have  your  valued  favor  of  the  17th  inst.,  tender 
ing  to  me  the  appointment  of  Secretary  of  State  in  your  Cabinet.  The  tone 
and  manner  in  which  you  extend  the  invitation  convey  to  my  own  feelings 
a  personal  pleasure  which  far  outweighs  the  public  honor.  Allow  me, 
therefore  (with  my  acceptance  of  your  invitation),  to  return  my  most  sin 
cere  thanks  for  the  cordiality  and  confidence  which  mark  every  line  of  it. 
I  reciprocate  the  feeling  in  fullest  measure.  It  is  only  by  a  spirit  of  con 
fidence  at  once  mutual  and  perfect  that  my  service  in  your  Cabinet  can  be 
valuable  to  your  administration,  agreeable  to  you,  or  desirable  to  myself. 

In  becoming  a  member  of  your  Cabinet  I  can  have  no  motive,  near  or 
remote,  inconsistent  with  the  greatest  strength  and  highest  interests  of  your 
administration,  and  of  yourself  as  its  official  and  personal  head. 

I  am  glad  to  find  myself  in  heartiest  accord  with  the  principles  and  poli 
cies  which  you  briefly  outline  for  your  administration,  and  I  am  especially 
pleased  with  what  you  say  in  regard  to  foreign  affairs.  The  State  Depart 
ment  was  designed  in  its  original  constitution  to  be  at  all  times  in  close 
communication  with  the  President.  The  Secretary  is  his  certifying  officer 
even  for  many  things  that  more  nearly  concern  other  departments.  The 
foreign  affairs  are  in  their  inception  and  management  exclusively  executive, 
and  nothing  decisive  can  be  done  in  that  important  field  except  with  the 
President's  personal  knowledge  and  official  approval.  So  entirely  confi 
dential  has  the  relation  of  the  Secretary  to  the  President  been  held  that 
questions  relating  to  foreign  affairs  are  brought  to  the  attention  of  other 
members  of  the  Cabinet  by  the  Secretary  of  State  only  as  directed  by  the 
President. 

To  hold  such  a  relation,  both  personal  and  official,  to  the  Chief  Executive 
of  the  nation  is  in  the  fullest  sense  a  high  honor.  I  beg  you  will  not  doubt 
that  I  deeply  appreciate  its  duties  and  its  responsibilities  in  their  broadest 
significance. 

I  am  with  greatest  respect, 

Your  friend  faithfully, 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 
GEN.  BEXJ.  HARRISON, 

President- Elect  of  the  United  States, 
Indianapolis. 

A  very  large  part  of  the  pleasure  with  which  Mr.  Blaine 
received  this  appointment  was  the  gratification  it  gave  to  his 
friends,  especially  those  who  had  been  concerned  lest  it  should 
not  be  made. 

Though  less  intimate  friends  than  Blaine  and  Garfield  had 
been,  the  political  opinions  of  General  Harrison  and  Mr.  Blaine 


654  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

were  in  general  harmony.  In  discussing  some  arrangements 
regarding  the  inauguration,  Mr.  Harrison  wrote  Mr.  Elaine,  "  I 
am  for  harmony  in  little  as  well  as  big  matters,  as  you  know 
already,  and  other  friends  will  find  out." 

The  President  was  inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  March,  1889, 
and  Mr.  Blame  at  once  took  the  oath  of  office  as  Secretary  of 
State,  not  only  with  satisfaction,  but  with  buoyant  anticipations. 

Mr.  Hitt  was  no  longer  available  for  Assistant  Secretary,  he 
holding  a  position  in  Congress  too  important  to  be  relinquished, 
and  Mr.  Blaine  chose  his  son  Walker  for  the  position.  His  wide 
and  subtile  comprehension  of  affairs,  his  high  ideal  of  politics,  his 
deep  interest  in  men,  his  courtesy  and  suavity  of  manner,  all 
attested  by  his  brilliant  success  in  his  Garfield  secretaryship, 
marked  him  as  eminently  fit  for  the  position,  while  his  life-long 
intimacy  and  sympathy  with  his  father  made  him  such  a  helper 
as  no  other  man  in  the  world  could  be.  They  understood  each 
other  without  words,  but  when  words  were  necessary,  Walker 
could  speak  them.  Like  most  fathers  it  took  some  experience 
to  teach  Mr.  Blaine  that  his  "  lads  "  were  men,  and  held  opinions 
with  a  man's  independence  and  tenacity  of  reasoning.  "  Walker 
is  very  disrespectful,"  he  murmured  one  day  when  Walker  had 
firmly  maintained  his  ground  against  his  father's  position.  "  Not 
at  all,"  was  the  unflinching  reply  of  his  confidant,  "  I  know  noth 
ing  about  the  merits  of  the  argument,  but  you  consulted  Walker 
as  a  man,  and  then  you  treated  him  in  argument  as  if  he  were 
a  five-year-old  boy.  It  is  you  who  were  disrespectful."  He 
smiled,  rueful  but  pleased,  and  when  Walker  returned,  his  father 
held  out  a  penitent  hand  :  "  Walker,  I  owe  you  an  apology."- 
"  Not  at  all,  sir,  I  owe  you  one ; "  but  probably  neither  would 
ever  have  thought  of  it  after  the  encounter  but  for  the  chance 
presence  of  an  outsider. 

Years  of  the  closest  political,  diplomatic,  and  social,  as  well  as 
family,  companionship  had  established  Walker  as  his  father's 
most  trusted  and  competent  counselor  and  agent,  to  whose  skill 
he  found  nothing  too  complicated  or  too  important  to  be  con 
fided.  His  winning  address,  founded  on  real  and  ready  sym 
pathy,  softened  the  brusqueness  of  politics,  increasing  the 
pleasure  of  those  who  were  gratified,  and  mitigating  the  disap 
pointment  of  those  who  were  not. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  655 

Unhappily  the  President  felt  himself  constrained  from  making 
the  appointment  for  the  reason  that  Walker  Elaine  was  the  son 
of  the  Secretary  of  State.  He  was  willing  to  appoint  him  to  the 
solicitorship  of  the  department,  but  he  could  not  permit  him  to 
be  First  Assistant  to  his  father.  Mr.  Blaine  was  equally  unable 
to  press  the  point.  He  felt  that  only  two  courses  were  possible, 
—  either  to  accept  the  situation  without  protest  or  comment,  or 
to  resign.  To  resign  meant  to  relinquish,  probably  forever,  his 
great  opportunity,  to  throw  the  Republican  party  into  division 
and  confusion  at  the  beginning  of  an  administration  and  upon  an 
issue  which  he  could  not  explain  and  which  therefore  could  not 
appear  other  than  trivial.  Walker,  though  intensely  chagrined, 
advised  strongly  against  resignation.  He  took  the  solicitorship 
because  it  would  keep  him  near  his  father,  and  he  continued  to 
give  him  all  the  assistance  possible,  sometimes  he  feared  to  the  dis 
advantage  of  his  own  office,  a  result  which  he  sedulously  strove 
to  avoid.  Mr.  Blaine  remained  in  the  State  Department,  but 
he  never  ceased  to  feel  the  blow,  and  lie  went  crippled  all  his 
remaining  days. 

The  foreign  relations  of  this  country  upon  the  accession  of 
the  Republican  administration  were  in  a  condition  that  de 
manded  the  concentration  of  attention,  courage,  promptness 
and  wisdom  —  a  broad  outlook  in  the  present,  a  clear  forecast 
of  the  future.  They  struck  every  note  in  the  gamut  of  human 
interest  from  the  liberty  of  man  to  the  traffic  in  hogs. 

Our  interests  in  the  Pacific  engaged  the  early  and  serious 
attention  of  the  new  administration.  Samoa,  one  of  the  only 
two  important  island  groups  in  the  Pacific  not  absorbed  by 
European  powers,  was  in  a  position  which  compromised  the 
dignity  of  the  American  government.  More  than  fifty  years 
ago  Commander  Wilkes,  who  afterwards  took  Mason  and  Slidell 
from  the  British  steamer  Trent  to  the  great  delight  of  the 
people  and  of  Congress,  but  to  the  ultimate  official  dissatis 
faction  of  the  President,  had  established  an  American  relation 
ship  to  these  islands  by  surveying  and  exploring  them  and 
framing  laws  for  the  people.  This  tk  moral  suzerainty "  had 
been  continued.  Citizens  of  Great  Britain  and  Germany 
acquired  large  interests  in  Samoa,  but  the  United  States  stood 
always  for  justice  and  progress  to  the  Samoan  people.  During 


656  BIOGRAPHY  OF  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 

President  Hayes'  administration,  Samoa  sent  two  envoys 
hither.  One  was  an  American  resident,  the  other  the  native 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  who  had  been  educated  by  the 
missionaries  in  Samoa,  and  had  learned  a  pure  English  from 
the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  Samoans  had  been  so  won  by  the 
kindness  and  fair  dealing  of  our  government  that  they  wished 
to  secure  closer  commercial  and  political  relations  with  the 
United  States,  even  to  the  extent  of  a  protectorate  or  a  cession 
of  territory.  They  dreaded  the  encroachments  of  Europeans 
which  threatened  to  be  supported  sooner  or  later  by  the  British 
and  the  German  governments.  The  President  and  Mr.  Evarts, 
the  Secretary  of  State,  received  them  favorably.  The  Navy 
Department  had  long  urged  a  coaling  station  in  the  Pacific ; 
public  opinion  had  not  reached  that  point,  but  the  envoys 
were  content  to  cede  their  finest  harbor,  Pago-Pago,  for  a  naval 
and  coaling  station,  asking  nothing  in  return  but  our  good-will 
and  friendly  intercourse.  Europeans  were  quicker  than  Ameri 
cans  to  perceive  the  advantage  given  to  Americans,  and  they 
began  a  series  of  movements  against  it.  Disturbances  were 
fomented,  if  not  created,  by  foreign  adventurers.  In  July,  1881, 
a  treaty  of  peace  between  warring  Samoan  chiefs  was  cele 
brated  on  board  the  United  States  steamer  Lackawanna  in 
the  presence  of  Commander  Gillis  and  of  the  representatives  of 
the  three  treaty  powers,  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and 
Germany.  A  neutral  territory  was  established  in  and  about 
Apia,  and  a  government  provided  \vhich  for  three  and  a  half 
years  was  acknowledged  throughout  the  islands  and  was  re 
markably  successful.  Malietoa,  the  king,  and  Tamasese,  the 
vice-king,  lived  together  at  Mulinuu  and  performed  their 
separate  official  duties  undisturbed.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
troubles  again  arose,  not  from  hostility  of  the  natives,  but  from 
the  rivalry  of  foreign  interests  and  the  irregular  action  of  foreign 
officials,  and  Germany  claimed  paramount  interest  and  influence 
in  Samoa.  On  June  1,  1886,  Secretary  Bayard  suggested  a 
conference  at  Washington  consisting  of  the  British  minister, 
the  German  minister,  and  himself  to  arrange  for  the  reestablish- 
ment  of  order  by  the  election  of  a  competent  native  chief  by 
the  Samoans  to  be  upheld  by  the  three  powers.  The  suggestion 
was  accepted  by  Germany,  but  before  the  conference  opened, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  657 

rumors  had  become  rife  in  Samoa  that  Germany  meant,  in  case 
she  should  not  secure  what  she  wished  in  the  conference,  to 
take  possession  of  the  island,  set  up  Tamasese  as  king,  and 
organize  a  government.  Malietoa  prepared  to  defend  himself. 
Secretary  Bayard,  in  accordance  with  the  British  Foreign  Office, 
instructed  Mr.  Harold  M.  Sewall,  Consul-General  to  Samoa,  to 
keep  Malietoa  from  fighting,  on  the  assurance  that  the  confer 
ence  would  arrange  Samoan  affairs  for  the  best  interests  of 
Samoans.  The  king,  who  was  able  and  eager  to  crush  the 
rebels  before  the  German  ships  arrived,  yielded  to  Mr.  Se wall's 
representations  "out  of  his  great  respect  and  love  for  the 
government  of  the  United  States."  Six  German  war-ships 
arrived  at  Apia.  The  American  flag  was  hauled  down.  Tam 
asese  was  installed  under  German  guns.  Malietoa  was  driven 
to  the  mountains,  where  his  people  gathered  around  him  sending 
down  hourly  to  Mr.  Sewall  to  learn  news  from  the  conference. 

The  conference  was  opened  at  Washington,  June,  1887,  and 
after  much  discussion  on  July  26th  adjourned  for  further  in 
structions,  but  no  word  went  from  it  to  help  the  waiting  king. 
Instead,  Germany  without  any  previous  intimation  notified  the 
government  of  the  United  States  that  she  had  declared  war 
against  "  Malietoa  personally."  Martial  law  was  established  by 
the  German  authorities  in  Samoa.  American  citizens  were  sub 
jected  to  the  indignity  of  minute  and  offensive  police  inspection 
by  the  German  navy,  which  demanded  Malietoa  dead  or  alive. 
To  save  bloodshed,  he  surrendered  himself  and  was  carried  a 
prisoner  on  a  German  war-ship  to  the  deadly  Cameroons. 

Startled  by  the  indignation  aroused  in  this  country,  Germany 
proposed  a  renewal  of  conference,  but  in  Berlin  instead  of 
Washington.  Secretary  Bayard  accepted  the  proposition,  and 
thus  affairs  stood  on  the  4th  of  March.  Secretary  Blaine  in 
stantly  renewed  the  acceptance,  but  emphasized  the  fact  that  it 
was  the  old  conference  on  the  old  basis,  and  not  a  new  conference 
under  the  new  conditions  which  had  been  created  by  Germany, 
but  which  did  not  change  our  obligations  to  Samoa. 

But  though  the  conference  was  old  the  conferees  were  new 
blood.  Mr.  Kasson,  who  had  been  minister  to  Austria,  Mr. 
George  H.  Bates,  of  Delaware,  whom  the  preceding  administra 
tion  had  sent  as  commissioner  to  Samoa  and  who  had  studied 


658  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

its  history  and  institutions,  and  Mr.  William  Walter  Phelps, 
were  men  fortified  for  the  emergency.  Mr.  Sewall,  ex-Consul 
to  Samoa,  accompanied  them  as  secretary.  Thus  the  con 
ference  on  the  American  side  was  furnished  with  experts,  two 
of  whom  had  been  Democratic  office-holders,  but  were  ardently 
Republican  in  their  way  of  conducting  their  offices.  Their 
instructions,  furnished  on  April  11,  were  that  the  United  States 
government  desired  a  speedy  and  amicable  solution  of  all  ques 
tions,  but  would  steadily  maintain  its  own  full  equality  of  right 
and  consideration  as  much  for  the  purpose  of  fulfilling  its  obli 
gations  to  secure  to  the  Samoans  the  conditions  of  a  healthy, 
prosperous  and  civilized  life,  as  of  protecting  the  rights  and 
interests  of  its  own  citizens.  With  pointed  reference  to  our 
great  and  growing  interests  in  the  Pacific  and  to  the  early  open 
ing  of  an  Isthmian  transit  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
(under  American  protection),  all  of  which  required  the  posses 
sion  of  a  naval  station  which  had  been  granted  in  Pago-Pago 
by  the  lawful  Samoan  authorities,  the  government  firmly  de 
clined  to  "accept  even  temporary  subordination  "  as  inconsistent 
.  with  that  international  consideration  and  dignity  to  which  the 
United  States  by  continental  position  and  expanding  interests 
must  always  be  entitled.  If  intervention  of  the  three  powers 
were  absolutely  necessary,  it  must  be  temporary  and  avowedly 
preparatory  to  the  restoration  of  autonomy  in  the  islands,  and 
while  it  lasted  it  must  be  on  terms  of  absolute  equality.  Ger 
many  was  to  be  informed  that  the  President  was  painfully 
apprehensive  that  the  forcible  removal  of  Malietoa,  —  who  was 
without  doubt  the  preferred  sovereign  of  the  Samoan  people,  — 
and  the  failure  to  restore  that  condition  under  which  alone  a 
free  choice  could  be  made  by  the  Samoans,  would  not  only  seri 
ously  complicate  but  possibly  endanger  a  prompt  and  friendly 
solution. 

Stress  was  laid  upon  the  necessity  of  defending  the  natives 
against  the  robbery  of  their  lands  by  greedy  foreigners  and 
against  the  demoralization  of  the  alcohol  trade.  The  subjec 
tion  of  American  citizens  in  Samoa  to  martial  law  was  assumed 
to  be  the  rash  mistake  of  German  naval  officers,  and  was  only 
mentioned  to  avoid  misconstruction  and  to  be  overlooked  as 
one  of  "  the  trials  and  indignities  to  which  they  ought  never  to 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  659 

have  been  subjected,  and  to  which,  I  trust,  the  result  of  this 
conference  will  make  it  certain  that  they  shall  never  be  sul>- 
jected  again." 

The  negotiations  were  delicate ;  the  situation  was  not  without 
peril.  Once  the  committee  cabled  to  the  Secretary  the  con 
viction  that  they  must  compromise ;  that  Bismarck  was.  angry, 
and  that  without  yielding  somewhat  they  feared  everything 
would  be  lost.  Mr.  Blaine  cabled  in  response  that  "  The 
extent  of  the  chancellor's  irritability  is  not  the  measure  of 
American  rights."  He  could  be  irritable  himself  on  occasion, 
and  lie  knew  for  how  little  it  counted.  The  negotiations  were 
brought  to  a  happy  conclusion.  In  constant  close  communication 
and  entire  sympathy  with  the  Secretary,  the  commissioners  by 
their  skill  and  patriotism  secured  the  treaty  of  Berlin.  All 
thought  of  war  was  banished.  Malietoa  was  brought  back  to 
Samoa  amid  the  general  rejoicing  of  his  subjects,  —  a  wreck  of 
his  former  self,  but  free,  and  a  king  once  more.  The  land-claims 
were  satisfactorily  settled.  A  gentle  and  trusting  people  were 
saved  from  the  extermination  of  abandonment.  Our  rights  to 
the  finest  harbor  in  the  Pacific  were  confirmed,  American  citi 
zenship  was  protected  and  national  honor  vindicated. 

The  Germans  grumbled  a  little  that  they  were  forbidden  the 
desired  predominance,  and  complained  that  the  United  States 
had  the  best  of  it,  but  wisely  consoled  themselves  that  it 
might  have  been  worse,  and  that  there  was  no  humiliation  in 
yielding  since  no  force  was  exerted,  and  the  long  friendship  of 
the  two  nations  which  had  withstood  all  the  strain  of  our  inter 
nal  troubles  remained  unbroken. 

In  England  the  wholesome  moral  was  openly  drawn. 

"  The  United  States  is  becoming  the  greatest  nation  of  the 
world.  It  is  probable  that  nothing  short  of  actual  violence 
would  now  induce  any  nation  to  attack  her,  and  the  idea  of 
incurring  the  enmity  of  such  a  power  is  appalling." 

The  question  of  the  Seal  Fisheries,  our  most  valuable  property 
in  Alaska,  became  under  the  Harrison  administration  very  em 
barrassing  to  England,  because  on  the  one  side  Canada  pushed 
her  pertinacious  little  claims  with  the  persistence  of  a  spoiled 
child  regardless  of  the  larger  interests  of  the  mother-country 
or  the  international  complications  which  it  might  cause,  and 


6GO  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

because  on  the  other  side  stood  a  continent  clear-eyed  to  its  own 
right,  aware  of  its  own  power,  and  bent  on  maintaining  the  one 
to  the  full  extent  of  the  other. 

The  immediate  question  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Elaine's  incum 
bency  was  the  destruction  or  preservation  of  the  seals.  The 
United  States  had  come  into  possession  of  the  sealing  grounds 
through  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  and  considered  herself  to  have 
bought  all  the  rights  that  Russia  owned.  The  sealing  was  let 
out  to  companies,  and  the  protection  of  their  property  was  secured 
by  regulations  as  to  the  time  and  place  of  sealing,  so  that  the 
increase  and  even  the  existence  of  the  herds  should  not  be 
sacrificed  by  indiscriminate  slaughter.  When  Mr.  Blaine  came 
into  office,  Great  Britain  had  already  withdrawn  from  its 
agreement  to  enter  the  treaty  which  Mr.  E.  J.  Phelps  had  sub 
mitted  to  Lord  Salisbury.  Canadian  poachers,  caring  only  for 
immediate  profits  to  themselves  and  improvident  of  the  future, 
defied  the  regulations  and  slaughtered  the  seals  at  will,  with 
brutal  and  destructive  recklessness.  The  United  States  ordered 
the  capture  and  confiscation  of  their  vessels,  Canada  complained 
to  Great  Britain,  and  thus  the  three-cornered  contention  which 
had  been  dragging  along  for  years  moved  at  a  swift  pace. 
August  24,  1889,  the  British  government  reported  that  it  had 
heard  rumors  of  seizures  in  Behring  Sea,  and  desired  the  United 
States  government  to  take  stringent  measures  to  prevent  them, 
reminding  Mr.  Blaine  that  Her  Majesty's  government  had  re 
ceived  very  clear  assurances  from  Mr.  Bayard,  when  Secretary  of 
State,  that,  pending  discussion,  no  further  interference  should 
take  place  with  British  vessels  in  Behring  Sea,  that  the  British 
minister  would  be  prepared  on  his  return  to  Washington  in  the 
autumn  to  discuss  the  whole  question,  and  that  Her  Majesty's 
government  wished  to  point  out  to  the  United  States  that  a 
settlement  cannot  but  be  hindered  by  any  measure  of  force 
which  might  be  resorted  to  by  the  United  States.  Mr.  Blaine 
had  the  honor  to  reply  on  the  same  day  that  he  had  heard  the 
same  rumors,  "  probably  based  on  truth  ;  "  that  the  President 
earnestly  desired  an  adjustment  of  difficulties  and  believed  that 
responsibility  for  delay  of  such  could  not  properly  be  charged 
to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  which  learned  with 
much  gratification  that  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  would  come  in 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  661 

the  autumn  prepared  to  discuss  the  whole  question,  and  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  would  endeavor  to  be  pre 
pared  for  the  discussion,  and  believed  that  a  prompt  adjustment 
could  be  secured  on  a  basis  honorable  to  both  countries. 

On  September  12,  the  British  government,  which  could  endure 
Canadian  slaughter  of  American  seals  more  patiently  than  it 
could  endure  American  prevention  of  such  slaughter,  asked  when 
the  instructions  would  be  sent  to  Alaska  to  prevent  the  possibility 
of  the  seizure  of  British  ships  in  Behring  Sea.  September  14,  Mr. 
Blaine  supposed  that  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote's  official  instruction 
to  proceed  immediately  after  his  arrival  in  October  to  a  full 
discussion  of  the  question  removed  all  necessity  of  any  prelim 
inary  correspondence  touching  its  merits,  and  that,  moreover, 
instructions  sent,  even  immediately  upon  the  date  of  the  origi 
nal  request,  August  24,  would  have  failed  to  reach  the  vessels 
before  their  proposed  departure.  October  2,  Lord  Salisbury 
could  not  admit  that  any  American  measures  for  the  protection 
of  seals  could  justify  the  seizure  of  vessels  which  were  trans 
gressing  no  rule  of  international  law ;  but  he  admitted,  however, 
that  the  matter  was  of  importance,  and  that  an  agreement  upon 
it1^  even  more  important,  but  that  he  was  hindered  by  objec 
tions  raised  by  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Meanwhile  under  Mr. 
Blaine's  pointed  inquiries,  Mr.  Bayard's  "  very  clear  assurances  " 
had  faded  into  u  an  unofficial  assurance."  Mr.  Blaine  inquired 
in  what  way  this  assurance  was  "  unofficially  communicated  "  to 
Her  Majesty's  government.  The  British  Legation  thought  it  had 
been  so  communicated  in  a  letter  by  Mr.  Bayard  to  Sir  Lionel 
West ;  but  upon  further  inquiry  the  legation  learned  that  this 
was  not  the  assurance  wherewith  Lord  Salisbury  was  assured, 
but  that  the  assurance  which  he  had  in  mind  was  communicated 
to  himself  in  London.  The  assurance  thus  seemed  to  remain 
not  only  unofficially,  but  undemonstrably  communicated. 

When  Mr.  Blaine  settled  to  the  work,  he  took  it  out  of 
the  trivial  details  in  which  it  had  been  entangled,  and  cleared 
up  the  whole  history  and  philosophy  of  our  rights  in  Behring 
Sea.  Sweeping  away  the  obsolete  precedents  of  the  English 
Foreign  Office,  he  established  our  contention  on  the  eternal 
principles — national  or  international  —  of  right,  equity,  hu 
manity,  to  be  formulated  as  new  conditions  require.  u  The 


662  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

Canadian  vessels  arrested  and  detained  in  the  Behring  Sea 
were  engaged  in  a  pursuit  that  was  in  itself  contra  bonos 
mores,  a  pursuit  which  of  necessity  involves  a  serious  and  per 
manent  injury  to  the  rights  of  the  government  and  people  of 
the  United  States.  To  establish  this  ground  it  is  not  necessary 
to  argue  the  question  of  the  extent  and  nature  of  the  sovereignty 
of  this  government  over  the  waters  of  the  Behring  Sea.  The 
weighty  considerations  growing  out  of  the  acquisition  of  Alaska, 
with  all  the  rights  on  land  anc^sea  inseparably  connected  there 
with,  may  be  safely  left  out  of  view,  while  the  grounds  are  set 
forth  on  which  this  government  rests  its  justification."  "  The 
Canadian  poachers  are  noj  only  interfering  with  American 
rights,  but  are  doing  violence^as  well  to  the  rights  of  the  civil 
ized  world.  Does  Her  Majesty's  government  seriously  main 
tain  that  the  law  of  nations  is  powerless  to  prevent  such  violation 
of  the  common  lights  of  man  ?  Are  the  supporters  of  justice  in 
all  nations  to  be  declared  incompetent  to  prevent  wrongs  so 
odious  and^Ro  destructive?  The  forcible,  resistance  to  which 
this  government  is  constrained  in  the  Behring  Sea"fs,  in  the 
President's  judgment,  demanded  not  only  by  the  necessity  of 
defending  the  traditional  and  long  established  rights  of  the 
United  States,  but  also  the  rights  of  good  government  and  of 
good  morals  the  world  over." 

This  was  the  head  and  front  of  his  argument,  but  he  fortified 
it  from  American  and  English  history  and  with  an  amplitude  of 
resources  that  left  nothing  to  be  defended. 

JANUARY  22,  1890. 

It  can  not  be  unknown  to  Her  Majesty's  government  that  one  of  the 
most  valuable  sources  of  revenue  from  the  Alaskan  possessions  is  the  fur- 
seal  fisheries  of  the  Behring  Sea.  Those  fisheries  had  been  exclusively 
controlled  by  the  government  of  Russia,  without  interference  or  without 
question,  from  their  original  discovery  until  the  cession  of  Alaska  to 
the  United  States  in  1867.  From  1867  to  1886  the  possession  in  which 
Russia  had  been  undisturbed  was  enjoyed  by  this  government  also. 
There  was  no  interruption  and  no  intrusion  from  any  source. 

This  uniform  avoidance  of  all  attempts  to  take  fur  seal  in  those  waters 
had  been  a  constant  recognition  of  the  right  held  and  exercised  first  by 
Russia  and  subsequently  by  this  government.  It  has  also  been  the 
recognition  of  a  fact  now  held  beyond  denial  or  doubt  that  the  taking 
of  seals  in  the  open  sea  rapidly  leads  to  their  extinction. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     RLAINE.  f>f>3 

The  fact  had  also  been  demonstrated  in  a  wide  sense  by  the  well-nigh 
total  destruction  of  all  seal  fisheries  except  the  one  in  the  Behring  Sea, 
which  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  now  striving  to  preserve, 
not  altogether  for  the  use  of  the  American  people,  but  for  the  use  of  the 
world  at  large. 

The  killing  of  seals  in  the  open  sea  involves  the  destruction  of  the 
female  in  common  with  the  male.  The  slaughter  of  the  female  seal  is 
reckoned  as  an  immediate  loss  of  three  seals,  besides  the  future  loss  of 
the  whole  number  which  the  bearing  seal  may  produce  in  the  successive 
years  of  life. 

After  the  acquisition  of  Alaska  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  through  competent  agents  working  under  the  direction  of  the 
best  experts,  gave  careful  attention  to  the  improvement  of  the  seal 
fisheries. 

The  entire  business  was  then  conducted  peacefully,  lawfully,  and 
profitably  —  profitably  to  the  United  States,  for  the  rental  was  yielding  a 
moderate  interest  on  the  large  sum  which  this  government  had  paid  .for 
Alaska,  including- the  rights  now  at  issue;  profitably  to  the  Alaskan 
company,  which,  under  governmental  direction  and  restriction,  had  given 
unwearied  pains  to  the  care  and  development  of  the  fisheries ;  profitably 
to  the  Aleuts,  who  were  receiving  a  fair  pecuniary  reward  for  their 
labors,  and  were  elevated  from  semi-savagery  to  civilization  and  to  the 
enjoyment  "Of  schools  and  churches  provided  for  their  benefit  by  the 
government  of  the  United  States ;  and,  last  of  all,  profitably  to  a  large 
body  of  Euglisl^  laborers  who  had  constant  employment  and  received  good 
wages. 

This,  in  brief,  was  the  condition  of  the  Alaska  fur-seal  fisheries  down 
to  the  year  1886.  The  precedents,  customs,  and  rights  had  been  estab 
lished  and  enjoyed,  either  by  Russia  or  the  United  States,  for  nearly  a . 
century.  The  two  nations  were  the  only  powers  that  owned  a  foot  of 
land  on  the  continents  that  bordered,  or  on  the  islands  included  within, 
the  Behring  waters  where  the  seals  resort  to  breed.  Into  this  peaceful 
and  secluded  field  of  labor  certain  Canadian  vessels  in  1886  asserted 
their  right  to  enter,  and  by  their  ruthless  course  to  destroy  the  fish 
eries  and  with  them  to  destroy  also  the  resulting  industries  which  are  so 
valuable.  The  government  of  the  United  States  at  once  proceeded  to  check 
this  movement,  which,  unchecked,  was  sure  to  do  great  and  irreparable 
harm. 

It  was  the  cause  of  unfeigned  surprise  to  the  United  States  that  Her 
Majesty's  government  should  immediately  interfere  Jto  defend  and  en 
courage  (surely  to  encourage  by  defending)  the  course  of  the  Canadians 
in  disturbing  an  industry  which  had  been  carefully  developed  for  more 
than  ninety  years  under  the  flags  of  Russia  and  the  United  States. 

Whence  did  the  ships  of  Canada  derive  the  right  to  do  in  1886  that 
which  they  had  refrained  from  doing  for  more  than  ninety  years  ?  Upon 
what  grounds  did  Her  Majesty's  government  defend  in  the  year  1886  a 
course  of  conduct  in  the  Behring  Sea  which  she  had  carefully  avoided  ever 


664  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

since  the  discovery  of  that  sea?  By  what  reasoning  did  Her  Majesty's 
government  conclude  that  an  act  may  be  committed  with  impunity  against 
the  rights  of  the  United  States  which  had  never  been  attempted  against  the 
same  rights  when  held  by  the  Russian  Empire  ? 

So  great  has  been  the  injury  to  the  fisheries  from  the  irregular  and 
destructive  slaughter  of  seals  in  the  open  waters  of  the  Behring  Sea  by 
Canadian  vessels,  that  whereas  the  government  had  allowed  one  hundred 
thousand  to  be  taken  annually  for  a  series  of  years,  it  is  now  compelled  to 
reduce  the  number  to  sixty  thousand.  If  four  years  of  this  violation  of 
natural  law  and  neighbor's  rights  have  reduced  the  annual  slaughter  of  seal 
by  40  per  cent.,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  short  a  period  will  be  required  to 
work  the  total  destruction  of  the  fisheries. 

The  ground  upon  which  Her  Majesty's  government  justifies,  or  at  least 
defends,  the  course  of  the  Canadian  vessels,  rests  upon  the  fact  that  they 
are  committing  their  acts  of  destruction  on  the  high  seas,  viz.,  more  than 
three  marine  miles  from  the  shore-line.  It  is  doubtful  whether  Her  Majesty's 
government  would  abide  by  this  rule  if  the  attempt  were  made  to  interfere 
with  the  pearl  fisheries  of  Ceylon,  which  extend  more  than  twenty  miles  from 
the  shore-line  and  have  been  enjoyed  by  England  without  molestation  ever 
since  their  acquisition.  So  well  recognized  is  the  British  ownership  of 
those  fisheries,  regardless  of  the  limit  of  the  three-mile  line,  that  Her 
Majesty's  government  feels  authorized  to  sell  the  pearl-fishing  right  from 
year  to  year  to  the  highest  bidder.  Nor  is  it  credible  that  modes  of 
fishing  on  the  Grand  Banks,  altogether  practicable  but  highly  destructive, 
would  be  justified  or  even  permitted  by  Great  Britain  on  the  plea  that 
the  vicious  acts  were  committed  more  than  three  miles  from  shore. 

.  .  .  This  government  has  been  ready  to  concede  much  in  order  to 
adjust  all  differences  of  view,  and  has,  in  the  judgment  of  the  President, 
already  proposed  a  solution  not  only  equitable  but  generous.  Thus  far 
Her  Majesty's  government  has  declined  to  accept  the  proposal  of  the 
United  States.  The  President  now  awaits  with  deep  interest,  not  unmixed 
with  solicitude,  any  proposition  for  reasonable  adjustment  which  Her 
Majesty's  government  may  submit.  The  forcible  resistance  to  which  this 
government  is  constrained  in  the  Behring  Sea  is,  in  the  President's  judg 
ment,  demanded  not  only  by  the  necessity  of  defending  the  traditional  and 
long-established  rights  of  the  United  States,  but  also  the  rights  of  good 
government  and  of  good  morals  the  world  over. 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

No.  10. 
Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  wrote  to  Mr.  Blame : 

WASHINGTON,  February  10,  1890. 

.  .  .  that  it  might  expedite  a  settlement  of  the  controversy  if  the  tri 
partite  negotiation  respecting  the  establishment  of  a  close  time  for  those 
fisheries  which  was  commenced  in  London  in  1888,  but  was  suspended 
owing  to  various  causes,  should  be  resumed  in  Washington. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLATNE.  f)f>5 

On  May  22,  1890,  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury  replied  challeng 
ing  Mr.  Blame's  three  points,  that  the  indiscriminate  slaughter 
was  contra  bonos  mores,  that  the  United  States  had  been  in 
undisturbed  possession  of  the  seal  fisheries,  and  that  such 
slaughter  tended  to  the  extinction  of  the  seal. 

The  first  argument  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  Lord  Salis 
bury  should  discern,  and  he  did  not  discern  it.  The  third  argu 
ment  he  dismissed  with  the  remark  that  abundant  evidence 
could  be  adduced  on  the  other  side,  but  he  did  not  adduce  it. 
The  second,  since  "  Her  Majesty's  government  cannot  but  think 
that  Mr.  Blaine  has  been  misinformed  as  to  the  history  of  the 
operations  in  Behring  Sea  during  that  period,"  he  attempted  to 
meet  by  a  rash  and  random  lunge  at  American  history. 

Mr.  Blaine  at  once  descended  upon  this  tidbit  of  titular  his 
tory,  and  resolved  it  into  its  original  atoms. 

44  Lord  Salisbury  contends  that  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  when 
Secretary  of  State  under  President  Monroe,  protested  against 
the  jurisdiction  which  Russia  claimed  over  the  waters  of  Behring 
Sea.  To  maintain  this  position,  his  lordship  cites  the  words  of  a 
despatch  of  Mr.  Adams,  written  on  July  23,  1823,  to  Mr.  Henry 
Middleton,  at  that  time  our  minister  at  St.  Petersburg.  The 
alleged  declarations  and  admissions  of  Mr.  Adams  in  that  de 
spatch  have  been  the  basis  of  all  the  arguments  which  Her 
Majesty's  government  has  submitted  against  the  ownership  of 
certain  properties  in  the  Behring  Sea,  which  the  government  of 
the  United  States  confidently  assumes.  I  quote  the  portion 
of  Lord  Salisbury's  argument  which  includes  the  quotation 
from  Mr.  Adams  : 

"  After  Russia,  at  the  instance  of  the  Russian-American  Fur  Company, 
claimed  in  1821  the  pursuits  of  commerce,  whaling,  and  fishing  from 
Behring  Straits  to  the  51st  degree  of  north  latitude,  and  not  only  pro 
hibited  all  foreign  vessels  from  landing  on  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the 
above  waters,  but  also  prevented  them  from  approaching  within  100  miles 
thereof,  Mr.  Quincy  Adams  wrote  as  follows  to  the  United  States  minister 
in  Russia : 

"  *  The  United  States  can  admit  no  part  of  these  claims;  their  right  of 
navigation  and  fishing  is  perfect,  and  has  been  in  constant  exercise  from 
the  earliest  times  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  Southern  ocean, 
subject  only  to  the  ordinary  exceptions  and  exclusions  of  the  territorial 
jurisdictions." 


666  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

"The  quotation  which  Lord  Salisbury  makes  is  unfortunately 
a  most  defective,  erroneous,  and  misleading  one.  The  conclu 
sion  is  separated  from  the  premise,  a  comma  is  turned  into  a 
period,  an  important  qualification  as  to  time  is  entirely  erased 
without  even  a  suggestion  that  it  had  ever  formed  part  of  the 
text,  and  out  of  eighty-four  words,  logically  and  inseparably 
connected,  thirty-five  are  dropped  from  Mr.  Adams's  paragraph 
in  Lord  Salisbury's  quotation.  No  edition  of  Mr.  Adams's  work 
gives  authority  for  his  lordship's  quotation ;  while  the  archives 
of  this  department  plainly  disclose  its  many  errors.  I  requote 
Lord  Salisbury's  version  of  what  Mr.  Adams  said,  and  in  juxta 
position  produce  Mr.  Adams's  full  text  as  he  wrote  it : 

"  [Lord  Salisbury's  quotation  from  Mr.  Adams.] 

"  The  United  States  can  admit  no  part  of  these  claims ;  their  right  of 
navigation  and  fishing  is  perfect,  and  has  been  in  constant  exercise  from 
the  earliest  times  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  Southern  ocean, 
subject  only  to  the  ordinary  exceptions  and  exclusions  of  the  territorial 
jurisdictions. 

"  [Full  text  of  Mr.  Adams's  paragraph.] 

"  The  United  States  can  admit  no  part  of  these  claims.  Their  right  of 
navigation  and  of  fishing  is  perfect,  and  has  been  in  constant  exercise  from 
the  earliest  times,  after  the  peace  of  1783,  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 
the  Southern  ocean,  subject  only  to  the  ordinary  exceptions  and  exclusions 
of  the  territorial  jurisdictions,  which,  so  far  as  Russian  rights  are  concerned, 
arc  confined  to  certain  islands  north  of  the  fifty -fifth  degree  of  latitude,  and 
have  no  existence  on  the  continent  of  America. 

"  The  words  left  out  of  Mr.  Adams's  paragraph  in  the  despatch 
of  Lord  Salisbury  are  precisely  the  words  upon  which  the 
government  of  the  United  States  founds  its  argument  in  this 
case.  Conclusions  or  inferences  resting  upon  the  paragraph, 
with  the  material  parts  of  Mr.  Adams's  text  omitted,  are  of 
course  valueless." 

Having  thus  demolished  it  he  proceeded  to  disintegrate  it.  He 
showed  that  Lord  Salisbury's  fragmentary  citation  and  capricious 
rendering  were  absurd  and  impossible.  His  disjointed  illustra 
tions  Mr.  Blaine  took  to  pieces  and  put  together  right,  and, 
thus  restored,  they  maintained  our  contention  and  not  Lord 
Salisbury's.  Back  and  forth  across  those  awful  seas  and  straits 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  667 

and  shores,  hand  in  hand  with  dead  presidents,  and  the  crazed 
ghosts  of  slain  emperors  and  Englishmen  weary  of  life,  he  led 
the  novice  by  slow,  definite  stages,  and  showed  him  that  real 
knowledge  of  history  and  of  geography  is  not  superficial  but 
organic.  And  having  swept  past  and  present,  near  and  far,  into 
the  scope  of  his  argument,  he  concluded : 

"  It  only  remains  to  say  that  whatever  duty  Great  Britain 
owed  to  Alaska  as  a  Russian  province,  whatever  she  agreed  to  do 
or  to  refrain  from  doing,  touching  Alaska  and  the  Behring  Sea, 
was  not  changed  by  the  mere  fact  of  the  transfer  of  sovereignty 
to  the  United  States.  It  was  explicitly  declared,  in  the  sixth 
article  of  the  treaty  by  which  the  territory  was  ceded  by 
Russia,  that  '  the  cession  hereby  made  conveys  all  the  rights, 
franchises,  and  privileges  now  belonging  to  Russia  in  the  said 
territory  or  dominions  and  appurtenances  thereto.'  Neither 
by  the  treaty  with  Russia  of  1825,  nor  by  its  renewal  in  1843, 
nor  by  its  second  renewal  in  1859,  did  Great  Britain  gain  any 
right  to  take  seals  in  Behring  Sea.  In  fact,  those  treaties  were 
a  prohibition  upon  her  which  she  steadily  respected  so  long  as 
Alaska  was  a  Russian  province.  It  is  for  Great  Britain  now  to 
show  by  what  law  she  gained  rights  in  that  sea  after  the  transfer 
of  its  sovereignty  to  the  United  States. 

"  During  all  the  time  elapsing  between  the  treaty  of  1825  and 
the  cession  of  Alaska  to  the  United  States  in  1867,  Great 
Britain  never  affirmed  the  right  of  her  subjects  to  capture  fur 
seals  in  the  Behring  Sea ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  her  subjects 
did  not,  during  that  long  period,  attempt  to  catch  seals  in  the 
Behring  Sea. 

"  Lord  Salisbury  does  not  attempt  to  cite  the  intrusion  of  a 
single  British  sealer  into  the  Behring  Sea  until  after  Alaska 
had  been  transferred  to  the  United  States.  I  am  justified, 
therefore,  in  repeating  the  questions  which  I  addressed  to  Her 
Majesty's  government  on  the  22d  of  last  January,  and  which 
still  remain  unanswered,  viz. : 

"  Whence  did  the  ships  of  Canada  derive  the  right  to  do,  in  1886,  that 
which  they  had  refrained  from  doing  for  nearly  ninety  years? 

"  Upon  what  grounds  did  Her  Majesty's  government  defend,  in  the  year 
1886,  a  course  of  conduct  in  the  Behring  Sea  which  had  been  carefully 
avoided  ever  since  the  discovery  of  that  sea? 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

"  By  what  reasoning  did  Her  Majesty's  government  conclude  that  an  act 
may  be  committed  with  impunity  against  the  rights  of  the  United  States 
which  had  never  been  attempted  against  the  same  rights  when  held  by  the 
Russian  Empire  ?  " 

On  August  2,  Lord  Salisbury  with  splendid  courage  adven 
tured  forth  again  into  the  icy  Behring.  Mr.  Blaine  at  once 
accepted  his  challenge. 

"  Great  Britain  contends  that  the  phrase  4  Pacific  Ocean,'  as 
used  in  treaties,  was  intended  to  include,  and  does  include,  the 
body  of  water  which  is  now  known  as  the  Behring  Sea.  The 
United  States  contends  that  the  Behring  Sea  was  not  mentioned, 
or  even  referred  to  in  either  treaty,  and  was  in  no  sense  included 
in  the  phrase  'Pacific  Ocean.'  If  Great  Britain  can  maintain 
her  position  that  the  Behring  Sea  at  the  time  of  the  treaties  with 
Russia  of  1824  and  1825  was  included  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the 
government  of  the  United  States  has  no  well-grounded  com 
plaint  against  her.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  this  government  can 
prove  beyond  all  doubt  that  the  Behring  Sea  at  the  date  of  the 
treaties  was  understood  by  the  three  signatory  powers  to  be  a 
separate  body  of  water,  and  was  not  included  in  the  phrase 
4  Pacific  Ocean,'  then  the  American  case  against  Great  Britain 
is  complete  and  undeniable." 

Then  with  the  same  easy  command,  the  same  minute  recon 
structive  knowledge  of  the  events  of  those  distant  days,  in 
terests,  localities,  he  marshalled  not  only  facts,  but  the  causes 
and  consequences  of  facts  he  summoned  from  papers  and 
magazines  of  ninety  years  before,  the  irrefragable  witness  oi 
maps,  scores  upon  scores ;  from  dusty  archives,  — r  protocols, 
protests,  preambles,  treaties,  ukases,  bank  accounts  of  old  fur 
companies.  He  showed  the  Monroe  Doctrine  pushing  its  strong 
young  horns  into  the  North-west  with  the  effect  of  a  sauve  qui 
pent  upon  the  foreign  interests  crowding  and  clouding  our 
North-western  horizon.  Lord  Salisbury's  fractional  facts  were 
rounded  out  and  supplied  with  their  true  meaning.  His  most 
confident  assertions  were  drawn  up  only  to  be  disproved  in  gen 
eral  and  in  particular,  and  to  be  disproved  by  his  own  evidence. 
While  repeatedly  disclaiming  all  claims  to  mare  clausum  Mr. 
Blaine's  citations  of  England's  course  in  assuming  ocean  control 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  669 

for  her  own  purpose  and  the  incisive  courtesy  of  his  comment, 
touches  the  very  sense  of  satiric  satisfaction.  He  did  not  argue 
the  question  of  territorial  inclusion,  hut  jurisdiction  of  waters 
extending  to  the  farthest  point  necessary  for  shore  interests. 
He  did  not  claim  a  closed  sea,  but  property  rights  on  the  open 
sea. 

Along  the  main  lines  of  argument,  a  thousand  minor  points 
scintillated.  After  reading  at  the  conference  the  memorandum 
of  the  Canadian  minister,  Mr.  Blaine  coolly  remarked  that  he 
doubted  whether  "  any  arrangement  could  be  arrived  at  that 
would  be  satisfactory  to  Canada.  The  proposal  of  the  United 
States  had  now  been  two  years  before  Her  Majesty's  govern 
ment,  and  there  was  nothing  further  to  urge  in  support  of  it," 
and  put  upon  England  the  burden  of  a  counter  proposal.  In 
the  face  of  this  withdrawal,  the  initiative  was  left  to  England. 
A  protest  against  the  action  of  the  United  States  had  been 
transmitted  to  the  British  minister,  who  had  amiably  delayed  it 
in  hope  of  another  and  earlier  adjustment.  When  he  could  no 
longer  withhold  it,  Mr.  Blaine  expressed  the  President's  sur 
prise  that  such  a  protest  should  be  authorized  by  Lord  Salis 
bury,  who  had  for  a  period  of  six  months  "  without  retraction 
or  qualification,  without  the  suggestion  of  a  doubt  or  the  drop 
ping  of  a  hint,  in  every  form  of  speech,  assented  to  the  necessity 
of  a  close  season  for  the  protection  of  the  seals ; "  so  that  "  to 
have  distrusted  it  would  have  been  to  question  the  good  faith 
of  Lord  Salisbury  ;  "  and  had  at  the  end  of  that  time  suddenly 
informed  the  American  government  that  "  nothing  could  be 
done  until  Canada  is  heard  from." 

Lord  Salisbury  in  response  "  does  not  recognize  the  expres 
sions  attributed  to  him.  He  does  not  think  that  he  can  have 
used  them,  at  all  events,  in  the  context  mentioned,"  and  think 
ing  it  over  a  little  more,  solemnly  remembered  three  weeks 
later,  that  Minister  Phelps  had  said,  April  3,  1888,  "  With  a 
general  election  pending,  it  would  be  of  little  use,  and  indeed 
hardly  practicable,  to  conduct  any  negotiation  to  its  issue  before 
the  election  had  taken  place." 

In  response  Mr.  Blaine  quoted  Mr.  Phelps's  report  to  Mr. 
Bayard :  "  Lord  Salisbury  assents  to  your  proposition  to  establish 
by  mutual  arrangement  between  the  governments  interested  a 


670  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

close  time  for  fur  seals.  And  he  will  cause  an  act  to  be  intro 
duced  in  Parliament  to  give  effect  to  this  arrangement,  so  soon 
as  it  can  be  prepared.  He  will  also  join  the  United  States  gov 
ernment  in  any  preventive  measures  it  may  be  thought  best 
to  adopt  by  orders  issued  to  the  naval  vessels  of  the  respective 
governments  in  that  region.  Mr.  Phelps  has  long  been  known 
in  this  country  as  an  able  lawyer,  accurate  in  the  use  of  words 
and  discriminating  in  the  statement  of  facts.  The  government 
of  the  United  States  necessarily  reposes  implicit  confidence  in 
the  literal  correctness  of  the  despatch  above  quoted."  Regard 
ing  the  election  remark  he  summed  up  the  details  of  disproof: 
"  I  am  justified,  therefore,  in  assuming  that  Lord  Salisbury  can 
not  recur  to  the  remark  of  Mr.  Phelps  as  one  of  the  reasons  for 
breaking  off  the  negotiation,  because  the  negotiation  was  in 
actual  progress  for  more  than  four  months  after  the  remark  was 
made,  and  Mr.  Phelps  himself  took  large  part  in  it.  Upon  this 
recital  of  facts  I  am  unable  to  recall,  or  in  any  way  to  qualify,  the 
statement  which  I  made  in  my  note  of  June  4th,  to  the  effect 
that  Lord  Salisbury  'abruptly  closed  the  negotiation  because 
the  Canadian  government  objected,  and  that  he  assigned  no 
other  reason  whatever.' " 

A  letter  of  Hon.  E.  J.  Phelps  throws  a  little  light  upon  Lord 
Salisbury's  mental  confusion. 

BURLINGTON,  VT.,  July  28,  1890. 

I  have  read  with  interest  and  satisfaction  your  despatches  on  the  Behring- 
Sea  question,  and  congratulate  you  on  the  great  success  with  which  you 
have  maintained  the  argument. 

Lord  Salisbury,  in  his  allusion  to  my  remark  that  a  treaty  could  not  be 
concluded  by  the  late  administration  pending  a  presidential  election  (with 
a  hostile  Senate),  has  fallen  into  an  error.  I  did  say  so,  but  it  was  at  a 
different  time,  and  in  reference  to  a  different  subject  —  the  fisheries. 

It  never  occurred  to  me  to  think,  nor  to  say,  that  there  would  have  been 
the  least  difficulty  in  respect  to  the  ratification  by  the  Senate  of  a  convention 
so  simple  and  so  plainly  necessary,  as  was  that  for  establishing  a  close 
season  for  the  protection  of  the  seal.  His  lordship  and  I  had  agreed  upon 
the  propriety  of  it.  The  Russian  government,  through  their  ambassador 
in  London,  had  warmly  concurred.  A  draft  had  been  prepared  at  Lord 
Salisbury's  request  which  was  not  objected  to,  and  I  expected  its  imme 
diate  adoption.  The  opposition  of  Canada  alone  prevented  it.  Lord  Salis 
bury  hoped  to  overcome  it.  I  repeatedly  pressed  the  matter,  until  I  became 
satisfied  it  was  of  no  use ;  not  because  England  objected,  but  because  it 


lilOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  671 

could  not  obtain  the  assent  of  the  Canadian  government.  Then  I  wrote 
the  letter  to  my  government,  which  you  have  read,  advising  decided  meas 
ures,  which  appeared  to  me  to  be  justified.  Lord  Salisbury  is  quite  mis 
taken  in  supposing  that  I  ever  suggested  any  doubt  of  the  prompt  ratification 
of  this  proposed  convention  by  the  Senate.  Or  that  the  least  delay  in  the 
negotiation  took  place  on  that  account. 

As  to  the  fishery  question,  my  views  wore  very  different.  I  was  op 
posed,  for  the  reason  quoted  by  Lord  Salisbury,  to  the  attempt  to  make  a 
treaty  under  the  circumstances.  I  had  made  much  progress  in  arranging 
a  modus  vivendi  to  be  carried  out  by  mutual  instructions  by  the  two  govern 
ments,  under  which  harmonious  relations  could  be  maintained  for  the  time 
being  and  pending  mature  negotiations,  and  after  the  election,  I  believed  a 
treaty  could  be  perfected  and  ratified.  The  original  proposal  for  commis 
sioners  was  mine,  and  contemplated  only  the  appointment  of  practical  men 
to  arrange  the  details  of  the  modus.  It  was  afterwards  deemed  best  by  my 
government  to  elevate  the  commissioners  into  plenipotentiaries,  and  to 
attempt  a  treaty.  And  to  this  eftbrt  I  of  course  gave  the  best  assistance 
in  my  power. 

The  result  was  what  I  had  expected.  The  treaty,  though  in  my  judg 
ment  an  excellent  one,  was  lost  by  a  party  vote. 

Lord  Salisbury  has  in  his  recollections  confounded  the  conversations 
upon  two  very  different  subjects. 

England  showed  extraordinary  agility  in  slipping  from  one 
position  after  another  like  a  seal  off  a  rock.  Some  thought  she 
was  trying  to  weary  the  patience  of  the  administration.  Some 
said  plainly  she  meant  to  cheat;  at  least  to  the  extent  of 
giving  every  Canadian  poacher  the  longest  possible  opportunity 
before  assenting  to  any  modus  vivendi.  Mr.  Elaine  did  not  be 
lieve  in  the  necessity  of  any  war  on  the  subject.  March  0, 1891, 
he  sent  a  note  to  the  President : 

If  we  get  up  a  war-cry  and  send  naval  vessels  to  Behring  Sea  it  will 
reelect  Lord  Salisbury-  England  always  sustains  an  administration  with 
the  prospecfof  war  pending.  Lord  Salisbury  would  dissolve  Parliament 
instantly  if  we  made  a  demonstration  of  war.  On  the  other  side  I  am  not 
sure  _  or  rather  I  am  sure  — that  war  would  prove  of  no  advantage  to  you. 
New  York  and  Massachusetts  are  steadily  against  war  with  England  unless 
the  last  point  of  honor  requires  it.  Again,  I  think  you  will  bitterly  disap 
point  Lord  Salisbury  by  keeping  quiet.  We  would  have  all  the  fuss  and 
there  would  be  no  war  after  all.  Not  a  man  in  a  million  believes  we 
should  ultimately  have  war. 

But  he  did  believe  that  continued  national  irritation  and  fer 
ment  might  produce  war,  which  no  one  intends,  and  lie  was 


672  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

desirous  to  have  the  source  of  irritation  removed.  It  was  not 
until  February  29, 1892,  that  a  Treaty  of  Arbitration  was  ratified. 
Up  to  January  he  had  believed  that  the  matter  would  be  ad 
justed  between  himself  and  Lord  Salisbury,  and  need  never 
be  brought  to  trial  before  the  Court  of  Arbitration.  It  was, 
however,  so  brought,  and  the  arguments  presented  by  the 
ablest  lawyers  in  the  country  were  those  which  Mr.  Blaine 
had  advanced  at  the  outset  contra  bonos  mores.  They  stood 
on  the  same  high  ground  of  reason,  humanity,  civilization, 
that  the  laws  of  society  involve  our  claim  of  property;  that 
international  law  is  not  an  eternal  and  unchangeable  deposit, 
but  forms  its  own  precedents  and  springs  from  new  occasions. 

Men  who  had  not  been  partisans  of  Mr.  Blaine  were  fain  to 
admit  that  he  had  "  brought  together,  in  masterly  arrangement, 
every  possible  reason  based  on  law,  humanity,  expediency,  or 
right  of  which  the  case  admitted.  We  have  looked  in  vain 
through  the  arguments  of  counsel  for  any  point  of  which  the 
germ,  at  least,  was  not  contained  in  his  diplomatic  correspond 
ence." 

The  court  in  session,  and  its  individual  members  privately, 
treated  Mr.  Elaine's  contention  with  profound  respect.  That  a 
man  not  a  lawyer  should  have  made,  on  a  legal  and  international 
question,  so  able  a  legal  argument,  betraying  by  no  sign  that  he 
was  not  a  lawyer,  was  commented  on  as  extraordinary  by  the 
foreigners  as  well  as  by  the  Americans  in  court. 

The  decision  of  the  court  was  entirely  illogical  and  satis 
factory.  It  decided  that  this  country  had  no  property  right  in 
the  seal  which  could  follow  it  into  the  sea  to  protect  it  there ; 
and  immediately  recognized  the  right  by  making  ample  regula 
tions  for  its  protection.  Our  minister  in  London,  Mr.  Phelps, 
would  have  accepted  much  less  than  the  Court  of  Arbitration 
gave,  and  if  the  seal  is  not  protected  the  fault  is  not  of  the 
court  but  of  our  own  government  in  not  enforcing  the  regula 
tions  prescribed  by  the  court. 

Where  there  was  no  spirit  of  aggression  Mr.  Blaine  was 
easy  to  be  entreated.  On  the  14th  of  March,  1891,  the  mob  in 
New  Orleans  attacked  and  murdered  persons  who  had  been 
tried  and  acquitted  in  the  courts,  but  were  still  in  the  prisons, 
under  the  protection  of  the  authorities.  Among  them  were 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  073 

three  Italians,  said  to  be  still  subjects  of  the  King  of  Italy. 
The  Italian  minister  appealed  immediately  to  the  government, 
and  the  Secretary  of  State  assured  him  that  the  affair  should  be 
most  thoroughly  investigated.  Mr.  Blaine  at  once  addressed 
the  Governor  of  Louisiana  expressing  the  President's  regrets  and 
his  hope  that  the  governor  would  aid  the  President  in  defending 
the  Italians  who  might  still  be  in  peril,  and  in  bringing  to  jus 
tice  those  who  had  broken  the  law.  The  offence  was  one 
especially  odious  to  Mr.  Blaine.  With  no  technical  federal 
responsibility,  with  a  structural  weakness  in  the  Constitution 
which  no  dexterity  can  remedy,  he  felt  that  it  was  better  in 
stantly  to  make  reparation  and  let  the  world  forget  as  soon  as 
possible  that  such  a  .thing  had  happened.  He  remembered, 
moreover,  that  Italy  was  to  appoint  one  of  the  Paris  Behring-Sea 
arbitrators,  and  he  thought  it  bad  policy  to  let  the  matter  drift. 
The  Italian  government  did  not  readily  understand  our  inter 
nal  relations,  and  saw  in  the  necessary  constitutional  processes 
only  a  disposition  to  delay  and  defeat  justice.  Premier  Rudini 
on  March  24  instructed  the  Italian  minister  with  some  asperity 
that  public  opinion  in  Italy  was  justly  impatient,  and  if  concrete 
provisions  were  not  at  once  taken,  the  Italian  minister  would  be 
recalled  from  a  country  where  he  was  unable  to  obtain  justice. 
Mr.  Blaine  could  appreciate  the  Italian  misunderstanding  and 
irritation,  and  neither  gave  way  to  it  or  resented  it.  If  he  took 
advantage  of  it  to  divert  public  attention  from  the  deplorable 
central  fact  to  the  incidental  misunderstanding,  we  sorely  needed 
such  diversion.  With  complimentary  reference,  he  regretted 
Baron  Fava's  departure,  and  endeavored  to  remove  the  mistake 
which  had  caused  it  by  explaining  in  detail  the  constitutional 
inter-action  of  our  State  and  Federal  governments ;  that  the 
latter  was  unable  to  give  the  desired  assurance  of  punishment 
because  it  had  not  jurisdiction,  and  if  it  had,  it  could  not  give 
such  assurance  in  advance  of  investigation  or  trial.  It  had  dis 
tinctly  recognized  the  principle  of  indemnity  to  those  who  may 
have  been  wronged  by  violation  of  treaty  rights,  and  had 
promised  investigation.  Beyond  this  it  could  not  go,  and  it  also 
felt  obliged  to  add  that  "  in  a  matter  of  such  gravity  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  would  not  permit  itself  to  be  unduly 
hurried  ;  nor  will  it  make  answer  to  any  demand  until  every 


674  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

fact  essential  to  a  correct  judgment  shall  have  been  fully  ascer 
tained  through  legal  authority."  And  if  he  dwelt  more  on  our 
constitutional  obligations  than  on  our  constitutional  defects,  it 
was  only  his  duty  in  addressing  another  nation. 

But  conscious  of  the  weakness  of  our  own  case,  trusting  the 
friendship  of  Italy,  furthered  by  pleasant  social  intercourse  witli 
the  Italian  legation,  he  wanted  nothing  so  much  as  to  pay  and 
be  done  with  it.  When  it  became  evident  that  the  Italian 
government  understood  that  it  had  acted  hastily,  had  perhaps 
translated  carelessly,  had  certainly  rendered  incorrectly,  and 
would  be  glad  to  withdraw,  the  Secretary  was  ready  to  consider 
the  incident  closed.  The  President  was  not  disposed  to  give 
them  too  much  help  in  a  necessary  retreat.  But  with  a  friendly 
nation  like  Italy,  signifying  its  willingness  to  receive  a  proffered 
indemnity  of  money  for  the  families  of  the  victims,  in  return 
for  which  it  would  send  a  very  cordial  note  that  would  put  us 
right  before  the  world,  and  before  Italy,  Mr.  Blaine  thought  we 
could  not  accept  soon  enough,  with  or  without  an  Italian  minis 
ter  at  Washington.  Urging  the  President  to  a  settlement,  he 
wrote  in  March,  1892  : 

They  have  been  fully  notified  at  Rome  that  we  would  make  indemnity 
and  we  can  wait  their  time  in  sending  a  minister.  ...  I  would  have 
completed  the  matter  in  the  course  of  twenty-four  hours.  ...  It  can 
only  be  done  in  Italy  by  making  a  positive  statement,  without  any  '•  ifs"  or 
"  amis"  about  it,  that  we  recognize  the  principle  of  indemnity  in  this  case, 
and  will  pay  Italy  on  the  arrival  of  the  minister.  It  is  apparent  to  me  that 
this  is  far  more  embarrassing  than  to  pay  the  money  here  and  have  nothing 
said  about  it.  I  do  not  think  we  want  to  have  a  document  in  the  hands  of 
the  government  of  Italy  saying  that  we  have  recognized  the  principle  of 
indemnity  in  this  case.  Such  a  paper  would  embarrass  us  in  many  cases 
yet  to  arise.  It  strikes  me  that  this  would  be  bad  policy,  and  it  can  be 
easily  avoided. 

You  had  the  impression  that  the  language  in  your  message  was  sufficient 
to  satisfy  Italy,  and  to  have  her  send  a  minister  here.  But  four  months 
have  passed  by  and  no  minister  is  here  yet.  We  have  waited  eleven  months, 
during  which  period  our  minister  (Mr.  Porter)  has  been  passing  his  time 
in  Indianapolis  drawing  $12,000  a  year  from  the  Treasury.  I  believe  he 
will  continue  in  the  same  position  for  months  to  come,  on  the  basis  you 
have  adopted,  unless  you  are  willing  to  give  a  pledge  that  the  money  shall 
be  paid  ;  and  I  do  not  think  you  will  do  this. 

I  submit  these  facts  for  your  consideration,  feeling  assured  that  they  are 
entitled  to  early  and  earnest  attention. 


KIOGRAPI1Y    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE.  675 

They  received  both,  and  the  cordial  understanding  of  the  two 
countries  was,  it  is  hoped,  completely  restored.  A  similar  ex 
citement  in  Chile  Mr.  Blaine,  in  the  same  manner,  thought  only 
of  composing.  On  the  16th  of  October,  1891,  some  sailors  on 
shore  in  Valparaiso,  from  the  "  Baltimore,"  were  attacked  by  a 
mob;  two  were  killed  and  several  wounded.  The  country 
was  somewhat  excited.  The  United  States  uniform  had  been 
attacked,  and  where  it  is  a  question  of  insult  to  the  flag  there 
can  be  but  one  opinion.  Mr.  Blaine  was  disposed  from  every 
motive  to  take  a  moderate  view  of  the  situation.  The  old 
troubles  between  Chile  and  Peru  had  not  ceased,  —  there  was 
armed  and  successful  insurrection.  Our  right  of  asylum  had 
been  disputed.  Every  disturbance  was  not  only  made  the  most 
of,  but  was  exaggerated  by  malicious  libels  issuing  from  the 
British  clubs  in  Santiago  against  our  minister,  Mr.  Egan.  Mr. 
Blaine  would  waive  no  hair's  breadth  of  the  right  of  asylum,  and 
the  President  refused  even  to  consider  the  question  whether 
asylum  had  properly  been  given  until  the  privileges  of  the  lega 
tion  were  restored,  considering  that  it  would  be  negotiating 
under  duress;  but  towards  a  country  rent  by  internal  wars,  Mr. 
Blaine  believed  that  every  consideration  should  be  shown.  He 
could  not  learn  that  there  was  any  official  wrong  intent.  He 
thought  the  affair  was  in  the  nature  of  a  street  scrimmage  between 
sailors  and  landsmen  aggravated  by  an  inflamed  state  of  public 
feeling,  especially  by  strong  suspicion  that  the  American  flag 
had  been  used  to  shelter  the  foes  of  Chile,  but  without  govern 
ment  instigation  or  countenance.  He  thought  Chile  was  too 
small  and  our  country  too  large  to  permit  a  fierce  attitude 
towards  our  neighbor  even  when  offending.  There  could  be  no 
glory  in  any  victory  of  force  ;  and  he  was  exceedingly  desirous 
to  win  the  friendly  cooperation  and  confidence  of  Chile,  not  to 
compel  her  submission. 

He  demanded  for  the  Baltimore's  sailors  open  trial  and 
proper  representation;  but  he  could  not  magnify  a  brawl  into  a 
battle.  The  "  row  "  began,  according  to  the  statement  of  our 
own  people,  by  a  Chilean  sailor  spitting  into  the  face  of  one 
of  our  men,  and  this  was  naturally  followed  by  a  knock-down. 
It  was  with  difficulty  that  such  a  circumstance  could  take  on 
continental  dimensions.  When  the  Chilean  minister  in  Wash- 


676  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    B 

ington  had  been  too  communicative  and  demonstrative,  the 
Secretary  of  State  sent  for  him  privately  and  made  him  under 
stand  that  he  was  not  free  to  give  out  paragraphs  to  our  papers, 
but  should  refer  to  our  State  Department ;  but  he  received  his 
explanations  with  candor  and  sympathy.  Even  in  the  earliest 
heat  he  found  Chilean  despatches  "  temperate  for  Chile,"  and 
saw,  some  thought  too  readily,  a  disposition  in  Chile  to  apolo 
gize.  "  The  very  fact  that  the  Chileans  offer  these  communica 
tions  is  in  effect  an  apology." 

A  curious  circumstance  in  view  of  past  reports  regarding  Mr. 
Elaine's  hostility  to  Chile,  and  of  the  recognized  fact  that  the 
Latin  Americans  are  born  diplomats,  was  that  communication 
was  privately  and  indirectly  made  to  Mr.  Blaine  that  the 
troubles  could  be  peacefully  adjusted  if  the  diplomacy  could  be 
conducted  with  the  Secretary,  and  also  that  Chile  was  willing 
to  accept  the  arbitration  of  Brazil.  Thus,  although  she  was  the 
only  country  in  the  Pan-American  conference  which  refused  to 
vote  for  settlement  of  differences  by  arbitration,  she  was  the 
first  country  to  propose  to  take  advantage  of  it.  Happily  there 
was  no  need  of  mediation.  Chile  offered  ample  apology,  and 
the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  State  Avere  equally  cordial 
in  its  acceptance.  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  : 


17  MADISON  PLACE,  WASHINGTON,  January  29,  1892. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  herewith  send  you  a  draft  of  a  note  to 
Chile.  Jt  may  seem  to  you  too  cordial,  but  I  believe  it  to  be  in  the  highest 
sense  expedient.  I  have  relied  on  Chile's  good  sense  for  reparation,  and  I 
believe  we  will  get  it  more  easily  that  way  than  by  arbitration. 

When  we  made  the  settlement  with  the  Spaniards  in  the  Virginius  affair 
—  a  very  aggravated  case —  we  took  $2,500  apiece  for  the  sailors,  thus  set 
ting  a  price.  We  followed  the  same  example  when  we  made  reparation 
for  the  Chinese  who  were  murdered.  You  remember  that  I  proposed  the 
same  for  the  Italians  who  were  murdered  at  New  Orleans,  so  that  the  real 
money  value  we  would  recover  would  be  small.  We  can  afford  to  be  very 
generous  in  our  language  and  thus  make  a  friend  of  Chile,  if  that  is  pos 
sible.  At  all  events  we  can  afford  to  venture  $5,000  on  it,  and  that  is  all 
we  will  get  for  the  two  sailors. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

And  the  President  replied  the  same  day : 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  677 

I  had,  as  I  promised  you  this  morning,  outlined  what  I  thought  would 
be  a  suitable  response,  and  have  now  adapted  it  to  your  note,  a  good  part 
of  which  you  will  see  is  incorporated.  What  I  have  said,  I  think  you  will 
agree,  has  rather  enlarged  than  diminished  the  expressions  of  cordiality. 

The  ignoble  abandonment  of  the  Peace  Congress  by  President 
Arthur  had  brought  about  so  full  an  explanation  of  its  charac 
ter  and  purposes  that  it  had  a  persistent  life  after  death.  In 
Mr.  Elaine's  u  Political  Discussions  "  men  had  not  failed  to 
observe  that  long  before  he  entered  Congress  he  had  clearly 
enunciated  the  principle  that  "  prosperity  built  upon  the  calam 
ities  of  other  nations  has  a  most  insecure  foundation."  That 
a  prosperity  built  upon  the  prosperity  of  other  nations  is  the 
most  secure  and  stable  was  seen  to  be  but  its  correlative. 
While  neither  party  took  it  up  warmly,  neither  party  was 
willing  entirely  to  abandon  it,  because  of  a  manifest  growing 
belief  in  the  policy.  The  Republican  President  who  had  slain 
it  put  forth  a  feeble  hand  towards  resuscitation,  and  the  suc 
ceeding  Democratic  President  approved  a  bill  passed  by  Con 
gress  in  its  favor.  But  it  was  a  languid  movement  by  men 
who  did  not  fully  comprehend  it.  Not  until  by  the  mutations 
of  politics  the  matter  was  again  relegated  to  Mr.  Blaine,  did  its 
spirit  return  into  it.  The  idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  nations 
which  lies  always,  if  dormant,  in  the  human  heart,  and  had 
blindly  stirred  for  generations  in  the  South  and  in  the  North, 
through  his  insight  took  on,  with  enthusiastic  cordiality  on  one 
side  and  an  equally  enthusiastic  welcome  on  the  other,  the  form 
and  breath  of  life,  as  the  Congress  of  all  the  Americas. 

On  October  2,  1889,  in  the  diplomatic  room  of  the  State  De 
partment,  Mr.  Blaine  had  the  pleasure  of  welcoming  the  dele 
gates  whose  assembling  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  Western  world. 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  International  American  Conference : 
Speaking  for  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  I  bid  you 
welcome  to  this  Capital.  Speaking  for  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  I  bid  you  welcome  to  every  section  and  to  every  State 
of  the  Union.  You  come  in  response  to  an  invitation  extended 
by  the  President  on  the  special  authorization  of  Congress. 
Your  presence  here  is  no  ordinary  event.  It  signifies  much  to 


678  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLAINE. 

the  people  of  all  America  to-day.  It  may  signify  far  more  in 
the  days  to  come.  No  Conference  of  nations  has  ever  assembled 
to  consider  the  welfare  of  territorial  possessions  so  vast  and  to 
contemplate  the  possibilities  of  a  future  so  great  and  so  inspir 
ing.  Those  now  sitting  within  these  walls  are  empowered  to 
speak  for  nations  whose  borders  are  on  both  the  great  oceans, 
whose  northern  limits  are  touched  by  the  Arctic  waters  for  a 
thousand  miles  beyond  the  Straits  of  Behring,  and  whose  south 
ern  extension  furnishes  human  habitations  farther  below  the 
equator  than  is  elsewhere  possible  on  the  globe. 

"  The  aggregate  territorial  extent  of  the  nations  here  repre 
sented  falls  but  little  short  of  12,000,000  of  square  miles  — 
more  than  three  times  the  area  of  all  Europe,  and  but  little  less 
than  one-fourth  part  of  the  globe  ;  while  in  respect  to  the  power 
of  producing  the  articles  which  are  essential  to  human  life,  and 
those  which  minister  to  life's  luxury,  they  constitute  even  a 
larger  proportion  of  the  entire  world.  These  great  possessions 
to-day  have  an  aggregate  population  approaching  120,000,000, 
but  if  peopled  as  densely  as  the  average  of  Europe,  the  total 
number  would  exceed  1,000,000,000.  While  considerations  of 
this  character  must  inspire  Americans,  both  South  and  North, 
with  the  liveliest  anticipations  of  future  grandeur  and  power, 
they  must  also  impress  them  with  a  sense  of  the  gravest  re 
sponsibility  touching  the  character  and  development  of  their 
respective  nationalities. 

"  The  delegates  I  am  addressing  can  do  much  to  establish 
permanent  relations  of  confidence,  respect,  and  friendship  be 
tween  the  nations  which  they  represent.  They  can  show  to  the 
world  an  honorable,  peaceful  conference  of  eighteen  independ 
ent  American  Powers,  in  which  all  shall  meet  together  on  terms 
of  absolute  equality ;  a  conference  in  which  there  can  be  no 
attempt  to  coerce  a  single  delegate  against  his  own  conception 
of  the  interests  of  his  nation  ;  a  conference  which  will  permit 
no  secret  understanding  on  any  subject,  but  will  frankly  pub 
lish  to  the  world  all  its  conclusions ;  a  conference  which  will 
tolerate  no  spirit  of  conquest,  but  will  aim  to  cultivate  an 
American  sympathy  as  broad  as  both  continents ;  a  conference 
which  will  form  no  selfish  alliance  against  the  older  nations 
from  which  we  are  proud  to  claim  inheritance  ;  a  conference, 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  679 

iii  fine,  which  will  seek  nothing,  propose  nothing,  endure  noth 
ing  that  is  not,  in  the  general  sense  of  all  the  delegates,  timely 
and  wise  and  peaceful. 

"  And  yet  we  cannot  be  expected  to  forget  that  our  common 
fate  has  made  us  inhabitants  of  the  two  continents  which,  at 
the  close  of  four  centuries,  are  still  regarded  beyond  the  seas 
as  the  new  world.  Like  situations  beget  like  sympathies  and 
impose  like  duties.  We  meet  in  firm  belief  that  the  nations  of 
America  ought  to  be  and  can  be  more  helpful,  each  to  the 
other,  than  they  now  are,  and  that  each  will  find  advantages 
and  profit  from  an  enlarged  intercourse  with  the  others. 

"  We  believe  that  we  should  be  drawn  together  more  closely 
by  the  highways  of  the  seas,  and  that  at  no  distant  day  the  rail 
way  systems  of  the  North  and  South  will  meet  upon  the  isth 
mus  and  connect  by  land  routes  the  political  and  commercial 
capitals  of  all  America. 

"We  believe  that  hearty  co-operation,  based  on  hearty  confi 
dence,  will  save  all  American  states  from  the  burdens  and  evils 
which  have  long  and  cruelly  afflicted  the  older  nations  of  the 
world. 

"  We  believe  that  a  spirit  of  justice,  of  common  and  equal 
interest  between  the  American  states,  will  leave  no  room  for 
an  artificial  balance  of  power  like  unto  that  which  has  led  to 
wars  abroad  and  drenched  Europe  in  blood. 

"  We  believe  that  friendship,  avowed  with  candor  and  main 
tained  with  good  faith,  will  remove  from  American  states  the 
necessity  of  guarding  boundary  lines  between  themselves  with 
fortifications  and  military  force. 

"  We  believe  that  standing  armies,  beyond  those  which  are 
needful  for  public  order  and  the  safety  of  internal  administra 
tion,  should  be  unknown  on  both  the  American  continents. 

"  We  believe  that  friendship  and  not  force,  the  spirit  of  just 
law  and  not  the  violence  of  the  mob,  should  be  the  recognized 
rule  of  administration  between  American  nations  and  in  Ameri 
can  nations. 

"  To  these  subjects,  and  those  which  are  cognate  thereto,  the 
attention  of  this  Conference  is  earnestly  and  cordially  invited  by 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  It  will  be  a  great  gain 
when  we  shall  acquire  that  common  confidence  on  which  all 


680  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     BLAINJE. 

international  friendship  must  rest.  It  will  be  a  greater  gain 
when  we  shall  be  able  to  draw  the  people  of  all  American  nations 
into  close  acquaintance  with  each  other,  an  end  to  be  facilitated 
by  more  frequent  and  more  rapid  intercommunication.  It  will 
be  the  greatest  gain  when  the  personal  and  commercial  relations 
of  the  American  states,  South  and  North,  shall  be  so  developed 
and  so  regulated  that  each  shall  acquire  the  highest  possible 
advantage  from  the  enlightened  and  enlarged  intercourse  of  all. 
"  Before  the  Conference  shall  formally  enter  upon  the  discus 
sion  of  the  subjects  to  be  submitted  to  it  I  am  instructed  by  the 
President  to  invite  all  the  delegates  to  be  the  guests  of  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  during  a  proposed  visit  to  various 
sections  of  the  country,  with  the  double  view  of  showing  to  our 
friends  from  abroad  the  condition  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
giving  to  our  people  in  their  homes  the  privilege  and  pleasure 
of  extending  the  warm  welcome  of  Americans  to  Americans." 

The  Congress,  escorted  by  Mr.  W.  E.  Curtis,  representing  the 
State  Department,  was  received  and  entertained  by  the  leading 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  and  everywhere  with  abounding  wel 
come.  On  the  18th  of  November  it  reassembled  in  Washing 
ton  and  began  its  deliberations,  Mr.  Elaine  was  elected  its 
president,  and  through  its  twenty  weeks  of  existence  received 
from  it  every  honor  which  personal  respect,  affection,  and  con 
fidence  could  give.  It  was  not  possible  for  him  to  preside  over 
all  its  deliberations,  but  whenever  its  affairs  became  too  involved, 
he  was  sent  for,  and  all  differences  were  quickly  adjusted.  He 
never  forgot  that  they  were  guests  and  not  a  Congress  of  Amer 
ican  citizens  elected  by  opposing  parties ;  that  they  were  stran 
gers  of  another  race  who  were  to  be  made  acquainted  with  our 
ways  of  thought  and  speech  and  life,  and  in  some  cases  even  of 
language,  and  to  whom  the  hard  hitting  arguments  of  the  hall 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  were  not  appropriate.  Great 
topics  of  international  consequence  were  introduced  and  ably 
and  fully  discussed  by  the  convention.  Many  important  meas 
ures  were  recommended.  The  Bureau  of  American  Republics 
became  a  permanent  branch  of  the  State  Department  and  a  true 
intelligence  office  regarding  the  Western  hemisphere.  Regular 
lines  of  steam  navigation  between  the  principal  ports  of  North 


WALKER     BLAINE. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  681 

and  South  America,  surveys  for  railroad  systems  and  inter 
national  banks  were  recommended ;  and  most  important  of  all, 
partial  treaties  of  reciprocity,  and  arbitration  instead  of  war,  as 
the  true  mode  of  settling  difficulties. 

Mr.  Elaine's  gratification  in  the  fact  and  the  work  of  the 
conference  was  represented  in  this  closing  address,  April  19, 
1890. 

"Gentlemen:  I  withhold  for  a  moment  the  word  of  final 
adjournment,  in  order  that  I  may  express  to  you  the  profound 
satisfaction  with  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
regards  the  work  that  has  been  accomplished  by  the  Interna 
tional  American  Conference.  The  importance  of  the  subjects 
which  have  claimed  your  attention,  the  comprehensive  intelli- 
,  gence  and  watchful  patriotism  which  you  have  brought  to  their 
discussion,  must  challenge  the  confidence  and  secure  the  admi 
ration  of  the  governments  and  peoples  whom  you  represent; 
while  that  larger  patriotism  which  constitutes  the  fraternity  of 
nations  has  received  from  you  an  impulse  such  as  the  world  has 
not  before  seen. 

"  The  extent  and  value  of  all  that  has  been  worthily  achieved 
by  your  Conference  cannot  be  measured  to-day.  We  stand  too 
near  it.  Time  will  define  and  heighten  the  estimate  of  your 
work;  experience  will  confirm  our  present  faith  ;  final  results 
will  be  your  vindication  and  your  triumph. 

"  If,  in  this  closing  hour,  the  conference  had  but  one  deed  to 
celebrate,  we  should  dare  call  the  world's  attention  to  the  delib 
erate,  confident,  solemn  dedication  of  two  great  continents  to 
Peace  and  to  the  prosperity  which  has  Peace  for  its  foundation. 
We  hold  up  this  new  Mayna  Charta,  which  abolishes  war  and 
substitutes  Arbitration  between  the  American  Republics,  as  the 
first  and  great  fruit  of  the  International  American  Conference. 
That  noblest  of  Americans,  the  aged  poet  and  philanthropist 
Whittier,  is  the  first  to  send  his  salutation  and  lu's  benediction, 
declaring:  c  If  in  the  spirit  of  peace  the  American  Conference 
agrees  upon  a  rule  of  Arbitration  which  shall  make  war  in  this 
hemisphere  well-nigh  impossible,  its  session  will  prove  one  of 
the  most  important  events  in  the  history  of  the  world.' 

"  May  I  express  to  you,  gentlemen,  my  deep  appreciation  of 


682  1UOGEAPIIY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

the  honor  you  did  me  in  calling  me  to  preside  over  your  delib 
erations!  Your  kindness  has  been  unceasing,  and  for  your 
words  of  approval  I  offer  you  my  sincerest  gratitude. 

"  Invoking  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  upon  the  patriotic 
and  fraternal  work  which  has  been  here  begun  for  the  good  of 
mankind,  I  now  declare  the  International  American  Conference 
adjourned  without  day." 

Without  agreeing  on  all  points,  and  with  the  fullest  expres 
sion  of  individual  opinion,  the  conference  had  responded  to  every 
friendly  sentiment  and  with  touching1  sympathy,  and  had  been 
interested  in  every  measure  looking  to  closer  communication 
even  where  they  had  disputed  or  rejected  details.  The  loving- 
cup  which  they  presented  to  Mr.  Blaine  seemed  no  mere  per 
functory  tribute,  but  a  token  of  affectionate  remembrance  as 
significant  as  beautiful,  ever  bearing1  witness  in  its  three-fold 

O  O 

fellowship,  of  recognition  by  the  three  Americas  of  his  great  part 
in  procuring  the  congress,  of  his  impartiality  in  its  presidency, 
and  of  their  personal  regard  and  esteem  for  him  as  its  author 
and  president. 

There  was  no  delay  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Blaine  in  advancing 
the  work.  He  wrote  a  letter  to  the  President,  submitting  the 
report  of  tl*e  conference  in  favor  of  reciprocity,  accompanying 
it  with  powerful  argument  recommending  it  to  the  nation.  This 
letter  the  President  transmitted  to  Congress  in  a  special  message 
on  the  19th  of  June,  but  the  work  was  of  surprising  difficulty. 
As  ever,  the  masses  of  the  people  seemed  to  assimilate  his  idea 
more  readily  than  did  those  who  are  called  their  leaders.  His 
hardest  battle  was  not  with  the  rank  and  file,  but  witli  Congress. 
Under  the  very  eyes  of  the  conference  considering  the  subject 
of  reciprocity  in  trade  and  closely  watching  the  action  of  Congress 
on  the  tariff,  Congress  had  removed  duties  on  South  American 
products  without  receiving  any  concessions  in  return,  thus  taking 
away  from  the  Secretary  the  very  element  of  exchange.  Chile 
and  the  Argentine  Republic,  which  in  accepting  the  invitation 
had  expressed  the  liveliest  interest  in  the  question  of  interchange, 
saw  the  House  of  Representatives  increasing  the  duty  on  the 
only  things  Chile  and  the  Argentines  had  to  bring,  and  thus 
found  themselves  without  any  motive  to  reciprocity.  Before  the 


BIOGRAPHY-    OF    JAMES    (7.     KLAINE. 

tariff  bill  was  even  framed  in  committee,  Mr.  Blaine  labored 
to  convince  the  committee  that  it  would  be  wise  to  leave 
to  the  President  the  treaty-making  power  for  the  advan 
tageous  arrangements  of  reciprocal  trade.  He  protested  that 
they  were  throwing  away  the  most  promising  opportunity  for 
increasing  our  exports  of  breadstuff's  and  other  provisions,  to 
the  enormous  advantage  of  the  great  agricultural  sections. 

He  watched  every  detail.  Any  morning  a  Member  might 
receive  a  swift  note  from  the  Department  of  State. 

WASHINGTON,  April  10,  1890. 

DEAR  MR.  McKiNLEY :  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  take  hides  from  the  free 
list,  where  they  have  been  for  so  many  years. 

It  is  a  slap  in  the  face  to  the  South  Americans  with  whom  we  are  trying 
to  enlarge  our  trade.  It  will  benefit  the  farmer  by  adding  five  to  eight 
per  cent,  to  the  price  of  his  children's  shoes. 

It  will  yield  a  profit  to  the  butcher  only  —  the  last  man  that  needs  it. 
The  movement  is  injudicious  from  beginning  to  end  —  in  every  form  and 
phase. 

Pray  stop  it  before  it  sees  light.  Such  movements  as  this  for  protec 
tion  will  protect  the  Republican  party  into  a  speedy  retirement. 

Very  hastily, 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 
HON.   WILLIAM  MCKINLEY, 

Chairman  Ways  and  Means. 

Singly  and  in  committee,  in  House  and  Senate,  he  pressed 
every  consideration  for  an  amendment  of  the  bill  so  that  the 
opportunity  of  securing  the  admission  of  our  surplus  flour, 
wheat,  butter,  and  cheese,  should  not  be  thrown  away  by  admit 
ting  sugar  free  without  receiving  any  concession  in  return. 
Some  legislators  were  largely  opposed  to  any  principle  of 
reciprocity  in  the  tariff  bill,  or  even  to  its  incorporation  into 
the  revenue  laws  of  the  country.  Others  favored  it  in  a  modi 
fied  and  general  way  with  fluctuating  faith,  but  without  direct 
opposition.  Others  were  against  it,  many  unwilling  to  retain 
the  duty  on  sugar  even  for  a  short  time.  They  declared  that  the 
people  demanded  and  expected  free  sugar,  and  that  until  they 
saw  some  tangible  good  result  from  reciprocity  they  would 
not  consent  to  be  further  burdened  by  this  duty.  Mr.  Blaine 
was  also  in  favor  of  free  sugar,  but  his  plan  gave  free  sugar  as 


684  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

surely,  if  not  as  quickly,  as  the  plan  of  Congress,  with  the  dif 
ference  that  for  every  $  100,000,000  consumed  by  our  people  on 
the  one  plan,  we  should  market  §100,000,000  of  the  products 
of  American  farms  and  factories,  which  under  the  other  plan 
would  not  be  marketed  at  all.  By  day  and  by  night,  in  his 
own  house  and  before  the  committee,  by  voice  and  pen,  he  ap 
pealed  to  the  House  and  Senate,  to  the  President  and  the  people, 
with  argument  of  figures,  with  storm  and  stress,  he  protested 
against  such  a  sacrifice. 

In  his  letter  to  the  President  he  gave  in  abundant  detail  the 
advantages  accruing ;  showed,  for  instance,  that  a  single  cargo 
of  the  Mail  Steamship  Company  was  composed  of  articles  from 
thirty-six  different  States  and  Territories,  and  ever  reiterated 
that  the  meditated  increase  of  new  markets  would  be  impossible, 
if  Congress  gave  away  the  duty  on  sugar  which  the  conference 
was  willing  to  pay  for. 

Fifteen  of  the  seventeen  republics  with  which  we  have  been  in  confer 
ence  have  indicated,  by  the  votes  of  their  representatives  in  the  Inter 
national  American  Conference,  and  by  other  methods  which  it  is  not 
necessary  to  define,  their  desire  to  enter  upon  reciprocal  commercial 
relations  with  the  United  States ;  the  remaining  two  express  equal  will 
ingness,  could  they  be  assured  that  their  advances  would  be  favorably 
considered. 

To  escape  the  delay  and  uncertainty  of  treaties,  it  has  been  suggested 
that  a  practicable  and  prompt  mode  of  testing  the  question  was  to  submit 
an  amendment  to  the  pending  tariff  bill,  authorizing  the  President  to 
declare  the  ports  of  the  United  States  free  to  all  the  products  of  any 
nation  of  the  American  hemisphere  upon  which  no  export  duties  are  im 
posed,  whenever  and  so  long  as  such  nation  shall  admit  to  its  ports  free 
of  all  national,  provincial  (State),  municipal,  and  other  taxes  our  flour, 
corn-meal  and  other  breadstuff,  preserved  meats,  fish,  vegetables  and 
fruits,  cotton-seed  oil,  rice  and  other  provisions,  including  all  articles  of 
food,  lumber,  furniture  and  other  articles  of  wood,  agricultural  imple 
ments  and  machinery,  mining  and  mechanical  machinery,  structural  steel 
and  iron,  steel  rails,  locomotives,  railway  cars  and  supplies,  street  cars, 
and  refined  petroleum.  I  mention  these  particular  articles  because  they 
have  been  most  frequently  referred  to  as  those  with  which  a  valuable  ex 
change  could  be  readily  effected.  The  list  could  no  doubt  be  profitably 
enlarged  by  a  careful  investigation  of  the  needs  and  advantages  of  both 
the  home  and  foreign  markets. 

The  opinion  was  general  among  the  foreign  delegates  that  the  legis 
lation  herein  referred  to  would  lead  to  the  opening  of  new  and  profitable 
markets  for  the  products  of  which  we  have  so  large  a  surplus,  and  thus 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  685 

invigorate  every  branch  of  agricultural  and  mechanical  industry.  Of 
course  the  exchanges  involved  in  these  propositions  would  be  rendered 
impossible  if  Congress,  in  its  wisdom,  should  repeal  the  duty  on  sugar  by 
direct  legislation,  instead  of  allowing  the  same  object  to  be  attained  by 
the  reciprocal  arrangement  suggested. 

Ill  the  Senate  committee  rooms  he  made  what  the  journals 
of  the  day  head-lined  as  a  terrific  attack  on  the  ruinous 
policy  whose  vehemence  could  not  be  concealed  from  public 
knowledge,  and  which  arrested  the  notice  that  unwarmed  argu 
ment  escaped.  It  has  been  said  that  no  speech  in  modern  times 
has  been  fraught  with  such  results  as  followed  its  delivery.  He 
declared  that  the  repeal  of  the  sugar  duty  would  be  the  most 
inexcusable  piece  of  folly  the  Republican  party  was  ever  guilty 
of ;  that  he  would  give  two  years  of  his  life  for  two  hours  in  the 
Senate  when  the  sugar  schedule  was  under  discussion.  "  Pass 
this  bill,  and  in  1892  there  will  not  be  a  man  in  all  the  party  so 
beggared  as  to  accept  your  nomination  for  the  presidency." 

There  even  went  forth  a  report  that  he  was  over-earnest  with 
his  Scions  and  that  he  brought  his  clenched  fist  down  on  the  bill 
lying  before  him  with  a  vigor  that  sent  his  hat  rebounding 
from  the  table.  Certainly  it  rebounded  across  the  country. 
"  Elaine  had  smashed  his  hat  on  the  McKinley  Bill,"  and  people 
who  did  not  usually  trouble  themselves  as  to  what  Congress 
was  doing  in  committee,  began  to  look  towards  Washington. 

He  did  not  antagonize  the  bill  in  and  of  itself;  but  he 
thought  it  was  bad  policy,  ill-timed  and  disturbing,  and  in 
relation  to  reciprocity,  disastrous.  He  feared  that  it  would  be 
looked  upon  as  an  increase  of  duties  in  time  of  peace,  not  only 
without  cause,  but  against  the  tendency  of  the  public  mind 
towards  a  lowering  of  duties.  He  accepted  all  that  was  good  in 
the  tariff,  but  he  would  supplement  it  —  and  save  it  —  with 
reciprocity. 

Individual  supporters  in  Congress  he  found,  but  the  legisla 
tive  heart  was  hardened.  He  went  to  Bar  Harbor,  but  the  battle 
did  not  lag.  He  met  the  cry  that  reciprocity  was  the  abandon 
ment  of  protection  with  the  explanation  that  reciprocity  simply 
"  widens  the  field  of  protection  "  —  could  only  exist  under  the 
system  of  protection.  The  object  of  protection  is  to  equalize 
conditions  between  Americans  and  their  foreign  competitors, 


686  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

but  not  to  give  one  class  of  Americans  superior  advantages  over 
another  class.  When  this  equality  of  conditions  is  secured,  all 
that  protection  is  meant  to  do  has  been  done,  and  all  beyond 
that  is  producing  inequality  of  conditions  at  home.  He  put 
himself  in  communication  with  business  men,  millers'  associa 
tions  in  Minnesota,  grain  dealers  in  Maine.  He  appealed  from 
the  committee  rooms  to  the  court  of  the  people.  He  wrote  to 
Mr.  Frye,  for  all  the  world  to  read  on  July  11 : 

It  would  certainly  be  a  very  extraordinary  policy  on  the  part  of  our 
government,  just  at  this  time,  to  open  our  market  without  charge  of  duty 
to  the  enormous  crops  of  sugar  raised  in  the  two  Spanish  islands.  Cuba 
and  Porto  Rico  furnish  the  United  States  with  nearly  or  quite  one-half  of 
the  sugar  which  we  consume,  and  we  are  far  larger  consumers  than  any 
other  nation  in  the  world.  To  give  a  free  market  to  this  immense  product 
of  the  Spanish  plantations  at  the  moment  Spain  is  excluding  the  products 
of  American  farms  from  her  market  would  be  a  policy  as  unprecedented  as 
it  would  be  unwise.  .  .  .  The  charge  against  the  protective  policy 
which  has  injured  it  most  is  that  its  benefits  go  wholly  to  the  manufacturer 
and  the  capitalist,  and  not  at  all  to  the  farmer.  You  and  I  well  know  that 
this  is  not  true,  but  still  it  is  the  most  plausible  and  therefore  the  most 
hurtful  argument  made  by  the  free  trader.  Here  is  an  opportunity  where 
the  farmer  may  be  benefited  —  primarily,  undeniably,  richly  benefited. 
Here  is  an  opportunity  for  a  Republican  Congress  to  open  the  markets  of 
forty  million  of  people  to  the  products  of  American  farms.  Shall  we  seize 
the  opportunity  or  shall  we  throw  it  away  ? 

I  do  not  doubt  that  in  many  respects  the  tariff  bill  pending  in  the  Senate 
is  a  just  measure,  and  that  most  of  its  provisions  are  in  accordance  with  the 
wise  policy  of  protection.  But  there  is  not  a  section  or  a  line  in  the  entire 
bill  that  will  open  a  market  for  another  bushel  of  wheat  or  another  barrel 
of  pork.  If  sugar  is  now  placed  on  the  free  list  without  exacting  impor 
tant  trade  concessions  in  return,  we  shall  close  the  door  for  a  profitable 
reciprocity  against  ourselves.  I  think  you  will  find  some  valuable  hints  on 
this  subject  in  the  President's  brief  message  of  June  19,  with  as  much 
practical  wisdom  as  was  ever  stated  in  so  short  a  space. 

Our  foreign  market  for  breadstuff's  grows  narrower.  Great  Britain  is 
exerting  every  nerve  to  secure  her  bread  supplies  from  India,  and  the  rapid 
expansion  of  the  wheat  area  in  Russia  gives  us  a  powerful  competitor  in 
the  markets  of  Europe.  It  becomes  us  therefore  to  use  every  opportunity 
for  the  extension  of  our  market  on  both  of  the  American  continents.  With 
nearly  one  hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of  sugar  seeking  our  market 
every  year,  we  shall  prove  ourselves  most  unskilled  legislators  if  we  do 
not  secure  a  large  field  for  the  sale  and  consumption  of  our  breadstuff's  and 
provisions.  The  late  conference  of  American  republics  proved  the  exist 
ence  of  a  common  desire  for  closer  relations.  Our  Congress  should  take 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  687 

up  the  work  where  the  International  Conference  left  it.     Our  field  of  com 
mercial  development  and  progress  lies  south  of  us. 

These  rapid  and  repeated  blows  told.  The  people  always 
listened  to  him,  listened  for  him,  and  they  began  to  find  out 
what  was  going  on.  The  voice  of  the  farmer  and  the  manufact 
urer  was  heard.  Stubborn  Congressmen  began  to  waver  and 
the  half-hearted  to  gather  courage.  July  17,  six  days  after  Mr. 
Elaine's  first  letter  to  Mr.  Frye,  the  President  wrote  hopefully : 

I  have  been  thinking  over  the  sugar  question  and  have  a  suggestion  to 
offer.  When  I  get  it  tested  at  the  Treasury  Department,  I  will  send  it  to 
you  for  your  opinion.  Things  have  gone  so  far  that  I  do  not  think  we  can 
avoid  free  sugar,  but  if  my  plan  will  stand  criticism,  as  I  believe  it  will,  we 
can  still  hold  the  string  in  our  hands.  I  am  in  negotiations  for  reciprocity. 

July  29  Mr.  J.  W.  Foster  despaired  of  the  Ways  and  Means, 
and  thought  '•  the  only  hope  there  is  is  in  the  influence  of  the 
sentiment  of  the  party  in  the  country  which  is  strongly  with  Mr. 
Elaine."  By  August  9  it  was  reported  that  all  Republicans  on 
Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate  except  one,  favor  some  sort  of 
reciprocity,  and  the  President  was  working  with  Ways  and  Means 
to  bring  them  in.  August  11  a  rabid  opponent  of  reciprocity  on 
Ways  and  Means  admitted  that  "  Elaine's  plan  had  run  like  a 
prairie  fire  all  over  my  district."  Others  complained  that  Mr. 
Elaine  had  "  destroyed  whatever  advantage  the  Republicans 
might  have  gained  from  the  Tariff  Bill  and  made  its  passage  by 
the  Senate  unimportant.  People  had  gone  crazy  on  it."  By 
August  23  it  was  discovered  that  "  three  out  of  four  Republi 
cans  were  in  hearty  accord  against  the  obnoxious  bill  which  yet 
was  forced  through  the  House  against  the  judgment  of  the 
majority  and  in  the  teeth  of  the  protest  of  the  country,  and  the 
only  salvation  is  to  throw  open  the  gates  to  commerce  exten 
sion."  "  Since  the  publication  and  consequent  agitation  of  the 
plan  proposed  by  Secretary  Elaine,  the  proposition  has  grown 
in  public  favor  to  such  an  extent  that  some  legislation  will 
probably  be  enacted."  By  September  1,  one  of  the  stubborn 
opponents  on  the  Committee  on  Finance  from  Wisconsin  de 
clared  that  reciprocity  had  come  to  be  a  popular  craze  and  the 
committee  would  have  to  go  with  it.  The  Iowa  papers-  warned 


688  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

their  representative  on  the  Ways  and  Means  that  before  he  voted 
against  reciprocity  he  "better  come  home  and  see  the  folks.  The 
mails  are  too  slow  and  the  telegraph  wire  is  too  small  to  convey 
to  him  a  proper  idea  of  Iowa  sentiment  on  that  question."  The 
Produce  Exchanges,  Boards  of  Trade,  Chambers  of  Commerce, 
were  set  in  motion,  and  resolutions  began  to  pour  in.  In 
Nebraska  they  talked  with  great  concentration.  At  a  political 
convention  a  speaker  attacked  Mr.  Blaine's  motives  in  the 
movement,  whereupon  every  other  man  in  the  convention  stood 
on  his  chair  and  yelled  "  Elaine  "  for  twenty  minutes,  till  the 
unhappy  speaker  left  not  only  the  platform,  but  the  hall. 

"  The  people  out  West  have  all  gone  crazy  on  the  subject," 
cried  one  Independent  in  Congress,  and  protested  that  he 
would  never  consent  to  the  proposed  amendment  of  the  Tariff 
Bill.  It  was  a  dramatic  exhibition  of  the  magnetic  man.  It 

O 

was  a  move  to  keep  himself  before  the  people.  He  was  posing 
as  a  friend  of  the  farmer  and  manufacturer,  as  the  apostle  of  a 
new  doctrine  in  politics.  There  the  remnant  that  would  not 
join  the  procession  and  offer  up  incense  to  Blame  began  to  con 
sent  to  modify  and  amend  the  bill,  "  for  political  reasons  ;  the 
people  had  gone  so  crazy  over  the  idea  that  if  it  were  rejected 
and  hard  times  came  on,  every  fool  in  the  country  would  lay  it 
to  the  failure  of  Congress  to  adopt  Blaine's  suggestions."  They 
did  "  not  believe  there  was  anything  in  it,  —  all  buncombe,  — 
but  the  tide  was  sweeping  that  way  and  Congress  must  go 
with  it."  Mr.  Blaine  spoke  in  Waterville,  and  the  speech  was 
issued  as  a  pamphlet  which  men  asked  for  by  the  hundred. 
"I  read  with  interest  and  gratification  your  very  strong,  clear 
speech  at  Waterville,"  wrote  the  President,  "  and  on  the  whole  I 
think  the  temper  and  disposition  of  our  people  both  in  Senate 
and  House  better  than  it  was  a  few  weeks  ago."  Cresson,  Sep 
tember  10,  he  wrote  :  "  The  result  of  your  Maine  election  was 
very  gratifying  and  is  already  giving  courage  to  our  people  in 
other  States.  .  .  .  You  will  have  noticed  that  the  Reci 
procity  Amendment  passed  the  Senate  with  only  two  Republican 
votes  in  the  negative.  The  House  Committee  will,  I  think, 
readily  accept  it,  if  the  difference  as  to  free  sugar  can  be 
adjusted." 

October  1  the  Tariff  Bill  with  the  reciprocity  clause  became  a 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     KLA1NE.  689 

law.  It  was  not  so  wholly  gracious  in  form  as  Mr.  Blaine 
would  have  chosen.  It  had  a  slight  flavor  of  retaliation,  at 
variance  with  that  sentiment  to  which  he  had  appealed  in  the 
conference,  and  to  which  only  he  wished  to  appeal  in  UK; 
nation  —  that  sentiment  of  good-will  and  common  l>enefit  to 
which  our  Southern  neighbors  so  readily  respond,  from  which 
reciprocity  springs,  and  which  caused  it  to  be  said  that  what 
ever  an  intercontinental  railroad  might  do  for  humanity,  the 
desire  and  project  of  it  would  do  more. 

For  immediate  political  effect  the  Tariff  Bill  had  unhappily 
yielded  too  late  to  the  sweet  reasonableness  of  reciprocity.  The 
elections  were  on  before  the  people  felt  sure  that  the  Tariff 
Reciprocity  fight  was  off.  What  they  were  sure  of  was  that 
"  Blaine  had  smashed  his  hat  on  the  McKinlev  Bill."  A  Re 
publican  majority  of  thirty-four  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  had  become  a  Democratic  majority  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-eight.  Nine  Republican  States  had  elected  Democratic 
governors. 

".  .  .  How  glad  lam,"  wrote  Mr.  Whittier,  "that  Mr. 
Blaine  stands  out  clear  of  the  wreck  of  the  Republican  party 
at  the  last  election.  He  is  stronger  than  ever.  I  was  convinced 
in  the  outset  that  the  Tariff  Bill  was  a  great  blunder.  We  have 
had  quite  too  much  of  that." 

Nov.  8,  1890,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  to  a  friend:  "I  confess  I  do 
not  look  forward  with  confidence  to  the  fate  of  the  Republican 
party.  The  power  was  in  their  hands  after  the  victory  of  1888, 
but  patrimony  has  been  wasted  as  a  spendthrift  throws  away 
his  fortune." 

But  the  Tariff  Bill  was  law,  with  a  reciprocity  clause,  which, 
if  not  everything  that  could  be  desired,  was  yet  a  good  working 
clause,  and  it  was  assiduously  worked. 

On  the  5th  of  February,  1891,  Mr.  Blaine  had  the  happiness 
to  see  a  proclamation  by  the  President  of  a  convention  between 
the  United  States  and  Brazil  agreed  upon  by  Secretary  Blaine 
and  Seilor  Mendonca,  for  securing  reciprocal  trade  between  the 
two  countries  —  a  measure  which  was  considered  and  character 
ized  as  the  most  important  step  in  the  commercial  development 
of  the  country  that  had  been  taken  in  many  years.  The  scope 
of  the  treaty  was  so  large  as  to  reach  the  remotest  corner  of 


090  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

the  country  in  its  stimulus  of  the  export  trade.  It  was  es 
pecially  gratifying  to  conclude  the  arrangement  with  Senor 
Mendonca,  who  had  long  deplored  that  "  The  two  great  nations 
of  America  live  as  two  great  strangers,  instead  of  two  great 
friends  with  common  interests,  supplying  to  each  other  almost 
all  they  need  to  import."  On  May  19,  1889,  from  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  he  had  hoped  for  "  a  treaty  made  under  the  views  of  the 
United  States  Senate,  just  when  Congress  will  have  on  hand 
the  tariff  subject,  to  do  good  and  rapid  work,  and  change  the 
commercial  condition  of  our  relations,  improve  them,  increase 
them.  .  .  .  The  idea  is  very  popular  in  Brazil  where  a  few 
Conservatives,  afraid  of  the  great  Republic,  are  the  only 
opponents." 

The  work  was  not  so  rapid  as  Senor  Mendonca  hoped,  but  it 
was  as  good  —  so  good  that  free-traders  made  especial  efforts  to 
belittle  it,  and  Englishmen  sent  from  Brazil  to  the  English 
press  mendacious  and  brutal  abuse  of  both  governments,  but 
could  not  check  the  tide.  The  Brazilian  treaty  was  followed 
by  others  both  in  South  America  and  in  Europe  and  in  the 
islands  of  the  sea.  The  barrel  of  pork  and  the  barrel  of  flour 
were  a  thousandfold  realized  to  the  farmer.  Germany  with 
her  beet  sugar  as  a  basis,  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  and  Spain  were 
all  ripe  for  a  skilful  reciprocity.  Mr.  Reid  in  France,  Mr. 
Phelps  in  Germany,  Mr.  Foster  in  Spain,  Mr.  Grant  in  Austria, 
pushed  hard  and  well  with  the  administration,  and  though  the 
fight  for  the  American  hog  was  long  and  sometimes  direct 
and  ugly,  and  sometimes  indirect  and  with  deadly  civility,  the 
barriers  against  him  were  at  length  taken  down,  and  he  walked 
into  the  markets  of  Europe,  sanitary,  free,  and  profitable. 
Ultimately  some  twenty  treaties  of  reciprocity  were  negotiated, 
while  the  Louisiana  sugar  interests,  on  the  border-land  of  sugar 
produce  and  therefore  always  endangered,  were  protected  by  a 
bounty- -law,  so  that  Avithout  disaster  to  any,  the  statistics  of 
-success  were  innumerable,  and  Mr.  Blaine  saw  not  only  the 
clear  and  definite  beginning,  but  the  orderly  and  beneficent 
development  of  his  policy  of  peace,  of  mutual  benefit,  of  prac 
tical  human  brotherhood. 

Europe  heard  the  "  triumphant  shouts  of  victory  coming  from 
the     United    States,    our    transatlantic    rival.       To-day,"    said 


BIOGRAPHY  OF  JAMES  a.   HLAINE.  691 

the  Frankfort  Zeitung,  December  10,  1891,  the  leading  com 
mercial  paper  of  Germany,  "  let  us  look  at  the  American 
policy  of  commercial  negotiations  and  compare  it  with  the 
system  introduced  by  Bismarck.  .  .  .  The  commercial 
ideas  of  the  American  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Blaine's,  are 
entirely  original.  They  are  contained  in  Article  3  of  the 
famous  McKinley  Tariff.  .  .  .  This  article  was  inserted  by 
Mr.  Elaine,  a  friendly  opponent  of  Mr.  McKinley,  and  has  in 
the  latest  commercial  negotiations  proven  its  eminent  wisdom 
most  brilliantly.  .  .  .  Mr.  Blaine's  idea  has  secured  for  the 
United  States  treaties  with  Brazil,  Cuba,  and  with  others  of 
the  South  American  States,  and  thus  brings  Mr.  Blaine's  great 
Pan-American  scheme  nearer  realization.  .  .  .  Mr.  Blaine's 
idea  has  already  forced  Germany,  Denmark,  Austria,  and  France 
to  repeal  their  prohibitions  of  American  meat,  and  Italy  is  on 
the  point  of  doing  the  same.  But  the  documents  we  reprint 
to-day  constitute  Blaine's  masterpiece.  The  Central  European 
tariff  union  has  been  rendered  ineffective  with  reference  to  the 
United  States.  The  German  tariff  on  agricultural  product  was 
to  be  reduced  only  in  favor  of  Italy  and  Austria,  and  to  be  re 
tained  against  Russia  and  America  because  the  latter  nations 
do  not  enjoy  4  the  most  favored  nations'  privileges.'  .  . 
Mr.  Blaine,  however,  has  completely  upset  these  calculations, 
and  made  the  new  tariff  on  agricultural  products  apply  to  the 
United  States  as  well.  .  .  .  These  reductions  will  greatly 
reduce  the  cost  of  provisions  and  food,  and  the  victory  of  the 
United  States  is  therefore  the  victoiy  of  the  poor  man." 

And  it  was  asserted,  not  by  partisans  but  by  critics,  that  this 
victory  of  the  poor  man  glittering  in  the  magic  word  "reciproc 
ity  "  embracing  his  "  Pan-American  plan  of  commercial  union,  at 
first  in  1881,  coupled  with  the  arbitrament  of  the  United  States 
in  South  American  disputes  and  the  building  of  an  Andean 
railway,  was  the  most  comprehensive  scheme  of  statesmanship 
propounded  in  this  hemisphere,"  and  that  it  was  gained  by  no 
fanfaronade  of  costly  commissioners  and  deputations,  but  was 
based  upon  "the  most  accurate  knowledge  of  the  needs  and 
lesources  of  the  South  American  republics  ever  possessed  by  an 
American  statesman,"  and  was  obtained  "by  employing  and 
developing  the  trained  instincts  of  business." 


692  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

It  would  be  impracticable  to  give  even  a  list  of  the  subjects 
which  engaged  Mr.  Elaine's  attention  and  action  during  those 
busy  years.  Whether  it  were  a  nation,  a  project,  a  man  or  a 
woman,  from  ready  and  apparently  inexhaustible  resources,  he 
derived  an  opinion,  overflowed  with  information,  despatched 
business.  Asked,  with  other  absent  members  of  the  Cabinet,  for  a 
written  opinion  regarding  an  extra  session  of  Congress,  he  wrote 
the  President,  from  Bar  Harbor,  August  25,  1889 : 

.  .  .  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  there  is  a  superstitious  feeling  in 
the  public  mind  against  extra  sessions.  The  extra  session  of  1797  was  the 
first  step  in  the  ruin  of  John  Adams's  administration  and  the  ultimate  ex 
tinction  of  the  Federal  party.  Madison,  who  ought  to  have  been  a  strong 
President,  left  the  record  of  being  a  weak  one,  and  the  result  was  largely 
ascribed  to  the  two  extra  sessions  which  he  insisted  on  calling,  against  the 
better  judgment  of  the  war  party,  then  headed  by  Henry  Clay.  Van 
Buren  began  his  administration,  in  1837,  with  an  extra  session  and 
stumbled  on  to  the  end,  which  was  his  political  destruction.  Tyler's 
defection  and  break-down  and  the  fatal  wound  of  the  Whig  party 
dated,  in  the  popular  mind,  from  the  extra  session  of  1841,  which  was 
called  by  your  grandfather. 

I  do  not  desire  to  detain  you  with  a  political  history,  but  I  doubt  if  from 
the  foundation  of  the  government  any  solid  advantage  has  ever  been  gained 
from  an  extra  session  except  in  two  instances :  that  in  1803  which  Jefferson 
called  to  provide  the  money  for  the  Louisiana  purchase,  and  that  of  July  4, 
1861,  when  Lincoln  was  preparing  for  the  suppression  of  the  Rebellion. 

Writing  to  the  President  from  Bar  Harbor,  August  10,  1891, 
he  said : 

In  regard  to  the  purchase  of  the  Danish  colonies,  St.  George  and  St. 
Lucia,  my  prepossessions  are  all  against  it  until  we  are  by  fate  in  posses 
sion  of  the  larger  West  Indies.  They  are  very  small,  of  no  great  com 
mercial  value,  and  in  case  of  war  would  require  us  to  defend  them,  and  to 
defend  them  at  a  great  cost.  At  the  same  time  they  lack  strategic  value. 
They  are  destined  to  become  ours,  but  among  the  last  of  the  West  Indies 
that  would  be  taken.  .  .  . 

I  think  there  are  only  three  places  that  are  of  value  enough  to  be  taken 
that  are  not  continental.  One  is  Hawaii,  and  the  others  are  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico.  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  are  not  imminent  and  will  not  be  for  a 
generation.  Hawaii  may  come  up  for  decision  at  any  unexpected  hour, 
and  I  hope  we  shall  be  prepared  to  decide  it  in  the  affirmative. 

On  September  2,  1891,  he  wrote  the  President ; 


BIOGRAPFFY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  693 

I  make  reply  to  your  enclosure  about  Mackey's  projected  cable  to  San 
Domingo.  In  an  unguarded  moment,  or  one  in  which  the  government  of 
Brazil  failed  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  question,  a  Frenchman 
was  given  the  exclusive  right  to  land  cables  from  the  United  States,  for  the 
paltry  sum  of  $75,000.  He  began  1,200  miles  above  Rio  at  Para,  and  laid 
a  cable  to  San  Domingo.  It  is  simply  a  cable  beginning  at  Para  and  end 
ing  in  the  West  Indies,  and  requires  a  land  service  of  $1.95  a  word  from 
Para  to  Rio  —  vastly  more  expensive  than  the  European  line. 

It  would  be  an  immense  help  to  this  cable  to  get  into  the  United  States, 
and  John  Mackey  wishes  to  lay  one  to  San  Domingo,  and  though  the  ex 
tensions  do  not  join,  despatches  may  be  handed  from  one  office  to  the  other. 
This  is  a  mere  pretence  of  not  being  an  extension  of  the  Para  line.  The 
reason  I  am  opposed  to  granting  it  is  that  it  gives  no  through  route  to 
Brazil,  and  does  not  essentially  increase  our  telegraphic  facilities,  for  we 
already  have  a  cable  through  the  West  Indies  via  Florida  and  Cuba.  But 
Mackey's  projected  line  will  insure  the  West  India  line  permanently,  and 
prevent  a  direct  line  from  New  York  to  Rio,  because  it  will  absorb  the 
local  business  which  a  direct  line  would  have  at  special  points  that  it  must 
touch.  We  greatly  need  a  line  to  Rio  direct,  and  I  do  not  believe  the 
Frenchman  can  permanently  hold  his  privilege.  When  he  gives  it  up  will 
be  our  time,  and  we  would  be  working  against  ourselves  to  give  away  all 
the  local  business  in  advance  to  Mackey.  We  have  at  present  a  Brazilian 
service  via  England  and  France,  at  8.1  francs  per  word.  Whereas,  the  pro 
jected  line  to  Brazil,  by  Mackey's  cable,  to  San  Domingo,  would  cost  as 
much  as  or  more  than  $3.00  a  word,  the  land  service  alone  being,  as  I  have 
stated,  $1.95.  This  in  brief  is  the  ground  I  took  during  your  absence  on 
the  Pacific  coast.  I  am  satisfied  it  is  correct,  and  it  will  be  seriously  com 
promising  the  country  to  contribute  to  the  monopoly  of  Mackey  and  the 
Frenchman.  Our  policy  has  always  been  not  to  allow  the  landing  of  a  line 
which  was  not  connected  freely  with  other  lines.  Therefore  the  pretence 
is  made  of  a  division  at  San  Domingo,  and  Mackey  assumes  to  have  an 
independent  line,  avoiding  by  a  ruse  that  inhibition.  I  wish  you  would  not 
touch  the  thing  until  I  can  see  you  in  person. 

September  5,  the  President  replied  that  he  would  "  of  course 
hold  the  whole  matter  over  until  we  can  consider  it  together." 

The  company  failing  to  carry  the  point  with  the  Secretary  of 
State  took  the  matter  before  a  committee  of  Congress,  where 
Mr.  Elaine  also  appeared  and  argued  the  question  with  such 
force  and  fire  that  his  position  was  adopted  by  the  committee 
without  a  dissenting  vote. 

On  September  23,  1891,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  the  President  : 

It  is  of  the  highest  possible  importance  in  my  view  that  there  be  no 
treaty  of  reciprocity  (with  Canada). 


694  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

They  will  aim  at  natural  products,  to  get  all  the  products  of  the  farm 
on  us  in  exchange  for  Heaven  knows  what.  They  certainly  will  not  give 
us  manufactured  articles,  as  that  will  interfere  with  their  own  and  break 
down  their  tariff.  This  might  be  pushed  by  our  friends  against  the  natural 
products,  but  I  would  not  put  the  subject  to  risk  by  saying  we  will  take 
the  tariff  if  you  will  throw  in  the  manufactures,  because  when  the  Liberals 
come  into  power  they  will  agree  to  that. 

I  would  cut  the  whole  thing  up  by  the  roots,  and  I  think  J.  W.  Foster,  an 
Eastern  Republican,  say  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  Western  Democrat  among 
the  farmers,  would  be  a  safe  commission  to  leave  the  subject  to. 

I  think  it  would  be  one  of  the  worst  things  among  the  farmers  in  a  polit 
ical  point  of  view  we  could  do,  and  we  cannot  afford  to  lose  a  vote  now 
until  after  the  presidential  election.  They  have  got  it  into  their  heads  that 
we  did  something  for  them  in  the  McKinley  tariff,  and  giving  away  natural 
products  by  reciprocity  would  end  the  whole  matter.  It  would  be  con 
sidered  a  betrayal  of  the  agricultural  interests.  The  fact  is  we  do  not 
want  any  intercourse  with  Canada  except  through  the  medium  of  a  tariff, 
and  she  will  find  that  she  has  a  hard  row  to  hoe  and  will  ultimately,  I 
believe,  seek  admission  to  the  Union. 

The  poor  showing  that  Canada  made  in  the  late  census  was  a  revelation 
to  the  Canadians  themselves,  and  if  we  do  not  grant  them  reciprocity  they 
will  make  a  poorer  showing  ten  years  hence.  We  are  tending  to  have  the 
great  majority  of  the  farmers  with  us.  Let  us  encourage  them  by  every 
means  we  can  use  and  not  discourage  them  by  anything.  We  will  break 
the  alliance  before  six  months  if  we  steadily  maintain  this  policy. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 
(Signed)  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 

A  woman  whose  cause  he  upheld  through  prolonged  compli 
cations  in  foreign  companies  said  that  his  questions  gave  her 
confidence,  though  often  she  did  not  see  their  bearings  till  re 
vealed  by  developments  months  afterwards,  and  when  her  cause 
was  triumphing  over  painfully  prolonged  and  bitter  contention 
she  found  grief  keener  than  joy,  because  he  who  had  done  so  much 
to  bring  about  her  triumph  was  not  here  to  witness  it. 

The  condemnation  of  an  American  woman,  Mrs.  May  brick, 
by  an  English  court  of  law  came  in  the  summer  of  1889.  The 
President  supposed  her  guilty,  she  being  condemned  according 
to  the  forms  of  law  in  a  constitutionally  governed  land.  Mr. 
Elaine,  no  doubt,  would  have  believed  the  same,  but  that  his 
son,  confined  to  his  room  by  an  accident,  had  amused  his  en 
forced  leisure  by  reading  the  trial  in  the  English  daily  papers. 
When  he  had  completed  the  judge's  charge,  he  threw  down 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  695 

the  paper  exclaiming,  "That  judge  ought  to  be  impeached,  and 
if  he  were  in  this  country  he  would  be."  Naturally  Mr. 
Elaine  lent  himself  gladly  to  the  effort  of  Mrs.  Maybrick's 
family  for  a  rehearing  or  release.  After  Walker's  death  the 
cause  took  on  an  added  interest.  In  consultation  with  high 
legal  English  counsel,  he  took  extraordinary  personal  measures 
for  her  relief,  but  always  within  the  strict  limits  of  interna 
tional  courtesy,  never  assuming  authority  or  presuming  inter 
ference.  The  President  gave  full  countenance  to  his  measures, 
and  Mrs.  Harrison,  with  the  President's  consent  and  coope 
ration,  signed  a  petition  for  the  release  of  the  prisoner  —  a 
prisoner  pronounced  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England 
wrongfully  convicted  and  wrongfully  detained. 

The  interposition  was  not  successful.  The  English  govern 
ment  could  not  force  the  American  Secretary  of  State  into 
yielding  England  supremacy  of  the  seas  or  of  the  markets  of 
the  world,  but  they  could  keep  in  prison,  against  the  protest  of 
their  own  Chief  Justice  and  without  investigation,  an  Ameri 
can  woman  whom  Mr.  Elaine  desired  to  release  to  her  mother 
and  to  her  infant  children,  and  they  did.  She  remains  in  prison 
to  this  day. 

All  these,  and  a  thousand  other  important  matters,  personal 
and  national,  whose  records  pile  the  shelves  of  the  State  Depart 
ment,  Mr.  Elaine  prosecuted  with  undiminished  energy,  but  with 
an  aching  heart. 

When  he  established  himself  in  Washington  a  second  time  as 
Secretary  of  State,  he  leased  and  afterwards  bought  the  Kodgers 
house  on  Lafayette  square  — an  old-fashioned  structure  standing 
four-square  to  the  sunshine,  fronting  the  beautiful  park  and 
opening  wide  windows  to  the  Treasury  columns,  to  the  White 
House  curves,  to  the  Potomac,  and  the  green  hills  beyond.  It 
was  an  airy,  sunny,  ample,  and  delightful  home.  Perhaps  never 
in  his  life  was  he  happier,  more  radiant  with  satisfaction,  than 
when,  with  all  his  family  around  him,  he  opened  that  house  to 
his  friends  in  the  winter  of  1889-90. 

On  January  10,  Walker  leaving  a  friend's  house,  met  his 
mother  entering,  joined  her,  reentered,  made  the  visit  and  drove 
home  with  her,  went  to  his  own  room,  lay  down  upon  his  bed, 
and  never  left  it  except  as  he  was  carried  from  room  to  room  to 


696  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

assuage  the  mortal  restlessness  of  pneumonia.  On  Wednesday, 
January  15,  lie  died. 

The  day  after  the  funeral  Mr.  Elaine  sent  for  Mr.  Hitt,  who 
answered  the  summons  with  dread.  To  his  surprise  he  found 
Mr.  Blaine  calmly  waiting  to  read  to  him  for  consultation  one 
of  his  most  important  Behring-sea  despatches,  which  he  was 
then  preparing.  Presently  Mr.  Hitt  took  a  certain  exception. 
Mr.  Blaine  looked  at  him  steadfastly  a  moment,  then  threw  down 
the  paper,  "  One  week  ago  to-day,  Walker  made  to  me  that  same 
criticism.  When  I  came  home  from  his  funeral  yesterday,  I 
wanted  to  lie  down  and  die.  I  knew  there  was  nothing  to  save 
me  but  work,  and  I  took  up  this." 

His  daughter,  Alice,  had  been  far  from  well,  but  she  came 
home  with  her  husband  and  two  little  boys  to  attend  her 
brother's  funeral.  On  the  evening  of  the  29th  of  January, 
while  the  Pan-American  Conference  was  in  the  drawing- 
room,  her  father  was  hurriedly  summoned  to  her  room  where 
she  was  feared  to  be  dying.  She  rallied,  and  her  husband,  who 
had  started  for  his  military  post,  returned  in  season  to  receive 
her  last  sigh,  but  no  smile  of  recognition.  She  died  on  the  2d 
of  February.  No  hush  fell  on  the  beloved  names  and  no  for 
bidding  aspect  was  permitted  to  grief.  Sunshine  and  the  dear 
faces  of  friends  were  not  for  one  moment  banished.  Emmons, 
broken  with  his  own  loss,  stood  guard  over  his  father  and 
brought  the  double  solace  of  his  happy  home  as  often  as  possible 
to  the  desolated  house ;  but  the  world  was  changed. 

As  Mr.  Blaine  went  on  in  his  work  from  strength  to  strength 
his  friends  gathered  about  him  with  the  old  hope,  the  old  pur 
pose  of  flinging  his  name  to  the  front;  but  he  could  no  longer 
bear  it.  It  was  not  simply  that  he  was  unwilling,  —  he  could 
not  tolerate  the  thought. 

The  popular  determination  that  Mr.  Blaine  should  be  the 
next  President  was  proof  against  every  form  of  opposition.  It 
involved  no  censure  of  the  President,  and  was  coupled  with  ap 
proval  of  his  administration.  It  was  the  culmination  of  a  move 
ment  that  had  been  growing  for  twenty  years  and  now  saw 
itself  on  the  eve  of  triumph.  It  could  not  be  created  by  the 
National  Republican  Committee,  but  it  was  ascertained  and 
urged  upon  Mr.  Blaine  by  that  committee  whose  authority  and 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  607 

whose  reputation  depend  upon  the  accuracy  with  which  it  dis 
covers  and  the  skill  with  which  it  enforces  public  opinion. 

The  results  of  the  researches  of  the  committee  throughout 
the  United  States  may  be  summed  up  in  one  composite  para 
graph  from  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  reports. 

There   is  widespread    and  deep-seated  dissatisfaction  in  the 
West.     Any  Republican  candidate  who  cannot  carry  the  West 
ern  States  cannot  be  elected.    We  must  have  a  national  standard- 
bearer  whose  name  would  arouse  the  old-time  enthusiasm.     He 
must  in  and  of  himself  represent  something.     He   must  be  the 
embodiment  of    some    great   principle  in    American    politics. 
President  Harrison,    if  nominated,  could   not    be  elected.     If 
he  is  renominated,   the  party  will  be  defeated.     It  is  impossi 
ble  for  him  to  carry  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois.     As  the  time  for 
the  convention  approaches,    Mr.  Harrison   will  see  the  wishes 
of    the  Republicans,   and  he  cannot  help  but   advise  his  own 
retirement.     It   is  idle    to    talk  about   the   wise   and   patriotic 
administration  the  President  has  given  us,  as  to  which  there  is 
no  controversy,  so  long  as  the  fact  remains  that  he  has  no  hold 
011  the  affections  of  the  people.     The  people  want  Mr.  Blaine, 
and  he  owes  it  as  a  duty  to  his  party  and  his  country  to  let 
the    people   have    their   way   about   it.      If   he   will  take  the 
nomination  he  can  have  it  without  asking   for  it,  and  he  can 
be  both  nominated  and    elected  with  a  whirl.     If   he  is   nom 
inated,    no    more   attention    need   be   paid   to    Ohio.      At  the 
Convention  of  League  Clubs  in  Cincinnati  at  least  seven  out 
of  every  ten  delegates   and  Republicans  were  for  Blaine.     He 
can  take  Illinois  from  any  man,  and  he  is  more  popular  in  Indi 
ana  than  Harrison.      Nineteen  counties  visited  in  New  York  are 
unanimous  and  enthusiastic  for  Blaine,  and  unless  he  himself 
prevents  it,  he  will  have  all  the  country  delegates  from  Michi 
gan.     Kansas  has  but  one  man,  and  that  is  Blaine.     Blaine  is  the 
choice  of  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  the  Republicans  of 
California.      At  a  conference  in  Chicago  of  forty-two  leading 
men  from  Ohio  to  Nebraska  representing  nine  States,  every  man 
was  for  Blaine,  and  reported  the  tide  to  be  irresistible,  and  Blaine 
himself  could  not  stop  it.     He  is  the  only  man  that  can  carry 
Wisconsin.     The  sentiment  in  the  North-west  is  overwhelmingly 
for  him.     The  feeling  is  stronger  and  more  earnest  than  ever 


098  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JANES    G.    BLAINE. 

before.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  younger  element  of  the 
party,  as  well  as  among  those  who  have  hitherto  opposed  him. 
Added  to  his  dash  and  brilliancy  is  the  well-grounded  belief  that 
he  is  the  ablest  and  safest  American  citizen  we  have  in  public 
life.  Reciprocity  will  bring  back  to  us  the  farmers  of  this 
great  North-west.  The  feeling  of  a  very  large  portion  of 
Western  Republicans  is,  "  It  looks  like  Blaine  and  victory ; 
if  not,  then  Harrison  and  defeat."  Blaine  can  have  the 
nomination  by  acclamation  if  he  will  allow  it.  He  is  the  only 
man  the  Republicans  can  surely  elect.  Harrison  is  the  only 
man  wlio  cannot  be  elected  at  all.  Blaine  has  the  entire 
credit  of  the  reciprocity  argument,  and  it  meets  with  favor 
everywhere.  It  will  bring  back  to  us  some  of  the  Mug 
wumps,  and  give  us  many  Democrats  who  are  business  men. 
Catholics  desire  to  see  the  Burchard  blunder  corrected.  His 
course  in  the  State  Department  has  absolutely  contradicted 
the  lies  about  his  intentions  when  Garfield  was  President. 
The  sentiment  of  New  York  is  overwhelmingly  for  Blaine. 
There  are  two  Blaine  Irishmen  for  every  one  in  1884.  The 
Chile  business  has  exploded  the  "  Jingo "  accusation.  The 
State  Department's  magnificent  administration  has  slain  the 
slanders  of  1884.  The  renunciation  of  1888  has  killed  the  cry 
of  personal  ambition.  The  reciprocity  and  the  Pan-American 
Congress  will  conciliate  many,  will  stir  enthusiasm,  and  appeal 
to  the  imagination. 

A  leading  Republican  of  New  York  wrote  on  August 
24,  1891 : 

The  stalwarts  of  this  State,  who  were  disaffected  towards  you  in  1884, 
except  the  few  who  went  over  permanently  to  the  Democracy,  will  be  not 
only  your  loyal  but  your  ardent  friends  if  you  are  nominated  in  1892. 

On  January  15, 1892,  the  chairman  of  the  Republican  National 
Committee  wrote  to  Mr.  Blaine : 

It  must  be  very  gratifying  to  you  to  see  Europe,  which  always  gives 
praise  grudgingly,  plainly  conceding  the  superior  scope  of  your  statesman 
ship. 

All  the  Republican  business  men  are  attributing  prosperity  and  large 
business  very  largely  to  Republican  legislation,  and  to  the  developments 
of  reciprocity,  etc.  .  .  .  The  business  world  .  .  .  will  make  the 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  699 

political  world  recognize  it.  I  base  all  our  chances  for  success  on  this  one 
great  fact,  and  on  the  growing  popularity  of  reciprocity,  which  will  bring 
new  markets  for  the  American  farmer,  enlarged  trade  for  American 
merchants,  increased  employment  for  American  labor,  and  good  for  every 

class. 

As  you  represented  this  in  the  creation,  so  will  the  people  look  to  you 
only  for  the  enlargement  of  it  as  it  shall  develop,  and  for  protecting  it 
against  the  counteracting  legislation  with  which  other  countries  will°try 
to  overthrow  it.  The  Germans  who  were  weak  as  to  you  in  '84  are  now 
the  strongest  advocates  of  reciprocity,  and  they  are  coming  back  to  you  by 
the  tens  of  thousands,  and  you  are  to-day  the  most  popular  man  with  this 
element.  I  could  give  you  scores  of  other  good  reasons  ;  but  I  want  you 
to  think  over  these  very  powerful  and  sufficient  reasons  which  I  have  here 
enumerated. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  S.  CLARKSON. 

P.S.  You  are  the  only  man,  too,  who  can  draw  from  the  Farmers' 
Alliance  the  necessary  votes  to  keep  the  party  in  power  in  the  North-western 
States. 

Another  prominent  Republican  wrote  Mr.  Elaine,  January  30, 
1892: 

I  have  a  letter  from  General  Clarkson  to-day  in  which  he  says  he  had 
been  over  the  same  ground  with  you  that  he  and  I  went  over  in  your  room, 
but  that  while  you  are  feeling  well  in  health  and  spirits  you  are  inclined 
the  same  way  as  then.  Is  it  not  possible  to  change  your  views  on  this?  If 
so  we  will  all  join  in  the  prayer  that  it  may  come  to  pass. 

I  was  down  in  Alabama  and  Florida  last  week,  and  find  through  all  that 
country  administration  men  are  at  work  for  delegates  to  the  next  national 
convention.  A  common  feeling  pervades  the  whole  of  that  country,  that 
black  and  white  all  want  you.  Of  course  I  have  very  many  friends  there 
and  elsewhere,  but  I  state  to  you  the  one  sentiment  is,  that  all  desire  you, 
not  especially  in  antagonism  to  President  Harrison,  but  simply  a  wish  of 
the  people,  that  what  you  have  so  fairly  earned  should  come  to  you. 

Notwithstanding  this,  and  in  full  view  and  recognition  of  it, 
Mr.  Blaine  wrote  as  follows  : 

WASHINGTON,  February  6,  1892. 
HON.  J.  S.  CLARKSON,  Chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Committee: 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  not  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and  my  name 
will  not  go  before  the  Republican  National  Convention  for  the  nomination. 
I  make  this  announcement  in  due  season. 

To  those  who  have  tendered  me  their  support  I  owe  sincere  thanks,  and 
am  most  grateful  for  their  confidence.  They  will,  I  am  sure,  make  earnest 


TOO  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

effort  in  the  approaching  contest,  which  is  rendered  specially  important  by 
reason  of  the  industrial  and  financial  policies  of  the  government  being 
at  stake.  The  popular  decision  on  these  issues  is  of  great  moment  and 
will  be  of  far-reaching  consequence. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

A  fortnight  afterward,  Mr.  Elaine  in  declining  an  invitation 
wrote : 

17  MADISON  PLACE,  WASHINGTON,  February  20,  1892. 
GEN.  RUSSELL  A.  ALGER,  DETROIT,  MICHIGAN  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR:  I  regret  that  I  cannot  be  present  at  your  club  meeting 
on  the  22d.  Official  engagements  forbid.  But  I  cannot  refrain  from  send 
ing  a  word  of  good  cheer  on  the  prospects  of  the  Republican  party.  On 
all  leading  measures  relating  to  the  industrial  and  financial  interests  of  the 
people  we  are  strong  and  growing  stronger.  On  the  contrary,  our  oppo 
nents  are  weak  and  growing  weaker.  They  are  divided ;  we  are  united. 

If  we  do  not  win  it  is  our  fault.  We  shall  be  justly  censurable,  if  with 
such  great  issues  involved  every  Republican  does  not  feel  that  he  is  ap 
pealed  to  personally,  and  that  victory  in  the  election  depends  on  him. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

But  the  movement  went  on  like  the  irresistible  force  of 
natural  phenomena.  Probably  it  had  never  stopped.  It  was 
checked  by  Mr.  Blaine  in  1888,  but  only  for  the  time.  Each 
achievement  as  Secretary  of  State  increased  its  momentum. 
Great  hope  had  been  cherished  of  a  cleavage  of  the  party  from 
him  on  the  McKinley  bill,  but  Mr.  McKinley  himself  had  been 
one  of  the  earliest  converts  to  reciprocity,  and  Mr.  Blaine  had 
given  especial  help  to  Mr.  McKiiiley  in  his  election,  and  now 
reciprocity  which  the  builders  had  rejected  had  become  the 
head  of  the  corner.  Political  argument  and  personal  attack 
having  thus  failed,  the  opposition  to  him  centred  on  the  ques 
tion  of  health.  To  this  his  traits  and  his  experience  lent  some 
countenance.  His  worst  vice  was  a  mind  hospitably  inclined 
to  illness.  It  must  be  admitted  that  a  drug  and  a  doctor  had 
irresistible,  even  hereditary,  charms  for  him.  In  his  intense 
life  perhaps  it  may  be  pardoned  him  if  he  loved  the  shelter  and 
seclusion  of  illness.  His  most  skilful  treatment  was  a  judicious 
admixture  of  badinage  and  nursing.  Mr.  Hale  used  to  say 


. 


EMMONS    BLAINE. 


JtlOGRAPIIY    OF   JAMES    G.    RLAINK.  701 

that  all  that  saved  his  life  in  a  long  brisk  walk  with  Mr.  Blaine 
was  the  latter's  pausing  till  Mr.  Hale  should  come  up,  to  ask 
44  Hale,  how  do  I  look?  " 

In  spite  of  the  badinage,  there  must  have  been  some  occult 
cause.  His  splendidly  sound  physical  organization  had  never 
been  weakened  by  dissipation.  He  indulged  sparingly  in  wine, 
used  tobacco  in  no  form,  and  could  outwork  all  his  private  sec 
retaries,  although  they  were  loyal  to  him  with  an  unselfish  de 
votion.  But  although  work  seemed  never  to  weary  him,  never 
prevented  sleep  or  was  followed  by  reaction,  seemed  not  work, 
not  ploughing  up  details,  but  the  realization  of  a  vision  and  there 
fore  a  gratification  and  not  an  exhaustion,  there  was  with  all  his 
strength  a  delicacy  of  organization  that  could  not  with  impunity 
be  violated.  Slander  and  abuse  never  ceased  to  be  a  shock,  the 
impact  of  something  foreign  to  his  nature.  By  what  process  who 
shall  say,  but  once  surely,  giving  no  outward  sign  till  the  catas 
trophe  came,  every  physical  and  mental  power,  even  to  con 
sciousness,  went  down  under  it.  Use  bred  the  man  to  habit, 
and  this  never  occurred  again  —  but  it  may  well  be  that  the 
strongest  outposts  were  never  wholly  renewed.  An  hereditary 
gout  was  subdued  largely  by  natural  correct  living,  but  even 
suppressed  gout  has  its  revenges.  A  peculiar  debility,  to  which, 
especially  in  his  later  years,  he  was  subject,  appeared  —  in  short, 
fever,  sometimes  slight,  sometimes  severe,  sometimes  alternating 
with  chills,  always  without  apparent  adequate  cause,  followed 
by  general  prostration,  local  weakness,  and  slow  tedious  re 
covery.  The  two  severest  attacks  were  in  Milan  in  1888,  and 
in  New  York  in  1891.  The  latter  was  after  an  intense  and  pro 
longed  —  one  might  also  say  fierce  —  work  in  enforcing  his 
reciprocity  theory  upon  an  unwilling  Congress ;  but  the  other 
was  in  the  midst  of  a  long  holiday.  Neither  was  attended  as 
was  the  first  with  collapse,  and  only  the  second  by  even  the 
slight  delirium  of  fever ;  but  probably  after  each  attack  he 
never  wholly  recovered  the  lost  ground,  although  his  work  would 
not  bear  such  witness,  and  he  certainly  never  recovered,  if  he 
ever  possessed,  confidence  in  his  own  health.  This  fact  added 
itself  as  a  ready  and  real  reason  against  anything  to  which  he 
felt  himself  disinclined.  After  his  illness  in  New  York,  May, 
1891,  he  returned  to  Maine,  where  he  remained  until  October, 


702  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

receiving  the  kindest  consideration  from  the  President,  who  never 
urged  work  upon  him,  but  always  desired  his  consultation  and 
cooperation. 

With  a  whole  presidential  campaign  turning  upon  the  state 
of  his  health,  Mr.  Elaine  received  more  than  poetic  justice  for 
whatever  sanitary  weaknesses  he  may  have  yielded  to.  He  was 
at  intervals  of  a  few  days  supplied  by  the  press  Avith  pulse,  tem 
perature,  appetite,  color,  gait,  smile,  and  the  corresponding 
sensation,  and  only  a  sense  of  humor  saved  him  from  extreme 
annoyance.  "  Good  morning,  Mr.  Secretary,"  said  one  of  a 
group  of  reporters  at  the  door  of  the  State  Department ;  "  par 
ticularly  glad  to  see  you.  If  you  had  not  appeared  to-day,  we 
were  going  to  give  you  a  typhoid  fever."  "  I  know  nothing 
about  my  health,"  he  said  to  an  inquirer,  "  until  I  read  the  New 
York  papers." 

On  a  visit  to  New  York  in  the  winter  of  1892,  he  indulged  in 
the  little  jest  of  admitting  all  reporters  who  called,  and  all  at 
once,  —  between  twenty  and  thirty.  "  I  am  just  as  you  see  me, 
no  better,  no  worse." 

Mr.  Frye  called  upon  him  about  two  months  before  the  con 
vention.  "  You  an  invalid?  I  never  saw  a  woman  look  hand 
somer.  Pink  lips,  white  face,  bright  eyes,  sitting  up.  I'd  keep 
sick  if  I  were  you,  and  send  for  everybody  to  come  and  see  me. 
Now  you  can  take  back  that  letter.  You  can  trust  me.  You 
know  there  have  been  times  when  I  was  for  your  nomination, 
and  times  Avhen  I  was  against  it.  This  I  think  is  your  time. 
You  can  be  nominated  and  elected.  Even  Massachusetts  is  all 
for  you.  You  need  not  mind  the  campaign.  We  don't  want 
anything  of  you  in  the  campaign.  Go  to  England  if  you  want 
to."  But  he  could  not  be  moved. 

When  Mr.  Hitt  was  leaving,  shortly  before  the  convention,  he 
had  occasion  to  call  on  Mr.  Elaine.  He  put  both  hands  on  Mr. 
Hitt's  shoulders  and  said  to  him  earnestly,  "Don't  involve  your 
future." 

The  Canadian  Welland  Canal  Commissioners  were  in  the 
State  Department,  and  he  was  sparkling  with  the  exhilaration  of 
the  interview.  "  My  doctors  tell  me  to  work,  and  I  feel  this 
morning  equal  to  doing  anything.  I  have  been  hacking  those 
fellows  in  there  for  two  hours  with  great  delight."  And  Mr. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF  JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  703 

Foster  said  it  was  wonderful  how  he  ran  them  down,  "  so  quickly 
I  could  hardly  keep  track  of  him  myself  sometimes.  He  would 
put  a  question  and  follow  it  out  till  they  were  all  wound  up." 

He  occupied  himself  too  at  this  time  with  plans  for  the  Inter 
national  Silver  Conference,  a  work  requiring  much  skill  and 
delicate  negotiation. 

The  pressure  gained  force  and  volume.  "  Whoever,  in  my 
judgment,"  wrote  a  prominent  politician,  on  April  4,  1892,  "  is 
elected  President  on  the  Republican  ticket  this  year  will  be 
a  man  who  can  get  the  Farmers  Alliance  and  the  Knights 
of  Labor  vote.  Whoever  cannot  get  that  vote  ought  not  to 
be  nominated,  because  his  election  is  not  sure.  You  are  the 
only  Republican  leader  who  can  command  this  support.  Both 
the  Knights  and  the  Alliances  are  anxious  for  your  nomination, 
and  will  support  you,  if  nominated.  If  any  other  Republican 
is  put  at  the  head  of  our  ticket,  there  will  probably  be  a  third 
ticket,  and  the  election  may  be  thrown  into  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives. 

"Your  friends,  who  are  legion,  do  not  feel  like  offending  you 
by  crowding  the  nomination  upon  you,  in  spite  of  and  in  dis 
regard  of  your  inclination  and  wishes.  But  if  it  were  believed 
that  you  would  stand  it,  nothing  even  now  can  prevent  your 
nomination.  In  other  words,  James  G.  Blaine,  and  he  only,  can 
prevent  his  being  the  next  President." 

This,  and  the  following  letter,  under  date  of  May  28,  1892, 
from  a  gentleman  who  had  been  a  delegate  from  New  York  to 
the  Republican  Convention  of  1884,  and  again  in  1888,  urging 
the  importance  of  Mr.  Blaine's  accepting  the  nomination,  are 
but  two  specimens  of  innumerable  letters  received  at  this  time, 
while  the  personal  pressure  from  day  to  day  was  enormous. 

"  The  people  here  are  unanimous  for  him.  Until  the  past  few 
days  there  has  been  a  quiet  pervading  the  ranks  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  amounting  almost  to  indifference.  ...  I  do 
not  think  there  has  ever  been  a  time  when  Mr.  Blaine  was  as 
strong  with  the  people  as  to-day,  and  if  Cleveland  is  the  nomi 
nee  of  the  Democratic  party  I  believe  there  are  thousands  of 
Democrats  in  this  State  who  would  support  Blaine.  Two  or 
three  of  the  Hill  leaders  have  so  stated  to  me.  .  .  . 

"  Since  the  papers  have  again  begun  to  discuss  the  possibility 


704  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

of  his  candidacy,  the  people  are  wide-awake  and  enthusiastic. 
The  rank  and  file  of  the  people  are  all  for  him.  A 

gentleman  who  represents  prominent  manufacturing  works 
of  Dunkirk,  and  who  travels  all  over  the  country  and  meets 
laboring  men  in  similar  institutions,  informed  him  that  it  was 
surprising  the  number  of  Republican  workingmen  who  declared 
they  would  not  vote  for  Harrison  if  nominated.  I  do  riot  believe 
that  he  could  possibly  carry  this  State,  and  I  feel  confident  that 
Mr.  Blame  would  carry  it  easily,  and  they  would  not  steal  the 
State  from  him  a  second  time  either." 


Here  the  pen  fell  from  the  fingers  thus  far  guided  by  a  great 
brain,  a  faithful  heart,  and  an  inflexible  conscience. 

A  humbler  and  less  skilful  hand  merely  puts  together  the 
notes  and  memoranda  left  upon  the  writer's  desk. 

H.  P.  S. 


Mr.  Blame  had  now  accomplished  the  great  purposes  which 
led  him  to  accept  the  post  of  Secretary  of  State.  In  a  little 
over  three  years  he  had  settled  a  larger  number  of  important 
questions,  and  to  the  national  advantage,  than  had  been  settled 
in  all  the  years  since  the  close  of  the  Civil  war.  Much  of 
the  work  had  been  done  with  vivid  enjoyment ;  but  the  greater 
part  of  it  under  a  cloud  of  sorrow.  There  was  110  longer  any 
especial  reason  for  remaining  in  public  office.  His  position  had 
grown  unique.  He  had  passed  through  the  slander-belt  and 
come  out  in  the  clear  light  as  the  greatest  American,  the  great 
est  statesman,  of  his  day ;  for  if  the  effort  of  Bismarck  —  the 
only  man  of  far-reaching  policy  to  mention  with  him  —  had 
been  to  centralize  the  German  States,  it  was  to  despotism ;  but 
Mr.  Elaine's  effort  had  been  to  centralize  all  the  Americas  to 
freedom.  Suffering  a  continual  apprehension  regarding  his 
health,  he  had  also  been  subjected  to  a  fatiguing  strain  of 
harassment  and  vexation.  His  sympathetic  nature  made  him 
keenly  responsive  to  the  atmosphere  surrounding  him  ;  and  at 
last,  entirely  exhausted  with  the  absence  of  cordiality  and  with 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  705 

the    daily    friction   in    his   official    relations,   he    resigned   his 
portfolio. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  June  4. 

To  the  President : 

I  respectfully  beg  leave  to  submit  my  resignation  of  the  oince  of  Secre 
tary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  to  which  1  was  appointed  by  you  on 
March  5,  1889. 

The  condition  of  public  business  in  the  Department  of  State  justifies  me 
in  requesting  that  my  resignation  may  be  accepted  immediately. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

(Signed)  JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

To  this  the  President  briefly  and  curtly  replied,  accepting 
the  resignation. 

"  Mr.  Elaine  has  done  right,"  said  Mr.  Whittier,  who  in  his 
younger  days  and  before  his  fame  as  a  poet  was  so  wide,  was 
known  to  be  a  sagacious  politician.  "  In  his  position  I  would 


•6 

have  done  the  same." 


On  the  7th  of  June  Mr.  Elaine  left  Washington  for  Ear  Har 
bor,  staying  a  few  days  in  Boston  on  the  way.  The  news  of 
his  resignation  flashed  over  the  country  like  an  electric  signal. 
Now,  his  friends  declared,  he  is  at  liberty  again,  and  he  belongs 
to  us.  The  urgency  to  use  his  name,  which  more  than  any 
other  name  stood  for  all  the  ideals  of  the  life  of  the  Republican 
party,  the  name  of  a  leader  commanding  enthusiasm,  of  a  man 
folniwed  by  multitudes  with  self-forgetful  fervor,  the  name  of  a 
man  who  was  a  living  force,  vitalizing  other  men,  became  irre 
sistible. 

For  himself,  even  under  this  urgency,  he  was  indifferent, 
He  was  too  thoroughly  tired  and  grieved  to  be  interested.  His 
resignation  had  no  relation  to  anything  whatever  but  rest. 
Time,  however,  had  narrowed  to  such  a  point  that  it  was  neces 
sary  to  think  and  act  precipitately;  and  so  urged,  so  assured,  and 
knowing  a  measure  of  his  own  power  and  popularity  and  the 
depression  and  danger  of  the  party,  he  had  not  the  heart  at  first 
to  refuse  as  positively  as  before  the  salvation  prayed  for.  He 
may  have  remembered  his  old  feeling  when  he  once  said,  "  I 
would  like  to  give  this  country  one  administration.  I  could  do 
it.  It  would  be  an  era  that  she  would  be  proud  of."  Eut  he 


706  BIOGEAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

twice  telegraphed  during  the  session  to  the  convention  at  Min 
neapolis  that  his  name  should  not  be  brought  forward.  As  well 
try  to  extinguish  a  prairie  fire  by  telegraph.  It  required  an 
army  of  office-holders  to  tread  out  that  fire. 

An  extract  from  the  speech  of  Senator  Wolcott,  of  Colorado, 
a  delegate  to  the  national  convention  in  Minneapolis,  1892,  page 
54  of  Official  Proceedings,  contains  the  following :  "  I  hold  in 
my  hand,  Mr.  Chairman,  a  list  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  odd 
office-holders,  who  are  delegates  to  this  convention,  nine-tenths 
of  whom  live  in  States  where  there  is  a  hopeless  Democratic 
majority.  The  trouble  in  this  committee  as  to  these  delegates 
comes  not  alone  from  these  men,  but  it  comes  from  a  pressure 
of  between  two  and  three  thousand  government  office-holders, 
who  swarm  the  corridors  of  the  hotels,  and  fill  these  galleries, 
and  haunt  the  delegates,  who  ought  to  be  in  Washington  and 
elsewhere  attending  to  their  business."  This  was  never  refuted. 

Mr.  Elaine's  name  was  presented  to  the  convention  with 
ringing  eloquence  ;  but  Mr.  Harrison  received  a  majority  of  the 
votes  of  the  delegates,  very  nearly  one-half  of  his  votes  being 
thrown  by  delegates  from  the  Southern  and  other  States  where 
there  was  already  a  "  hopeless  Democratic  majority." 

When  the  vote  on  a  preliminary  point  had  been  given,  fore 
casting  the  vote  on  the  nomination,  Mr.  Elaine,  then  in  Eoston, 
saw  that  his  supporters  Avere  overpowered,  and  requesting  a 
member  of  his  family  to  take  the  telegrams,  he  retired  early 
and  was  asleep  at  once  and  soundly. 

The  result  of  the  balloting  in  the  convention,  under  the  cir 
cumstances,  was  not  a  surprise  to  Mr.  Elaine.  His  only  regret 
was  that  his  name  had  been  used  at  all ;  having  been  used,  a 
larger  vote  would  have  been  flattering,  but  he  received  the  an 
nouncement  with  no  apparent  emotion  and  no  outward  sign 
beyond  the  sad  smile  which  spoke  of  his  consciousness  of  misap 
prehension  and  misrepresentation.  He  was  in  reality  profoundly 
indifferent.  Eefore  leaving  for  Bar  Harbor  he  gave  to  the 
"  Boston  Journal,"  for  publication,  a  summons  to  his  followers, 
and  the  trumpet-call  at  Roncesvalles  did  not  ring  truer. 

The  resolution,  energy,  and  persistence  which  marked  the  proceedings 
of  the  convention  at  Minneapolis  will,  if  turned  against  the  common  foe, 
win  the  election  in  November.  All  minor  differences  should  be  merged  in 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  707 

the  duty  of  every  Republican  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  elect  the  ticket  this 
day  nominated  by  the  National  Republican  Convention. 

(Signed)  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 

If  Mr.  Elaine  himself  experienced  no  disappointment,  the 
disappointment  of  his  friends  throughout  the  country  was 
extreme.  Yet  there  are  few  men  fearless  or  reckless  enough  to 
throw  off  the  yoke  of  party  discipline  ;  nor  would  any  have 
received  from  him  the  slightest  encouragement  to  do  so.  But 
the  Republican  campaign  opened  without  interest  and  ended 
with  defeat. 

All  events  of  a  public  nature  were,  however,  presently  lost  in 
the  darkness  of  another  great  affliction.  On  the  18th  of  June, 
Emmons,  Mr.  Blaine's  elder  surviving  son,  died  suddenly  after 
an  illness  of  a  few  days,  at  his  home  in  Chicago.  Every  effort 
had  been  made  to  reach  his  father  with  an  intimation  of  his 
threatening  condition,  but  it  had  been  impossible  to  open 
telegraphic  communication,  and  the  blow  fell  like  a  thunder 
bolt  out  of  clear  sky.  The  attachment  between  father  and 
son  had  always  been  very  close,  and  since  the  death  of  Walker 
the  bond  had  become  doubly  tender,  Emmons  striving  in  every 
way  to  fill  his  brother's  place  and  his  own  too.  Never  had  a 
father  more  reason  to  mourn  a  son,  not  only  in  the  loss  of  his 
devotion  and  support,  but  in  the  loss  of  his  noble  and  beautiful 
personality.  The  tragedy  was  the  deeper  that  he  was  taken 
still  in  his  early  manhood,  with  all  men  his  friends,  from  the 
midst  of  more  than  common  success  and  usefulness,  and  from 
a  home  where  his  happiness  with  wife  and  child  was  complete. 
It  was  a  dark  and  dreadful  journey  the  father  and  mother  took 
to  bury  their  dead. 

It  could  not  even  be  a  consolation  to  know  that  the  heart  of 
the  whole  nation  without  reserve  melted  in  pity.  The  Demo 
cratic  convention,  then  in  session,  paused  in  its  work,  and  passed 
a  resolution  extending  its  cordial  sympathy.  And  it  was  in 
the  softening  of  all  asperity  that  a  few  weeks  later  during  a 
Democratic  meeting  in  the  auditorium  at  Chicago,  a  speaker 
incidentally  mentioning  the  name  of  Mr.  Blaine,  the  whole  vast 
audience  rose  with  long  and  uncontrollable  applause.  When  he 
could  be  heard,  the  speaker  exclaimed,  "  Blaine  seems  to  have 


708  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     ELAINE. 

more  friends  here  than  he  had  at  Minneapolis ! "  and  a  voice 
from  the  crowd  replied  amid  renewed  cheers,  "  We  are  all  his 
friends  here  !  "  All  his  friends,  indeed  !  For  even  outside  and 
beyond  the  feeling  regarding  his  continued  bereavement,  was 
the  sentiment  that  Mr.  Elaine  had  become  the  ideal  representa 
tive  of  the  love  of  country ;  for  in  the  House,  in  the  Senate,  in 
the  State  Department,  a  generation  of  men  had  seen  him  defend 
Democratic  measures  and  use  Democratic  agents  whenever  he 
approved  the  one,  or  thought  the  country  could  be  best  served 
by  the  other,  and  they  had  largely  ceased  to  think  of  him  as  a 
Republican  or  a  Democrat,  —  rather  as  an  intense  American. 

But  although  with  his  warmly  human  temperament,  Mr. 
Blaine  could  not  but  be  touched  by  the  expressions  of  sorrow 
that  came  to  him  from  every  side,  those  expressions  did  not 
lift  the  inner  gloom  where  the  stricken  father  sat  among 
his  broken  idols,  turning  only  the  more  tenderly  to  those  that 
were  left  him,  —  a  gloom  which  not  all  the  splendor  of  sea  and 
sky  at  Stan  wood  could  lighten. 

Still  even  through  his  grief  he  could  hear  the  call  of  his 
country  ;  and  on  September  3,  1892,  he  published  a  letter  naming 
the  three  issues  on  which  he  thought  the  campaign  should  be 
fought  — P  tariff,  reciprocity,  and  a  sound  currency.  He  spoke  of 
the  great  advantages  already  gained  and  yet  to  be  gained  from 
the  McKinley  tariff  with  reciprocity  engrafted  on  it. 

"  What  would  have  been  the  result  to  the  United  States  if 
every  article,  before  it  was  put  on  the  free  list,  had  been  made 
the  subject  of  inquiry  to  see  what  we  would  get  in  exchange 
for  it?' 

"  We  omitted  to  do  so  for  many  years,  and  that  neglect  has 
cost  the  government  advantages  in  trade  which  would  have 
amounted  to  tens  of  millions  of  dollars.  This  is  the  whole  of 
the  reciprocity  scheme.  It  is  very  plain  and  very  simple." 

In  a  few  racy  sentences  he  turned  the  guns  of  Jefferson  upon 
the  Jeffersonian  Democrats.  "  Towards  the  close  of  Jefferson's 
administration  the  revenue  from  the  tariff  on  imports  produced 
a  considerable  surplus,  and  the  question  was  what  should  be 
done, — should  the  tariff  be  reduced  or  should  this  surplus  be 
maintained  ?  Jefferson  pointedly  asked,  '  Shall  we  suppress  the 
imposts  and  give  that  advantage  to  foreign  over  domestic  maiiu- 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     11LAINE.  709 

facturers  ?  For  himself  he  recommended  that  k  the  imposts  be 
maintained/  and  that  the  surplus  created  should  be  appropriated 
to  the  improvement  of  roads,  canals,  rivers,  and  education.  If 
the  Constitution  did  not  give  sufficient  power  to  warrant  these 
appropriations  Jefferson  went  so  far  as  to  recommend  that  it  be 
amended.  This  presents  the  strongest  condition  of  affairs  upon 
which  a  protective  tariff  can  be  justified,  and  Jefferson  did  not 
hesitate  to  recommend  it.  The  Democrats  of  the  present  day, 
it  is  needless  to  say,  are  the  direct  opponents  of  the  policy  thus 
outlined  and  adhered  to  by  Jefferson."  He  concluded  with  a 
lucid  statement  of  the  evils  of  the  State  bank  system. 

"  With  all  its  calamities,  the  war  brought  us  one  great  blessing, 
a  national  currency.     There  are  many  who  will  say  that  it  was 
worth  the  cost  of  the  war  to  bring  about  so  auspicious  a  result 
to  capital  and  labor.     Prior  to  the  war  we  had  the  worst  cur 
rency  system  of  any  enlightened  nation    in    the  world.      The 
State  banks,  with  some  exceptions,  were  thoroughly  irresponsible. 
They    existed  by    thousands    throughout    the    United    States. 
Whenever  one  of  them  failed,  the  result  was  a  large  loss  and 
great  distress  among  the  people.     No  one  was  responsible  for 
their  bills,  and  they  were  generally  found  in  the  pockets  of  the 
laboring  man,  to  whom  they  were  a  total  loss  without  any  re 
demption  whatever.     Of  the  State  banks  it  was  often  and  truly 
said  that  their  debts  Avere  the  measure  of  their  profits.     They 
have  caused  an  aggregate  loss  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 
among  the  poor.     Since  the  close  of  the  war  all  this  is  different. 
Every  paper  dollar   that  circulates  among  the  people  has'tke 
United   States  behind  it  as  a  guarantor.      All  the  banks  that 
exist  are  under  the  control  of  the  national  government,  and  if 
they  fail  as  financial  institutions,  the  government  has  taken  care 
that  their  bills  should  be  paid  by  securities  deposited  in  govern 
ment  vaults.       Under  these  circumstances  it  is  a  matter    for 
extraordinary  surprise  that  the  Democratic   convention  should 
deliberately  pass  resolutions  for  the  revival  of  State  banks.    The 
palpable  effect  of  this  policy,  if  carried  out,  would  be  to  cheat 
the  poor  man  out  of  his  daily  bread.     If  State  banks  be  adopted 
and  their  circulation  attain  a  large  issue,  no  device  could  be 
more  deadly  for  the  deception  and  despoilment  of  all  the  com 
mercial  and  laboring  classes.    ...    I  have  heard  the  argument 


710  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

adduced  that  we  would  keep  the  money  at  home  if  State  banks 
were  instituted.  But  we  should  keep  it  at  home  because  it 
would  be  so  worthless  that  nobody  would  take  it  abroad.  Were 
the  system  of  State  banks  revived,  we  would  again  have  dis 
counts  at  the  State  lines,  large  charges  for  drafts  on  financial 
centres,  and  general  suspicion  of  every  bill  offered  in  payment, 
with  a  liquidation  every  few  years  that  would  be  a  destructive 
loss  to  the  innocent  holders  of  bills  and  a  corresponding  profit 
to  the  parties  owning  the  banks." 

This  letter  was  a  strong  document,  and  afforded  material  on 
which  to  fight  a  whole  campaign.  It  was  followed,  towards  the 
middle  of  October,  by  a  powerful  speech  at  Ophir  Farm,  the 
residence  of  Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid,  before  an  audience  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  assembled  on  the  lawn.  Here 
again  Mr.  Elaine  showed  his  store  and  command  of  facts  and 
figures : 

"The  opponents  of  the  Republican  party  always  represent 
New  York  as  a  commercial  city  and  not  a  manufacturing  one, 
and  yet  the  product  of  the  manufacturers  of  this  city  alone  is 
$700,000,000.  Anything  that  would  cripple  that  great  interest 
would  cripple  the  metropolis  seriously  and  to  a  very  hurtful 
extent.  More  men  in  New  York  get  their  living  from  pursuits 
protected  by  the  tariff  than  from  any  other  source.  I  know 
New  York  is  the  centre  of  our  commerce,  the  great  entrepot  of 
our  trade  ?  but  all  the  men  engaged  in  commercial  affairs  in  and 
about  New  York  are  smaller  in  number  than  the  men  engaged 
in  manufactures." 

The  speech,  which  was  entirely  spontaneous,  closed  with  a 
word  to  the  Irish  voters : 

"  This  year  it  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  politics  that  a  ques 
tion  which  interests  England  so  supremely,  which  is  canvassed 
almost  as  much  in  London  as  it  is  in  New  York,  should  have 
the  Irish  votes  of  Great  Britain.  If  the  Irish  voters  were  solidly 
for  protection,  they  could  defy  all  the  machinations  of  the 
Democratic  party  for  free  trade,  and  throw  their  influence  on 
the  side  of  the  home  market  of  America  against  the  side  of  the 
foreign  market  of  England. 

"  I  know  this  appeal  has  been  frequently  made  to  the  Irish 
voters,  but  I  make  it  with  emphasis  now,  for  I  am  unwilling  to 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    O.     BLAINE.  711 

believe  that,  with   light  and  knowledge  before  them,  they  will 
deliberately  be  on  the  side  of  their  former  oppressors." 

Before  the  date  of  this  speech  Mr.  Elaine  had  prepared  an 
article  for  the  November  number  of  the  "North  American  Re 
view,"  upon  "  The  Presidential  Election  of  1892,"  a  very  calm 
and  clear  paper,  distinguished  by  the  magnanimity  of  its  treat 
ment  of  Mr.  Harrison.  In  these  pages  were  given  certain 
valuable  statistics  concerning  the  advantages  of  the  reciprocity 
established  so  largely  by  his  own  endeavor. 

"  But  it  is  in  the  island  of  Cuba  that  reciprocity  has  done  the 
most ;  and  no  footfall  of  a  Democratic  campaigner  ever  disturbs 
the  silence  which  hangs  over  Cuba  when  reciprocity  is  under 
censure.  No  Democratic  objector  asks  the  millers  of  the  country 
who  send  flour  to  Cuba  what  have  been  the  results.  Statistics 
in  the  State  Department  show  that  for  the  first  half  of  1892  we 
sent  837,000  barrels  of  flour  to  Cuba,  making  for  the  whole  year 
674,000  barrels.  During  the  same  period  of  1891  we  sent  only 
14,000  barrels,  or  an  average  for  the  year  of  28,000  barrels. 
Considering  the  small  quantity  we  had  previously  sent,  and  that 
the  duty  was  $5.75  a  barrel,  amounting  to  nearly  the  value  of 
the  flour  delivered  in  Cuba,  and  operating,  except  under  pecul 
iar  conditions,  as  a  prohibition,  the  sagacity  of  Democratic 
silence  must  be  conceded  !  A  trade  of  14,000,000  in  flour, 
where  we  had  not  more  than  $175,000,  is  not  a  bad  showing  for 
the  first  year  of  reciprocity. 

"  For  the  year  ending  August  31  our  total  exports  to  Cuba 
were  $19,700,000,  and  for  the  same  period  the  preceding  year 
they  were  $11,900,000,  an  increase,  it  will  be  observed,  of  65 
per  cent.  Another  year  will  show  still  greater  gains.  This 
large  increase  of  exports  can  be  made  more  strikingly  significant 
by  a  presentation  of  facts  which  must  convince  the  most  scepti 
cal  that  it  is  due  entirely  to  reciprocity.  An  examination  of 
treasury  statistics  will  show  that  the  annual  amount  of  exports 
from  the  United  States  to  Cuba  during  the  fifteen  years  from 
1877  to  1891  did  not  greatly  vary ;  and  the  average  for  the 
whole  period  was  11,700,000  per  annum.  The  exports  for  1891 
were  slightly  higher,  therefore,  than  this  average.  The  increase 
of  $8.000,000  in  1892  represents,  therefore,  not  only  a  gain  of  65 
per  cent,  over  the  year  1891,  but  a  gain  of  67  per  cent,  over  the 


712  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     BLA1NE. 

average  annual  amount  of  exports  for  a  period  of  fifteen  years 
previous.  Moreover,  of  this  gain  of  $8,000,000  nearly  $4,000,- 
000,  as  I  have  before  said,  were  in  flour ;  and  nearly  $2,000,000 
more  were  in  bacon,  pork,  and  the  various  articles  which  are 
classed  under  the  head  of  4  provisions.'  Three-fourths  of  the 
increased  exports  to  Cuba  were,  therefore,  the  products  of  the 
farm.  The  same  is  true,  in  equal  or  greater  ratio,  of  the  in 
crease  caused  by  reciprocal  treaties  with  the  islands  and  coun 
tries  of  America,  and  particularly  by  the  treaties  made  with 
European  countries." 

If  these  utterances  had  not  all  of  the  enthusiasm,  the  swing 
and  vigor  of  former  days,  they  were  yet  marvellous  productions 
for  a  man  on  the  springs  of  whose  life-currents  had  already 
been  placed  the  seal  of  death,  whose  heart  was  half  broken  with 
sorrow,  and  whose  wise  forecast  told  him  that  the  defeat  of  his 
party  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  There  was  no  excitement 
whatever  about  the  election.  After  the  results  were  known 
Mr.  Clarkson  said  openly  that  the  Republican  party  had  met 
defeat  chiefly  because  for  eighteen  years  the  majority  had  been 
denied,  repressed,  and  overruled  from  the  one  man  whose  lead 
ership  it  enthusiastically  preferred.  He  affirmed  that  during 
the  whole  period,  at  least  seventy  and  at  times  eighty  and 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  party  had  desired  Mr.  Elaine,  that  every 
nomination  had  been  negative  except  his,  and  that  the  same 
"  remnant "  which  defeated  his  nominations  had  defeated  him 
at  the  polls.  This  may  have  been  the  partial  estimate  of  a 
friend.  But  when  the  lists  were  closed,  Mr.  Harrison  was 
more  than  40,000  behind  his  own  vote  in  New  York  four  years 
before,  and  7,000  in  his  own  State  of  Indiana.  In  spite  of 
125,000  Republican  votes  in  six  new  States  he  lost  265,000  on 
the  popular  vote. 

Later  in  October  Mr.  Elaine's  family  joined  him  in  New 
York,  and  it  was  perhaps  not  without  some  inner  premonition 
of  the  immediate  future  that  he  saw  the  Monument  dominate 
the  landscape  with  its  lance  of  light,  and  the  white  cloud  of  the 
Capitol  dome  soar  above  the  spot  where  he  had  fought  his 
gallant  fights  and  won  his  noble  victories,  as  he  approached 
Washington  for  the  last  time. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  713 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  W.  \V.  Phelps : 

• 

BERLIN,  October  15,  1889. 

I  wonder  if  you  and  Mrs.  Blaine  know  what  a  gem  that  was  —  thh 
speech  which  so  delighted  me  that  I  had  to  telegraph  you  ? 

This  morning  my  New  York  papers  came  and  I  have  the  scene  in  the 
diplomatic  parlor,  even  to  the  shears  with  which  you  called  to  order.  It 
was  a  good  send-oft*.  Last  night  I  was  at  the  first  royal  party.  Count 
Bismarck  sought  me  out,  in  fine  spirits  :  *«  I  was  looking  for  you.  I  wanted 
to  tell  you  the  good  news.  I  have  a  despatch  from  Washington.  Mr. 
Blaine  has  instructed  your  consul,  too,  that  Malietoa  is  to  be  recognized 
and  made  the  king.  So  the  three  consuls  have  the  same  instructions,  and 
that  settles  it.  1  knew  your  Mr.  Blaine  would  find  some  way  to  fix  it 
right." 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  W.  AV.  Phelps  : 

BERLIN,  December,  1889. 

I  hope  the  Pan-American  Congress  is  producing  as  good  an  impression 
at  home,  and  doing  as  good  work  for  us,  as  foreigners  think  it  is.  They 
have  had  great  dislike  and  suspicion  of  it  from  the  start,  and  were  dazed 
by  the  opening  speech,  so  masterly,  so  persuasive,  and  yet  without  a  single 
peg  on  which  they  could  hang  a  complaint,  or  a  flaw  into  which  they  could 
thrust  a  sneer.  I  took  great  delight  and  felt  great  pride  in  that  speech. 

As  it  looks  to  us  here,  the  Brazilian  revolution  ought  to  help  the  purposes 
of  the  Congress,  and  give  profound  stimulus  to  the  desire  for  closer  con 
nection  and  greater  cooperation  between  kindred  republics.  It  also  has 
startled  people  over  here,  but  they  are  ready  with  explanations.  They  say 
that  the  emperor  was  too  good  and  unworldly,  that  he  perhaps  wished  the 
Republic  himself,  and  that  if  not,  he  was  certainly  unwilling  to  lift  a  hand 
to  defend  the  existing  order.  Some  of  them  profess  to  believe  that  in  a 
few  years  Brazil  will  break  up  into  a  number  of  petty,  rival  States,  that 
public  obligations  will  be  repudiated,  and  that  the  best  part  of  the  country 
will  either  become  a  German  colony  in  an  independent  German  State,  or  a 
new  State  in  the  Argentine  Confederation.  Of  course,  this  is  not  the  talk 
of  French  Republicans,  but  it  is  the  talk  one  hears  in  diplomatic  circles, 
and  among  reactionary  French. 

To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Jno.  A.  J.  Oreswell : 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  January  17,  1890. 

I  wish  I  could  say  something  to  lighten  the  crushing  affliction  which 
the  unexpected  death  of  your  oldest  son  has  brought  upon  you ;  but  at 
such  a  crisis  we  all  know  how  powerless  are  words,  though  charged  to 
the  full  with  sympathy,  to  alleviate  the  sorrow  of  a  stricken  soul. 


714  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

My  intimate  acquaintance  with  your  son,  formed  during  our  association 
as  joint  counsel  for  three  years  and  a  half  before  the  Court  of  Alabama 
claims,  enables  me  to  appreciate  justly  the  proud  satisfaction  with  which 
you  regarded  him.  He  was,  without  doubt,  one  of  the  most  promising 
and  efficient  young  lawyers  whom  I  have  ever  met.  So  untiring  was  his 
industry,  so  keen  and  exhausting  his  research,  so  sound  and  clear  his  appli 
cation  of  facts  and  principles,  and  so  ready  and  discriminating  his  power 
of  delineation  and  expression,  that  he  would  surely  have  attained,  had 
he  lived,  to  the  highest  honors  of  his  profession,  by  right  of  established 
merit.  But  to  these  gifts  and  attainments  there  were  added  in  him  a  bear 
ing  so  gracious,  a  personality  so  attractive,  and  a  manhood  so  true,  noble, 
and  complete  that  he  seemed  constituted  to  fill  a  father's  breast  with  the 
strongest  affection  and  the  brightest  aspirations. 

Alas !  alas  !  how  tritling  and  evanescent  is  the  best  estate  of  this  our 
life  !  When  death  has  robbed  us  of  our  beloved,  there  are  no  more  faith 
ful  guides  for  the  sorrowing  than  Memory  and  Hope ;  and  to  them  I  com 
mend  you,  if  you  would  find  a  genuine  consolation. 

No.  75  WEST  71sx  STREET,  NEW  YORK, 
Sunday,  February  2,  1890. 

DEAR  BLAINE:  On  learning  that  your  Alice  had  died  this  morning,  I 
telegraphed  messages  of  sympathy  and  inquiry.  I  cannot  manifest  my 
profound  respect  for  you  and  your  sorely  afflicted  family  by  coming  to 
Washington  as  T  should,  but  my  Lizzie  will  come,  and  I  know  that  Alice 
loved  her  as  a  friend  and  sister.  I  also  know  that  Alice  reposed  in  her  a 
confidence  of  the  purest  nature,  and  found  here  in  our  home  a  welcome 
second  only  to  that  of  her  father's  roof. 

To-morrow,  Monday,  I  must  assist  in  the  inaugural  ceremonies  of  the 
installation  of  Hon.  Seth  Low,  as  President  of  Columbia  College.  The 
next  day,  Tuesday,  is  promised  from  early  morning  to  midnight  to  the 
ceremonies  designed  by  the  Bar  Association  of  the  United  States  to  honor 
the  Supreme  Court;  indeed  the  whole  week  is  parcelled  out  almost  by 
hours  to  some  public  occasion,  and  I  am  often  warned  that  I  am  very  near 
the  limit  of  years  promised  to  man  on  earth  of  "three-score  and  ten,"  and 
that  I  must  not  presume  on  apparent  strength,  but  put  on  the  brakes  for 
the  steep  grade  at  the  end. 

You  are  ten  years  my  junior,  and  yet  I  feel  concerned  about  you  person 
ally,  lest  you  allow  the  sad  afflictions  which  have  recently  befallen  your 
family  to  unnerve  you,  and  unfit  you  for  the  high  office  you  hold.  No  man 
in  America  better  comprehends  the  questions  which  concern  the  people  of 
this  continent  than  you ;  no  man  is  better  qualified  to  give  them  expression. 
Stand  to  the  helm  in  fair  weather  and  foul.  Ships  are  rarely  wrecked  in 
stormy  seas  like  Cape  Horn,  because  the  captain  and  crew  take  ample  pre 
cautions,  but  in  fair  weather  by  carrying  too  much  sail,  or  by  neglect. 

Same  of  the  ship  of  State.  We  are  now  on  the  high  tide  of  honor  and 
prosperity  with  a  fair  wind,  but  carrying  too  much  sail.  Now  is  the  time 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  715 

for  you  to  stand  by  your  post  of  duty.     Walker  and  Alice  are  lost  to  you, 
but  a  large  family  and  troops  of  friends  remain. 

What  would  you  have  thought  of  me  in  1863,  when  my  Willie  died  at 
Memphis,  had  I  faltered  in  the  great  movement  then  begun,  which  resulted 
in  the  end  of  war  in  America  ? 

This  may  be  all  superfluous,  but  I  know  that  you  will  construe  me  aright 
as  one  of  your  oldest  friends,  who  is  as  proud  of  James  G.  Blaine  as  his 
warmest  panegyrists.  I  confess  to  little  faith  in  words,  but  if  you  will 
ever  indicate  how  I  can  manifest  my  sincerity  by  acts  I  believe  you  will 
receive  prompt  response. 

Affectionately  your  friend, 

W.  T.   SHERMAN. 

To  Mr.  Elaine  : 

AMESBURY,  March  3,  18'JO. 

DEAR  FRIEND:  I  read  with  more  satisfaction  than  I  can  express  thy 
noble  address  at  the  opening  of  the  International  American  Congress.  It 
seemed  to  me  the  herald  of  a  new  era  of  "  Peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to 
men."  If,  in  the  spirit  of  that  address,  the  conference  agrees  upon  a  rule 
of  arbitration  which  shall  make  war  on  this  hemisphere  well-nigh  impos 
sible,  its  session  will  prove  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  world's 
history,  and  I  would  rather  be  in  thy  place  as  its  president  than  in  that  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  The  whole  world  will  honor  the  states 
man  who  lifts  from  it  the  intolerable  burden  of  war. 

This  letter  would  have  been  written  before  had  I  not  hesitated  to  intrude 
on  the  great  sorrow  of  thy  late  bereavement.  I  join  with  all  in  sympathy, 
but  I  can  see  that  thee  must  feel  as  the  English  nobleman  did  when  con 
doled  with  on  the  loss  of  his  son,  and  would  not  exchange  the  memory  of 
the  dead  for  any  living  son  in  Christendom. 

I  am  very  truly  thy  friend, 

JOHN  G.  WIIITTIER. 

To  Mr.  Patrick  Ford: 

STAN  WOOD,  BAR  HARBOR,  ME.,  September  23,  1890. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORD  :  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  consider  me  a  negligent 
correspondent.  I  have  no  plea  in  defence  save  that  I  have  been  in  sad  and 
sorrowful  mood  since  my  afflictions  of  the  past  winter.  My  oldest  son  and 
my  oldest  daughter  were  taken  from  before  my  eyes  as  it  were  in  a 
moment,  and  I  was  left  to  the  soreness  of  deep  grief.  Walker  was  to  me 
as  my  right  hand.  He  was  as  affectionate  and  as  dutiful  as  a  young  child 
—  and  able  enough  and  wise  enough  to  be  my  most  trusted  adviser.  He 
was  my  constant  companion,  and  beside  being  a  son  he  was  my  most  inti 
mate  and  my  most  constant  friend. 

My  daughter's  loss  rent  my  heart ;  she  was  a  dear  child  —  child  always 
to  me  though  she  had  two  children  herself.  She  had  with  great  devotion 
and  piety  connected  herself  with  the  Catholic  Church,  anJ  left  behind  two 


716  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE. 

interesting  boys  who,  according  to  her  wishes,  shall  be  brought  up  in  their 
mother's  faith. 

I  ought  not  to  rehearse  these  sad  facts,  but  I  give  you  a  thought  of  what 
is  constantly  in  my  thoughts  —  I  can  find  relief  only  in  earnest  and  con 
stant  work,  and  so  I  devote  myself  constantly  to  the  severest  tasks  of  my 
office.  I  want  you  to  understand  that  nothing  in  my  mind  permits  the 
thought  of  neglecting  you.  I  look  upon  you  as  one  of  the  truest  and  most 
sincere  friends  I  have.  I  trust  you  regard  me  in  the  same  light. 

I  see  a  great  sorrow  impending  over  Ireland.  Would  to  God  the  island 
might  be  free  and  prosperous  !  But  I  need  only  implore  freedom,  for 
prosperity  would  surely  follow. 

If  I  had  not  so  often  been  disappointed  in  my  prophecies  concerning 
Ireland  I  would  say  that  her  oppressors  had  gone  mad.  The  arrest  of 
Dillon  and  O'Brien  seems  to  be  the  rioters1  wantonness  of  power.  What  in 
God's  name  will  be  the  end  ? 

If  you  raise  some  money  for  the  poor  people  who  may  need  bread  I  shall 
want  to  throw  in  my  mite.  Being  at  the  head  of  our  foreign  affairs  I 
must  of  course  be  personally  quiet  in  all  my  expressions,  but  I  have  deep 
sympathy  with  those  who  are  staring  famine  in  the  face,  and  I  wish  simply 
as  a  Christian  man  to  help  those  that  are  in  need,  but  of  course  I  do  not 
want  a  trumpet  blown  about  it. 

Always,  my  dear  Mr.  Ford, 

Your  friend, 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 

To  Mr.  Elaine,  from  Rev.  K.  S.  Storrs : 

BROOKLYN,  February  11,  1891. 

•  •  •  I  beg  you  to  accept  my  tribute  of  admiration  for  the  clearness, 
vigor,  and  commanding  power  with  which  you  have  presented  what  1 
cannot  but  accept  as  the  just  view  of  the  grave  questions  under  discussion. 
It  will  certainly  take  rank  among  the  ablest,  I  trust  among  the  most  con 
trolling  State  papers  which  our  records  have  to  show.  As  an  American 
citizen,  I  am  proud  to  be  so  worthily  and  brilliantly  represented  in  the 
correspondence  with  Great  Britain. 

WASHINGTON,  April  15,  1891. 

.  .  .  Your  father  got  off  this  morning  —  a  steamer  trunk,  his  large 
l>ag,  two  overcoats,  and  four  books.  The  boys  drove  with  him  to  the  Navy 
Yard,  and  I  enclose  his  letter  sent  back  with  them.  Please  bring  it.  He 
may  be  gone  a  week.  The  British  Minister  had  been  notified  when  T's 
telegram  arrived,  and  what  is  of  much  more  consequence  Mr.  Lincoln  has 
been  written  to,  to  bring  to  Lord  Salisbury's  attention  the  case  of  Mrs. 
Maybrick  —  whom  the  larger  part  of  the  American  people  think  to  be  in 
nocent  of  the  crime,  the  punishment  for  which  is  slowly  killing  her.  I 
had  yesterday  a  letter  from  her  mother  imploring  me  to  use  my  influence 
with  your  father  in  her  behalf.  She  is  only  twenty-seven  years  old  and  of 
a  delicate  physique. 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.     ELAINE.  717 

WASHINGTON,  April  19,  1891. 

.  .  .  The  State  Department  is  overrunning  with  business  of  conse 
quence,  and  your  daddy  dearest  is  winning  praise  in  unexpected  quarters. 

.  .  .  Your  father  will  not  be  on  at  the  '•  Tribune"  anniversary.  He 
is  up  to  his  ears  in  work.  .  .  .  Conor  sidled  up  to  me  last  night  while 
I  was  reading  the  '*  Star,"  and  asked  me  in  an  awe-struck  whisper,  what 
was  the  news  from  New  Orleans. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Hon.  Seth  Low: 

NEW  YORK,  April  27,  1891. 

May  I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  express  my  admi 
ration  for  the  letters  on  the  Italian  question  which  have  lately  proceeded 
from  your  pen  ?  They  have  been  good  reading  for  all  Americans. 


From  Mr.  Blaine  : 

WASHINGTON. 

.  Have  had  a  hard  day.  Diplomatic  day  at  State  Department  and 
did  not  reach  lunch  till  2.20,  and  yet  I  reached  the  Pan-American  and  pre 
sided  from  3.15  till  nearly  six,  and  then  rode  up  to  Speaker  Randall's  to 
inquire  about  him.  He  is  insensible  and  very  low.  .  .  .  Mr.  Carnegie 
is  here  to  remain  till  the  Pan-American  winds  up,  say  middle  or  last  of 
next  week.  We  are  getting  on  rapidly  and  well.  I  think  the  entire  record 
will  be  admirable  and  lasting  in  good  results. 


To  Mr.  Blaine,  from  Rev.  O.  B.  Cheney : 

LEWISTON,  December  10,  1891. 

I  am  seventy-five  years  old  to-day,  and  as  the  hours  of  the  day  pass, 
please  allow  me  to  take  a  half  of  one  of  them  to  write  you.  I  recall  the 
year  you  came  to  Augusta  —your  interest  in  my  work  at  an  early  date,  and 
mine  in  yours.  .  .  .  The  hope  given  me  that  my  work  would  be  a 
success  because  of  your  frankness  in  expressing  that  desire.  I  thank  you 
for  the  one  thousand  dollars  you  gave  me  in  Washington  some  years  since, 
and  for  the  one  thousand  dollars  you  gave  the  dear  college  here.  .  ...  , 
Now,  it  would  seem  weak  in  me  to  claim  that  I  have  done  anything  for  you 
worthy  of  mention  —  for  you,  the  greatest  statesman  in  the  world.  All  1 
claim  is  that  I  have  been  a  true  friend  of  yours,  and  as  such  have  been  able 
at  times  to  speak  a  good  word  in  your  behalf  as  one  who  knows  you  as 
neighbor  knows  neighbor.  ...  I  went  through  the  West  last  fall. 
There  is  but  one  opinion  there,  and  that  is  that  you  must  be  the  Republican 
candidate  for  President.  With  you  we  can  win.  Without  you,  there  is 
much  doubt.  The  Lord  give  you  health,  strength,  and  a  right  decision. 


718  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    KLAINE. 

From  V.: 

WASHINGTON,  June  6,  1892. 

.  .  .  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.  The  God  of  this  world  is  so 
determined  to  do  things  his  own  way  that  I  have  greatly  ceased  to  be 
troubled  if  they  are  not  my  way.  In  the  first  place,  the  realization  of 
your  desires  is  not  certain  enough  to  demand  your  anxieties,  and  if  it 
were  certain  your  anxieties  will  do  no  good  and  are  not  demanded.  Tf 
you  and  I,  and  he  and  his,  had  been  pushing  forward  the  nomination, 
planning  for  it,  urging  him  to  plan  for  it  —  we  should  have  done  very 
unwisely  and  would  have  no  right  to  fall  back  on  God-fate  —  the  hidden 
force  —  the  unseen  Ruler.  But  we  did  nothing  of  the  sort.  You  may 
have  desired  it,  but  the  state  of  things  has  come  about  of  itself,  so  far  as 
we  are  concerned.  Your  father  has  kept  his  health  well  to  the  fore  front. 
As  he  said  to  the  reporters,  "  I  am  just  as  you  see  me,  no  better*  no 
worse."  He  has  told  everybody  of  his  unwillingness,  his  inability,  and 
the  reply  has  been  that  they  would  rather  have  him  dead  than  any  one  else 
alive.  Now,  his  health  is  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  if  it  fails,  it  is  God 
who  does  it — in  that  arrangement  of  things  in  the  world  which  wTe  do 
not  make.  So  about  the  nomination  itself —  he  did  not  want  it.  He  never 
lifted  a  finger  for  it —  he  hated  it.  Now  that  the  game  is  on,  of  course  he 
would  be  glad  to  win,  but  we  are  such  puppets  outside  of  our  own  little 
string  that  I  am  not  anxious.  We  are  puppets  with  sensibilities,  and 
therefore  I  think  the  string  will  be  gradually  lengthened,  and  the  play 
has  dignity,  but  because  this  one  stage  is  a  small  one,  let  not  your  heart 
be  troubled. 

What  I  want  now  is  that  he  shall  go  on  and  win  ;  but  if  I  had  the  order 
ing  of  events  I  would  have  had  him  in  long  ago,  when  he  was  young, 
strong,  fresh,  and  could  have  given  himself  with  all  his  force  to  the  work. 
I  would  not  have  frittered  away  his  strength  in  fighting  beasts  at  Ephesus, 
—  snakes,  hyenas,  and  such  small  deer,  —  but  in  conquering  real  political 
forces  for  humanity.  It  seemed  otherwise  to  God.  It  seemed  best  to  God 
that  the  greatest  political  genius,  the  surest  political  insight,  the  sweetest 
human  nature,  the  simplest  human  heart,  delicacy  and  strength  and  sim 
plicity  combined,  should,  for  years,  be  flung  against  fierce  coarseness  and 
selfishness  and  falseness.  It  seems  to  me  a  waste  of  material,  but  God  is 
so  much  greater  than  I  that  I  have  to  suppose  He  knows  what  he  is  at.  I 
frankly  confess  I  do  not,  but  I  will  not  pay  Him  so  fulsome  and  foolish  a 
tribute  as  to  pretend  I  do.  I  believe  lie  is  wise  because  I  see  many  things 
that  imply  wisdom,  the  marvellous  invention  of  the  family,  for  instance, 
and  that  the  worlds  swing  around  so  beautifully  and  so  regularly,  but  I 
don't  see  it  in  this.  I  am  light-hearted  because  I  believe  in  God,  not  be 
cause  I  can  see  through  Him.  If  there  were  no  more  in  a  granted  prayer 
than  its  curse,  God  would  be  pretty  mean  ;  but  that  is  impossible  —  so  we 
must  look  behind.  God  is  not  mean,  He  is  friendly,  only  I  should  think 
He  might  show  Himself  a  little  clearer.  Well,  dear,  your  father  seems 
very  well,  a  little  gouty  to-day  in  his  toe,  but  not  much.  He  is  calm; 


lUOGKArilY    OF   JAMES    0.     HLAJNE.  719 

last  Wednesday  and  Thursday  he  was  in  the  depths  for  the  situation  into 
which  he  had  been  pushed.  Since  then  he  has  been  more  like  himself. 
Q.  is  here.  Your  mother  tranquil.  None  of  us  over  confident  of  the  nom 
ination.  I  am  hopeful  because  it  is  my  temperament ;  confident  in  (lod,  but. 
trying  to  keep  my  religion  to  myself  lest  it  exasperate  other  folk,  as  noth 
ing  to  the  purpose.  And  it  is  nothing  to  the  purpose  you  have  in  hand,  but 
very  much  to  your  own  comfort  if  you  can  embrace  the  purpose  of  God. 

Understand,  if  we  get  the  nomination,  I  don't  think  your  father  any  more 
likely  to  lose  his  health  than  if  we  don't.  Likewise  with  the  presidency. 
He  may  be  ill,  but  they  will  in  no  wise  be  cause  and  effect,  judging  from 
the  past.  His  worst  illness  was  his  first  when  he  was  in  the  prime  of  life. 
His  best  work  has  all  been  done  since  then.  He  has  too  much  life  in  him 
to  lay  himself  on  the  shelf  for  its  lack.  He  is  justified  before  God  to  my 
view  in  using  it  "as  men  use  common  things  with  more  behind.'1  If  I 
seem  to  talk  God  a  good  deal,  it  is  because  He  is  the  background  of  all  my 
own  living  and  thinking. 


From  Prof.  James  E.  Welling : 

WASHINGTON,  June  11,  1892. 

The  outcome  of  the  Minneapolis  convention  defeated  my  aspirations 
and  disappointed  my  hopes.  It  could  not  defeat  any  "aspiration11  of 
Mr.  Elaine,  for  never  did  mortal  man  put  the  aspirations  of  ambition  so 
pertinaciously  behind  him  as  Mr.  Blaine  when,  four  years  ago,  lie  re 
nounced  the  presidency,  and  when,  a  few  months  ago,  he  turned  his  back 
on  it  again. 

BAR  HARBOR,  June  12,  1892. 

Tt  is  one  o'clock  and  the  watchman  cries  "All  is  well!"  I  being  the 
watchman,  also  the  vis-b-vis,  the  tcte-a-tcte,  the  pis  alter,  the  eye-glasses,— 
he  has  broken  his,  —  and  the  encourager  and  defender  of  the  faith  ;  not  like 
Henry  VIII.  falsely  so  called,  but  a  true  believer  in  the  faith  that  all  tilings 
work  together  for  our  salvation.  Well,  we  had  a  most  comfortable  jour 
ney—  at?  10  to  bed  —  Portsmouth  —  at  12  a  voice  from  the  opposite  section 
calls,  "  Mother.11  I  reply,  "  Reid  is  nominated,11  that  is  all.  From  Bruns 
wick' to  Bangor  I  know  nothing  nor  does  he.  At  Bangor  we  have  sent  in 
by  our  butler  a  cup  of  coffee  and  crackers.  After  two  hours'  delay  we  leave 
Bangor,  but  it  is  now  only  7.  Before  we  reach  Ellsworth  I  am  up.  He 
only°when  we  reach  the  ferry.  The  "  Sappho  "  takes  us  around  the  glorious 
bay  much  more  so  than  Saturday  morning,  and  at  10  we  are  at  Bar  Harbor. 
We  stop  at  Western  Union  and  send  off  telegrams  to  A.,  M.,  and  Whitelaw 
Reid.  At  the  house  is  home.  Jose  on  the  lawn,  and  a  sea  and  sky  trium 
phant.  .  .  .  How  can  one  be  petty  when  he  sits  beneath  a  canopy  not 
of  the  creation's  making,  and  looks  on  the  sea  which  has  outlasted  all  that 
we  have  of  knowledge,  communing  with  one's  own  heart,  not  head  ? 
Whitelaw  Reid's  answer  came  back  in  two  hours,  tender  and  affectionate, 
I  think  Mr.  Blaine's  to  him  had  relieved  an  anxiety. 


720  BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMEti    G.    ELAINE. 


AT   LAST. 

A  rr  the  door  of  the  chamber  of  death  the  world  pauses  and 
-*-^-.  treads  lightly.  There  were  three  weeks  of  brightness 
and  cheer,  a  lifting  of  the  cloud,  in  the  balmy  Indian  summer 
weather  that  he  so  enjoyed ;  pleasant  walks  and  drives  in  the 
sunshine,  and  twilights  beside  the  wood  fires,  and  talk  of 
Southern  California  for  the  winter.  Never  was  Mr.  Blaine 
gentler,  more  genial,  more  sympathetic,  more  interested  in 
affairs;  never  did  one  see  in  him  more  vividly  that  swift  instinc 
tive  comprehension  and  that  delicate  imaginative  sensitiveness 
which  were  so  chief  a  charm.  On  the  Sunday  before  election 
he  attended  the  Church  of  the  Covenant,  taking  communion 
there,  and  walking  home  across  the  square  with  the  President, 
who  gave  him  much-needed  reassurances  concerning  the  prob 
abilities  of  the  election.  Old  friends  and  neighbors  were  in 
and  out.  A  child's  voice  made  the  air  sweet.  Those  whom  he 
loved  the  most  dearly  were  with  him.  "  No  one  could  be  more 
wise  and  kind  and  loving  than  W.  to  Mr.  Elaine,"  wrote 
one  who  was  in  the  household.  u  He  played  to  him  and  walked 
with  him,  and  was  attentive  and  deferential  and  companionable 
and  natural,  not  servile  or  afraid  of  him.  lie  is  a  genius  him 
self,  and  so  appreciated  genius  and  was  not  overawed  by  it." 

All  things  seemed  to  have  mellowed  and  softened  with  the 
mellowing  year.  Abuse  had  become  praise  ;  foes  had  become 
friends.  Those  who  had  once  wronged  him  were  now  his 
lovers.  That  he  grew  weaker  during  these  pleasant  days  was 
hardly  perceptible  in  the  subdued  joyousness  of  his  manner,  that 
soft  brilliancy  which  Homer  calls  the  "  blaze  of  excellence  that 
neighbors  death."  Those  about  him  were  already  realizing  to 
the  full  the  meaning  of  the  words  written  later  concerning  this 
marvellous  organism  that  had  both  the  force  and  the  fineness  of 
the  sunbeam,  the  prescience  born  of  sensitiveness,  the  flashing 
intelligence  that  was  at  once  intuition  and  judgment. 


lid 


BIOGRAPHY    OF   JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  721 

"  His  susceptibility  to  influences  ;  the  acuteness  of  his  senses ; 
his  far,  clear  sight;  his  high  enjoyment  of  taste  and  hearing  and 
smell  and  touch,  of  all  that  was  fair  and  fragrant,  beautiful, 
joyous,  and  musical,  —  was  a  make-up  of  refinement,  and  hence 
life  to  him  was  sweeter  and  brighter  and  more  costly  than  to 
the  average  man.  The  landscape  glowed  for  him  with  unusual 
lights.  He  saw  on  the  sea  and  in  the  sky,  in  surrounding  life 
and  the  currents  of  human  history,  that  which  only  the  extraor 
dinarily  gifted  can  see." 

And  suddenly  the  frost  fell.  He  had  been  driving  one  day 
with  his  younger  daughter,  and  coming  home  he  lay  down  to 
rest.  The  next  day  he  did  not  rise,  and  the  high  temperature, 
the  extreme  languor,  were  alarming.  It  was  soon  apparent  that 
organic  disease  had  been  subtly  at  work  and  the  whole  system 
was  undermined.  A  wave  of  sorrow  spread  wide  and  far  when 
it  was  known.  He  was  understood  at  last ;  and  there  seemed  to 
surge  up  an  all  but  universal  regret  for  this  man  every  fibre  of 
whose  great  being  had  been  inwrought  with  belief  in  the  high 
future  of  his  native  land,  every  act  of  whose  public  career  had 
been  in  the  service  of  her  best  and  broadest  life,  every  drop  of 
whose  blood  was  warm  with  his  devotion  to  her.  Friends  came 
from  every  quarter  begging  to  do  what  they  might.  A  messen 
ger  was  sent  by  the  authorities  of  one  of  the  great  Roman 
Catholic  centres  offering  with  delicate  and  considerate  kind 
ness  the  last  offices  of  his  mother's,  church ;  Mr.  Blaine  recog 
nized  the  messenger  and  kindly  and  decidedly  declined  his 
services.  Letters  and  tokens  of  affection  poured  in  in  untold 
number.  "What  a  life  he  has  lived!"  one  friend  wrote, 
low  full  and  complete!  And  yet  what  grief  has  he  not 
:  >oriie  ?  No  man  ever  breathed  who  was  sweeter,  truer,  tenderer, 
•iobler  than  he.  How  men  have  loved  and  worshipped  him  ! 

Through  it  all  Mr.  Blaine  was  perfectly  himself.  Books 
were 'read  to  him  at  first,  and  the  newspapers  everyday  till 
n.-p-  the  last.  But  his  strength  steadily  declined.  He  slum 
bered  lightly  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  but  was  perfectly 
conscious  when  aroused.  "  Father,"  said  his  wife,  bending  over 
him,  "did  you  know  it  was  Mr.  Gladstone's  birthday?"  He 
looked  up  with  his  swift  smile  and  answered,  "That  is  so. 
Gladstone  is  eighty-three  to-day." 


722  BIOGRAPHY    OF    JAMES    G.     JiLAlNE. 

u  Mr.  Blaine's  pulse  had  been  so  low  and  so  fluctuating  that 
it  seemed  life  must  ebb.  He  spoke  very  little,  but  when  C.  H. 
said  this  morning,  4  You  had  a  hard  night,  didn't  you?'  lie 
spoke  up  cheerily,  4  No,  I  didn't.'  When  I  went  in  it  was 
almost  as  great  a  surprise  as  life  from  the  dead.  I  had  thought 
he  must  be  so  nearly  gone  that  it  would  be  painful  to  see  him. 
On  the  contrary  he  lay  there  calmly,  easily,  with  warm  touch, 
soft  color,  bright  eyes,  not  even  looking  emaciated,  and  as  I 
went  up  to  him  lie  stretched  out  his  hand  to  me  with  a  firm 
grasp.  It  is  an  infinite  comfort  to  feel  he  does  not  suffer.  To 
have  had  these  last  weeks  with  Mr.  Elaine !  He  is  so  gentle 
and  loving  and  sweet ;  like  a  little  child,  yet  fully  intelligent. 
.  .  .  His  great  vitality  seems  to  enchain  the  spirit.  His  ill 
ness  is  almost  as  exceptional  as  his  nature  and  his  life." 

Surrounded  by  his  family,  and  conscious  to  the  end,  of  all 
their  tender  offices,  he  lay  with  resignation  and  without  agita 
tion.  And  in  the-  full  sunshine  of  the  morning  of  the  27th  of 
January  the  light  slowly  receded  from  the  splendid  eyes,  and 
the  great  soul  was  gone. 

As  one  looked  at  the  dead  man  before  his  burial,  lying  on  a 
woven  mat  of  roses,  the  very  waste  and  overflow  of  love,  still 
with  such  evidence  of  mighty  manhood  in  repose,  it  was  not 
possible  to  understand  the  purposes  that  chose  to  darken  that 
great,  sweet,  strong  power  of  life  just  as  it  reached  the  top  of 
its  meridian  where  it  could  throw  more  light  and  warmth  than 
ever  before. 

"  AH,  LAUNCELOT,  THOU  WERE  THE  HEAD  OF  ALL  CHRISTEN 
KNIGHTS.  AND  NOW,  I  DARE  SAY,  THERE  THOU  LIEST,  THOU  WERE 

NEVER  MATCHED  OF  EARTHLY  KNIGHT'S  HAND;  AND  THOU  WERE  THE 
COURTEOUST  KNIGHT  THAT  EVER  BE  A  RE  SHIELD  ;  AND  THOU  WERE 
THE  TRUEST  FRIEND  tO  THY  LOVER  THAT  EVER  BESTRAD  HORSE;  AND 
THOU  WERE  THE  TRUEST  LOVER  OF  A  SINFUL  MAN  THAT  EVER  LOVED 
WOMAN;  AND  THOU  WERE  THE  KINDEST  MAN  THAT  EVER  STRUCK  WITH 

SWORD;    AND  THOU  WERE  THE   GOODLIEST   PERSON   THAT   EVER   CAME 

AMONG  PRESS  OF  KNIGHTS;  AND  THOU  WAS  THE  MEEKEST  MAN  AND 
THE  GENTLEST  THAT  EVER  SATE  IN  HALL  AMONG  LADIES;  AND  THOU 
WERE  THE  STERNEST  KNIGHT  TO  THY  MORTAL  FOE  THAT  EVER  PUT 
SPEARE  IN  REST.11 


--sasss- 


fli 


/  ^ 


335 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


